The Mid South Double 2020 - Mileage tracking

The MidSouth Double is almost upon us

Today is my last rest day before I attempt the MidSouth Double. The 50km run is on Friday (13th March) and the 100mile ride is on Saturday (14th March). 

I believe I am as prepared as I can be. 

I have followed my training plan and as of the beginning of this week my stats stack up like this from week ending 25th September 2019. Full data set

Ride miles total	2056.2
Run Miles total	545.9
Total Time (Hrs)	235.75

I will say that I feel fitter than last year when I took part in the LandRun 100. It has been interesting to see how my VO2max estimate on in my Garmin account has improved over my training time. (Estimates coming from my watch)

Heading in the right direction

Now all that is left is to go through my final check on my bike. 

Cleaned and shifting great

Wait on the arrival of my friends from Alaska and help them put their bikes together and finally not worry about the weather. 

Oh cock!

Why not worry? 

It is totally out of our control! 

All we can do about a lot of rain on clay before the event, is to make sure we have our mud sticks and hope we get lucky.

Fingers crossed that most of the course is not like this....

Ahhh a wet MidSouth.....

Finally thanks to my family for all the support whilst training for this event. It has been a huge help. 

Until later take care all! 

My training plan for the Mid South Double

The training plan

The challenge to partake in the MidSouth double was kind of a joke at first but, I have stuck with my training plan and it seems to be going well. I am by no means going to podium at the event looking at previous times however I hope to suffer as little as possible.

Running

For me the run is always going to be the hardest part given when I signed up I hadn't run more that 12 miles ever.

I decided to complete a 1/2 marathon running program (I used Garmin coach for this) then straight into a marathon training plan for the running side, I used Garmin for this one too.

The 1/2 marathon plan culminated in me running a 1:42:05 on a flat paved course around lake hefner.


The marathon training has been going well also, I have been training using heart rate zones and mostly (when the HR monitor is working) I can stay in the correct zone, sometimes the HR randomly seems to drop or spike, but mostly I ignore this and it works out.

Riding

I have also been using a Garmin Century plan for the riding side.The plan is split into three phases base, build and peak, I have just entered the peak section.

This has meant some double up days for workouts to ensure I get rest days.

As it stands right now I am feeling a little apprehensive about the double but think the training is working.

I'm sure there is no way I would have been able to run 16miles the day before the Growler and ride as well as I did when I started this plan.

My biggest takeaways so far 

I was really bad at nutrition when doing long events, I am working on improving that but it's hard to teach an old dog new tricks. The Garmin 530 does help with that though as it's constantly reminding me to eat and drink.

My fitness has improved, or at least my V02max Garmin voodoo estimation has.

Not sure how this is worked out.

I am enjoying running again, a lot more than I thought I would.

It's interesting to look back on how much I have trained time wise for this event. See here

Gravel Growler 2020

2020 Gravel Growler - Shawnee

The 2020 edition of the Gravel Growler was a blast. This year we headed south into some undulating terrain. It was a little cool at the start but warmed up significantly once we got going, well after the worlds longest and slowest neutral roll out. 

Freezing before the off...

I had been talking with one of my teammates and riding buddies before the race about how maybe we could ride together. Once we got going it became obvious that wasn't going to happen, she blew me away within the first two miles after the neutral start.... She went on to win the "old lady category" her words not mine with a smoking time 4:59:49. 

Bye Carin, you are at the front of that group.

After the fast groups had dropped me, I settled into my "race" pace. I was caught by a couple of teammates and we rolled along pretty well. After a stop to take off some layers we ended up riding at different paces and mostly that is how I rode the race, solo and unable to bridge up to draft people.

Out here doing my thing

The gravel was great

At the aid station around 43 miles in I caught back up to Zach. I was able to get in and out of the aid station pretty quickly and managed to get ahead of  Zach.  He caught back up to me and we rolled together for a little while before he dropped me again, he is riding really well at the moment. 

The miles were going by pretty quickly and there was almost no wind however the hills kept coming. 

more hills

and again

Empty roads

Before I knew it I was 80miles in and back in Shawnee.

Almost the finish, I caught the guy ahead of me. 

