2018 Frosty Bottom

This weekend of the 13th and 14th January 2018 was the Frosty Bottom, a race I've previously ridden 3 times. The first time I rode it didn't go so well, the second time I rode it went pretty well but I wasn't really racing it as I used it as a training ride. 2016 I had been doing a lot of training rides with friends targeting the Frosty, it snowed a bunch before the race and I suffered mostly due to thinking I was stronger than I actually was, note everyone else suffered too.

This year I have pretty much not done any focused training for the race however I have been riding a reasonable amount and having a lot of fun whilst doing it. I have also started going to a gym to work on my core strength, of which I had none, I now have some. All of this took me into the race with zero expectations. The lack of snow in Anchorage again, meant that the conditions were going to be really fast.

As we set off down the hill and along the coastal trail the pace was manageable for me, following a couple of people I was able to draft a little. As we turned by the sewage works there was a gap between the guy I was following and the front group. I passed the person and bridged back onto the lead peloton. We are around 20min and 4.5 miles into the race by this point. At roughly 5 miles there was is a short climb, I knew what was going to happen, the pace was going to go up.... as the pace went up, I got spit out of the back of the group and that was the last I saw of pretty much everyone for the rest of the ride. Once again I was going to suffer through the race on a solo effort. 

Around 14miles into the race I was caught by two guys Daniel and John. I chatted briefly but they were riding at a faster pace than I was able to maintain. I followed them all the way to where the climbing starts after antenna hill. I reeled them in during the climb and then as we hit the abbott road trail I took the lead, expecting them to draft me, that was the last I saw of them until the finish.

At the 1/2 ish way point my friend Greg was cheering people on and taking photos, and a little further on another friend Andrew was cheering people on too. It was great to have some support out on the trail.

The halfway point is the high point of the course, I arrived there at 1:31:23 this put me in for a tough return to try and make a sub 3 hour time. As I was riding back to the chalet I was doing the maths in my head and pushing as hard as I could to make sub 3 hours, I needed to average around 15mph.

I know I have gotten stronger over the last few years and comparing times on different segments in strava post race has confirmed this.

The last 1 mile of the frosty course is a climb up to the chalet. This year the trail was solid but my legs were destroyed after trying to maintain a 15mph average. It took me 6:10 to do, the leaders this year did it in 4:10ish. However it was the fastest I have ever climbed it in the Frosty.

I crossed the line in 3:03:25 which is a PR by over 25min, and managed 17th place over all. Clearly my not frosty focussed training paid off.

As ever post race there are always some what if's however I can honestly say I rode the smartest and hardest I could once I was dropped off the front group, not getting dropped again is the key to me getting a faster time.

I definitely had the most fun I have had during that race, I fuelled well and I set a PR all in all its a win win win situation for me.

Me just after the 1/2 way point.
Photo credit Greg Martin

Post race with some great friends.

Full results can be found here

Strava data 

2017 Frosty Bottom AKA Birthday ride sufferfest

The 2017 Frosty Bottom is in the books and now I have had time to reflect a little I am happy with my performance.

There were a couple of changes to the 2017 race, call ups which I will come to later and changing the 25 course to an out and back format rather than a one way, this meant the addition of an aid station at the 25 turn around.

This year I felt more prepared than I have ever been for this race. I have been out on a few group "training" (I hate to use the word training, its a mental thing) rides with a super great group of people. They have been putting me to shame on most rides but I was starting to get used to ripping along on a fat bike in a pace line. For the last few years the Frosty has been all about the pace line.  This year however the evening before the race it snowed between 4" and 8" across the whole course. This would change everything.

Come race day I lined up towards the front of the field so I would be near the front after the call ups had been completed for the top racers in the state (this was a great addition to the race). I was positioned well towards the front of the field when the next thing I hear is my name being called since it was my Birthday, I got a call up. Slightly embarrassed as I am not a top racer in the state I took my place near the front. And we were off.

See the flash of orange that is me
- Photo Credit Josh Estes 

There I am again as we power up to join the coastal trail
- Photo Credit Amanda Blades

As we dropped down the chalet hill on the coastal trail we passed the Muni groomer who was returning from grooming the coastal trail. To be honest I am not sure this was a good thing as the trail had no time to set up. The race did go on though and we all rode along in single file "pace line" at around 8mph. Breaking trail was really slowing everyone down. The front pack edged away as we made our way along the coastal trail to Point Worzonzof where the front of the field was back together. The pace didn't really increase significantly throughout the whole race as the front group broke trail and the remaining pack tried to maintain speed and balance following in the rut that was being formed. 