Another selfie, sure ok then. 

Results

I finished in 5hrs 20 min with no cramping and no significant loss of power, this is a huge improvement over last year at this race where I went out way to fast and blew up like a "champion"

24th place in my category

"Old people" category

Pro results

The Strava

A quick update at the end of the year

Wow 2019 is almost over already!

We have had a busy year with many highlights topped off by becoming a USA citizen just before christmas.

I am now a USA citizen!

I hope all my friends have had a great year and festive season.

My training for the Landrun double has been progressing nicely.  The running is going better now I am a few weeks in, it's actually fun to run again. The cycling is, well it is just always fun once I get out on gravel. 

Obviously with an event that can have such varied conditions as Landrun setting time goals is mostly out of my hands, If I get good conditions I would be over the moon with a 12.5hour combined finishing time however that is with near perfect conditions which can't be guaranteed. Therefore I am looking to just finish both events with no major body problems or mechanicals, and my training is geared towards that. 

As I get closer to the events I will dial in my kit a little better but right now it is looking like I will be using a camelbak chase for the running event and going probably with just two waterbottles on the bike and not using a camelbak.

New tyres for christmas 38C
but more like a 35C, seem to roll pretty well too

Sunrise rides never get old :)

Always nice out here, even
better when there is almost no wind.

I had been running in some hoka shoes but I am not sure about them so I switched out to some Saucony shoes. It is still early miles in them but they feel lots better. I want to get a few longer runs in before committing to that.

New shoes :)

Dirt running

I am also sending in my biking shoes for repair as one of the boa lace eyelets failed on them, hopefully I will have an update soon as to if they can be repaired.

Ooophs :-/

With just over 10 weeks to go before the Landrun double it's all go go go here. Until next time, have fun everyone.

Upgradeitis - Garmin Edge 530

I have been using Garmin GPS devices since 2007. I have had a number of them from hand held devices, watches and cycling specific computers. 

When I saw the release of the Garmin Edge 530 it ticked a lot of boxes for me. Finally after a summer of working and justifying (to myself) replacing my Garmin 510 I ordered one through The Bike Lab. 

Why did I change?

Mostly because I wanted better navigation/maps and I liked the look of the integration with Trailforks. 

First impressions 

The unit looked fantastic although I wasn't sure on the start/stop and lap button placement (I need not have worried). 

The unit startup is significantly faster than all of my previous units. 

Setup was simple as was connection with my phone. 

The screen is clear and now not a touch screen like my Edge 510 so I can wipe the dirt off when riding. 

The unit now has a sensor pool so that when I switch bikes it doesn't matter about what sensors I have on the bike or selecting the right bike to pick up the correct sensor. 

After using the unit for a couple of weeks what are my thoughts. 

The Garmin Edge 530 provides a lot of data, significantly more than my previous Edge 510. 

When connected with a heartrate monitor I can get a respiration rate. It tells me what my workout was doing for me. Aerobic or Anaerobic. It also suggests hydration and feed rates during the ride based on temperature and exertion. 

more data than I will ever need

Post workout it also suggests a recovery time. I will say I mostly ignore these :) 

After two laps of Bluff, I think not Garmin

Navigation - I have only used this once so far but I was impressed. It was a significant improvement over the course following on my 510. It warns of junctions as you approach them and puts up a map with the road name (although some of the road names are different when in the middle of nowhere Oklahoma). I believe It will also navigate to places but I haven't tried that yet. 

To add a route/course you use the Garmin Connect website to create it or import the route if you have a file. The route can then be added via a cable connection to the computer or through the Garmin Connect app and a phone. I think if I paid for a Strava account I would be able to add routes through that via my phone directly but since I don't have that sort of account I haven't looked into it. 

I have yet to fully utilise the Trailfork function but when you stop at a junction it switches screens to show you the trails that are around you which is fantastic, or will be when I get to new trail areas. 

Ahhh so that is where I am :)

Battery life seems pretty good but I have yet to test it like I did with my computers in Alaska. I can confirm my previous computers Edge 705, 500 and 510 all worked down to around -20F although the screens did get a little sluggish. This computer can also be charged via any power brick on the go unlike my Edge 500. 

Overall for me this is a fantastic addition to my bike and riding information gathering. I am sure if I follow the information that it gives me I will become a stronger rider.  Will I do that? That is yet to be seen but I will try to keep ontop of my hydration and nutrition at least. 

Should you buy one, absolutely it is quite simply, brilliant!

Wind assistance does it really matter?

Now living in Oklahoma I have to get used to riding in the wind. If I didn't ride in the wind, I would never end up riding, alright that is not strictly true but you get the idea. I like to think of winds as mountains, when it is really blowing I get to try the really steep climbs or descents depending on direction of travel.

Since I'm a numbers/data kind of guy I wanted to see how much of a difference a head vs tail wind makes... As I don't have a power meter yet, they are a big investment, power meter or flight back to the UK?  All of this is has no power data and as such I'm going off feel and HR data.

I am also using a really cool program (which is free) I found online which takes all the wind data and applies it to your ride. Head over to mywindsock.com for all your geeking out.

Yesterday during my ride I got the opportunity to test this out. On the way out I had a slight tail wind of around 7 mph. On the return the wind had picked up to 9mph headwind which is still pretty low for this area but definitely noticeable.

The segments I picked are gravel segments which are around 4 miles long. They run North or South, alternative options in this area would run East or West, it is all pedalling in squares in this area. Given the length of the segment, this is a sustaining power test rather than an all out sprint effort.

Segment 1 - Gravel Sara

Segment 2 - Gravel Sara South bound

The fact I am currently top of both of the leader boards (at the time of this post) is less due to my speed and more due to the lack of people who have ridden the segment.

For both runs on Friday I was trying to keep my HR below 175bpm (zone 4 for me) which is where I tend to blow up and I have to drop my speed significantly to recover.

Data from the ride

Segment 1 - 

Time 10:54, 

19.9 mph ave, 

Ave HR 169 BPM, 

Max HR 177 BPM 

6-7mph tail wind

Segment 2 - 

Time 14:01, 

16.6 mph ave, 

Ave HR 167 BPM, 

Max HR 175 BPM 

8-9mph head wind

Conclusion 

Even with slight tailwind the advantage for me is significant, way more than I thought thought it would make. The difference between the runs on Friday was around 3.3mph. 

Chasing KOMs/PRs is obviously best done with a tailwind. And hence if I get a PR on the road here, there is a good chance I had some sort of tail wind or am riding in a group. 

This is not to say I won't put in efforts into a headwind. For me it is a great way to get stronger and improve my fitness.

I currently feel around 9mph is where I really start to feel the headwinds, once the wind gets up to around 18mph it is comparable to a pretty steep gradient, great for my hill training without hills program. 

Above 25mph I will definitely question if I should be riding on the roads as I start to feel pretty unsafe around traffic, especially when riding solo.  

The KOM I have for the southbound direction was achieved with a 9mph NW wind, a cross tail wind on this segment, very similar wind conditions to my KOM on the northbound segment on which I achieved on Friday. 

Finally I am not a KOM chaser normally. I would definitely categorise myself as a, just improve my fitness kind of guy and Strava is a great way to do this as it gives me a way to compare segments to my previous attempts with HR data all easily accessible.

I always try and ride with the attitude "if you are not having fun why are you even out there." So on that note,  here are a couple of photos from my ride on Friday. It WAS FANTASTIC!

Red dirt and empty roads!

Harvesting the wind

Lots of red dirt and the occasional stop sign

Smile like you mean it!

The STRAVA

Bikecation part 1 - Whiskey 50 2018

Late 2017 I was asked by some friends if I wanted to head down to the Whiskey 50 race in Prescott Arizona then continue for a bikecation after the race. After clearing it with Amanda I signed up early and started/continued my training. The group I was heading out there with was a combination of people who have raced the Whiskey before Andy, Josh, Tom and Megan and new riders like Jessie and I. Dave would also be joining us, although not racing his expertise came in the second part of the trip. To add a little extra fun Megan was going to be racing in the pro category this year after a dominating performance at the 2017 edition of the amature race.