I was eating and drinking and chugging along nicely I thought, hard to do when taking your hand off the bars almost caused instantaneous crashing. I had aired down my tyres and was enjoying the company of the other racers and fans out on the course. Thanks to all who sang me happy birthday it really brought a tear to my eye. 

Riding Chester creek rut
- Photo Credit Dan Bailey

Then it hit me! A twinge in my hamstring and I felt both legs start to cramp. Almost exactly two hours and 15miles in I had cramps in both legs.  I jumped off the bike and reached for my salt tablets I had been carrying just in case this happened. I know I am able to continue after cramps, though it means I don't have full power or any power come to think of it. I don't have much to start with so any loss is never a good thing. 

As I was stopped I think about 1 million people passed me, in reality it was around 15 I think. I popped the pills and took some more water, massaged my legs and got back on to start soft pedalling. I was catching back onto the people who had passed me, the extra people had smoothed out the trail so it was easier to ride, well at least this section was. 

We climbed over Tudor road and headed onto the tour trail. A couple of my team mates were near me and we were talking a little, this helped to take my mind off things. Next thing I look back and one team member has vanished where did you go Brant? As we continued along the other team mate suddenly screamed out (not that unusual) I looked back and she is on the floor in agony, she was suffering cramps too. It was frustrating not being able to help her out as I had already used up my salt tablets I offered the only advice I knew which was try to get something salty at the next checkpoint in around 4 miles. 

I left her upright but hopefully able to get back on the bike, she went on to crush me and and finish 13min ahead of me by the end of the race. 

The trail makes a small climb then descends over a bridge where another friend and teammate was out taking photos. 

Focussed
- Photo Credit Ryan Greeff

From here the trail makes a lollypop with a fair amount of climbing, on good trails this is around 30min loop for me, this time it was over 1 hour. 

I saw another friend at the top/turn around, the support from friends whilst riding this event is fantastic and really boosts ones moral, thanks Andrew for coming out to support me and all the other racers. 

The great thing about this point in the course is it is the high point and pretty much all downhill back to the coast. Normally we rip down Rovers run and moose meadow and allow the legs to recover. This years snow had other ideas for us. Rovers Run and Moose meadow turned into a run/walk situation. 

Looking back up moose meadow
 to the ever smiling Christina Grande

Chasing down Moose Meadow

On rejoining the tour trail, the trail was in much better condition than I was expecting. I was suffering though and just couldn't keep up with people who were passing me. My pace continued to suffer until the aid station at Goose lake, where I took on some more fluid but I was still having to soft pedal. From the aid station the trail was much faster and I was starting to maintain a reasonable pace although I really needed to pee, again!!!!

After stopping at west chester to use the toilets I continued to slog along the remaining 9 miles back to the Chalet at Kincaid. I stopped at the top of the hill by Point Woronzof to take an energy gel as I couldn't manage to open it and maintain moving forward in a reasonable fashion. The remaining 6 ish miles clicked off fairly easily with only a couple of balance moments due to deep rut/lack of concentration. I actually powered up the final hill, ok technically a lie, but I did make it up without stopping or putting a foot down. 

I finished my 3rd Frosty Bottom in 5hrs 36 which is considerably slower than my previous attempts. However.... the first year I finished in 53rd place 4hrs 19min, in my 2nd attempt I finished in 48th place, 3hrs 28min. This year I finished in 21st place. Clearly all the training does pay off.

What could I have done differently/final thoughts.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing and it allows us to reflect on what we may have been able to change to perhaps improve our performances. 

For me what did I learn, 

1. It is possible to cramp up in both legs after only 15miles even when you think you have been doing everything right. 

2. I really should use my garmin, which is way smarter than me, to set some alerts so I don't go out to hard in races. This is, I think is the possible cause of my cramping. 

3. I think if I had backed off my pace earlier on in the race I could have easily taken 30min from my time. 

4. I really like type 2 fun races, way more than I should. 

5. The bike community in Anchorage are fantastic, as were all the other users we met on the trails that and every day.  Some of the people who post things online though are complete dicks and their opinions about other trail users are very warped! 

6. It is possible that my cramps were not caused by a salt/electrolyte imbalance. I am looking into this further, and methods to overcome this. 

7. Training with faster people clearly makes me faster, I should probably (definitely) train more with a more structured program, aka I have clearly reached the limits of my just out riding training method. 

Strava file

Frosty Bottom Plus and Middle Fork trail

Frosty Bottom Plus

The Frosty Bottom is a race put on by the local cycle shop Chain Reaction Cycles, it takes place in early January and is pretty much a road race on snow (or ice depending on conditions).  The Frosty Course has two distance options, the Frosty 25 and the Frosty 50, both races start at Kincaid park and ride out to Hillside the 50 course then returns back to Kincaid.  This is the course description, which is really well written.  Both race distances are open to Runners, Skiers and Bikers.

Last year (2014 Results) I really didn't have the greatest races.  I went out to hard,  missed the pacelines at the front of the race, didn't fuel correctly, had not been riding enough before the race as I was out of the country.  All told it took me 4 hours 20 min to complete and I generally had a rough two thirds of the race, first third was fine last two were not so great.

This year I decided to do things a little differently, I am currently training for the Susitna 100 (100 mile fat bike race, well for me it will be) so I decided to ride the Frosty with a partially loaded bike and then continue riding once the race had finished.  Owing to my strategy it wouldn't matter if I missed out on the pacelines at the front of the race, or how everyone else was doing all I wanted to do was get some good solid training miles in.

On Saturday morning we all lined up at the start, the weather had finally got a little colder and it was around 20F with a steady northerly wind blowing also known as cold when you are doing nothing.

On your marks

The race started at its usual ballistic pace, even more noticeable this year as we for the first time started on ski trails rather than a neutralised start down the hill.

From where I started I luckily managed to avoid two crashes on the ski trails then set into my rhythm for the rest of the day.  On the coastal trail I was passed by a couple of groups then pretty much rode the whole course on my own,

Not serious selfie

The eventual winner of the 25 event passed me along Chester Creek trail then another group passed me along the tour trail whilst I was refuelling (PB and J).

The race took me 3:28:58 (Full Results here) which is almost 50min slower than the winner but almost 50min faster than last year, the course was really fast this year though so that is part of the improvement in my time but mostly my time improvements were due to riding much more sensibly.

When I finished the race, I chatted with a few friends and had some more food then I got back on my bike and rode home taking in a few fun trails on the way.  Thanks for riding with me Oscar for the local loop.  My total distance was 72miles ish and my legs felt pretty good.

Danger

Hansel and Gretel

Almost home sunset

Ice Beard

woo hoo 72 miles

All in all a great day out on the bike.

Middle Fork

The Middle Fork trail is a permit only trail that can be ridden only in the winter, the trail is part of the Chugach State Park.  This is the first time I have gotten up to the trail for a while with all the warm weather we have had.  The recent snow fall up high (rain in Anchorage) has really improved the trail conditions.  I rode with Andrew and we decided to ride from home in order to increase my mileage (sorry Andrew you get to climb!)

When we started it was a cooler 4F and as always wearing the right layers helps with staying sweat free for riding.  We stopped a couple of times to adjust layers, this is part way up the STA trails.

Top of Drone Lane

Top of the STA trails

It is around 9 miles to the top of the route by Glen Alps and mostly uphill.

Denali

Made it to the top

Once at the top, the real fun trail begins.  We layered up although the temperatures had risen to 16F and started downhill. The middle fork trail runs on the other side of the valley to where the above picture was taken.

Middle Fork single track

Packed to perfection

Nice views

Food break

The views were spectacular with freezing fog and clouds smothering Anchorage it changed the whole perspective of the ride.

Power Line with Denali

Once here, see above picture we are almost back onto familiar trails and enjoyed soaking up the sunshine for a while before heading down to our usual trails, with a little detour to try out some new trails.

Andrew getting ready to ride a new section of single track

Your Trail

It was a fun ride and we managed to explore some new trails which is always a bonus, thanks for riding with me Andrew, lets hope this weather holds and we get to ride some more epic trails again soon.