The race course

2018 was the 15th edition of the Whiskey 50 and part of the Epic race series. The race is around 50 miles and starts in down town Prescott. It climbs out of town for around 5 miles on pavement and dirt roads before joining some double track which turns to singletrack as it descends. At around mile 12 we start climbing a jeep trail to an out and back section (around 18 miles) along Skull Valley. It then climbed a little more to Sierra Prietta before entering a roughly 10mile singletrack descent until we joined the road for the remaining 4miles of downhill back into town and the finish.

The Trip (the Prescott Part)

Day 1 - Wednesday - Course preview and shakedown ride

I took an overnight flight to Phoenix where Tom was waiting to give me a ride up to Andy's house in Prescott. We arrived early afternoon and got the bikes put together before heading out for a short recon/shakedown ride on of part of the course. I should add this was the first time I had ridden my new bike (2018 Specialized Epic Expert) on dirt and I was very happy about how the bike "Emma" climbed and descened. 

Me dragging whist trying to keep up. 

Day 2 - Thursday - Course preview

Thursday morning saw the arrival of Dave, Jessie, Terry (Dave's Mum), Megan and her kids

Dave and Terry kindly took Megan's kids so Jessie, Megan, Tom, Andy and I could go ride part of the course again and all get a little more used to riding dirt. The course had a couple of optional sections for the amature riders (Trail 48 and Cramp hill). The pro race didn't have these as options. Tom and I rode Trail 48 with Megan to remind her what it was about and Andy took Jessie around the other option which Andy, Tom and I had ridden the previous day. This also let us time the difference between the two route options. Although timing wise they both would have been about the same, the effort required for Trail 48 was a lot higher than the alternative route. Tom, Andy, Jessie and I all decided to not ride Trail 48 during the race. 

Working on the Megan's (Princess's) bike

Discussing lines on Trail 260

Post ride mandatory Whiskey shots
- PC Andy

Later that afternoon Josh and Clint also arrived in Prescott, although Clint wasn't staying with us it was nice to see him, it was getting to be quite the Alaskan party at Andy's house.

Day 3 - Friday - Shuttle ride

Shuttle day, after getting organised and finally finding the right way thanks to "The Google" we made it to Sierra Prietta to start our shuttle run of the final section of the course.

Seven bikes in the back, hope they don't fall over. 

Riding today we had the almost full Alaskan crew. 

Ready to rock

We were ripping the descent until Tom got a flat.

Awwhhhh crap I think it's flat and what is that noise.
- PC Andy

The group split up to get the shuttle vehicles so that Megan could make her Pro rider meeting later in the afternoon. 

After the split Dave, Tom, Jessie and I finished the remainder of the course, Tom even had time to show us some the old course whilst we waited for the shuttle to arrive. 

After the split following the course down.

After cruising back to Casa del Dino we got changed and headed into town to pick up bib numbers and meet Megan before heading in and out of town again before Megan's first Pro race. It was great to watch and cheer Megan on as she raced. The course looked tough and as always Megan didn't disappoint her fans. She always races with a smile and today was no exception.

The every cheerful Megan!

Day 4 - Saturday Race day

After a pretty early night the house was waking up to head out for race day. We rode in from Casa del Dino as a warmup and arrived really early. The Race starts at 07:30 and we were lined up at around 7am. I think I must have been taking the race seriously as I only took one photo during my race :-/

All lined up and waiting to go. 

At 07:30 there was a lot of shots fired which indicated the start of the race. The course climbs up on roads and I was trying to be mindful of my pace so I didn't blow up to early in the race. From where I was the pace was just about right for me, I passed a couple of people and was passed by many more. As the pavement turned to dirt the pace continued to be comfortable for me. Emma climbs really well and I really enjoy putting my limited power down and having the bike respond. After 7 miles the course starts heading downhill and I got to start enjoying the ride a lot more, alas some of the people whom had out climbed me were not the greatest descenders. I passed a couple of people then got held up in a line of around 7 or 8 people. The lead person was braking a lot, in fact by the time I got through the 5 miles of descent, my hands were aching due to the inordinate amount of time I had spent on the brakes. 

After every good descent comes a climb, I was feeling pretty good on the climb and enjoyed climbing in the relative cool compared to previous days (Day 1 and 2) when I had done this section. Almost to the top a Drunk Cyclist representative was out and offered me a beer, I almost said no... then I remembered that I was supposed to be having fun and if this person had dragged his butt out to offer support I sure shouldn't turn it down. I took the beer for the road, around 0.25 miles later I figured was as good a time as any to have a beer so opened it up and rode on to the aid station before the descent down skull valley. I am pretty sure I was the first and possibly only person who came riding into the aid station drinking a beer at 09:00, you have to be first at something and it sure wasn't going to be first in any other part of my race. 

A quick bottle refill at the aid station and it was 9 miles of mostly downhill to the turn around. I waved frantically at my fellow Alaskans as I descended and was really having a blast on the way down. At the turn around I didn't stop just grabbed a gel and started cruising back up the hill for the 11mile climb before the singletrack started again. Between the turnaround and the aid station I had to pee twice, perhaps that beer wasn't the smartest idea :). The climb back is not that bad until the green house then it kicks up a little for the remaining 2 miles to the aid station and 3 miles after that. I felt I was climbing pretty well aside from the pee stops until I felt a cramp twinge. Damnit that isn't supposed to happen. Oh well I clicked into an easier gear and spun my way to the top. I passed the aid station and some amazing support from Dave and Terry. I took part of an Ensure, thanks Dave and refilled my bottle and soft pedalled on up the hill.

After the aid station there started to be a lot more people offering bacon, Whiskey and pickles. I took a couple of shots of whiskey and some bacon to help fend off the cramps. Around 30 mins after the aid station I was hitting the singletrack again and having to make my way past people. 

Enjoying some singletrack descending 

After passing 5 ish people I stopped to give assistance to someone who was having problems on the side of the trail. I thought they just needed a tube so I fished my spare out and handed it off, then they asked for a pump... At this point I left them, really you don't have a pump? WTF. By now the people I had passed had all re passed me. As I continued on the trail along the cramp hill bypass, I was passing people who had cramped up.... Then it happened, I cramped up badly. Drat and double drat. I took some salt tablets and continued to soft pedal through the really fun section of trail which made me super sad.

As I crossed the road, my legs started to feel a little better. Then the holy grail to solving my cramps was trailside, a group were offering pickles. I took one and started munching as I rode away. By the time I reached the road 3 miles later I was at almost full power. I hammered as fast as my legs would take me along the road and rolled under the finish line at 4hrs 25min and 36 seconds. 

Crossing the finish line

Later I learned this would net me 159th place overall and 81st place male. I am happy that I raced the Whiskey 50, would I do it again.... probably not, well unless I decide to do the 30mile version which should be called Whiskey 30 all killer no filler. 

Post race I collected my pint glass and joined up with my friends, all of whom seemed to have great races. 

Relaxing after the effort - PC Andy

All smiles post race - PC Clinton

Next stop for us was off to the beer garden for some much needed rehydration. 

Day 5 - Sunday Pro race spectating

Andy and I tried to follow Megan into town as she wasn't entirely sure of the way, we were driving and Megan riding as a warmup, Megan was riding so fast we couldn't catch up with her. Eventually after a few wrong turns we made contact and guided her to the start area. Andy and I then high tailed it up to get out along Trail 48 to give her and the other racers some support.

Getting ready to show some skin

John Shumaker - Lead moto for pro women

Go Megan go!

After watching the pro's ride through we headed back into town, picked up Josh and the kids and headed out to watch Megan, on the back side of the course.

Chasing Megan. - PC Andy

Yep that is me, chasing Megan again... here is the Strava and below that the video footage I got. 

Holy shit! What a weekend! @meganachelf got the opportunity to race in her first #pro race at the #whiskeyoffroad! She crushed it placing 16th! The whole #chasingthechelfs crew is super proud of her effort!

A post shared by ChasingTheChelfs (@chasingthechelfs) on May 2, 2018 at 11:25am PDT

And here is Megan at the finish, as Andy said after finishing her race she was right back to being a pro Mom.

Pro racer, pro Wife and Mom
PC Andy

That's all for this section, part 2 coming soon.