In the last post, I had just ridden through Alpine and
was just about to embark on the last segment of LOTOJA. In my two prior
LOTOJAs, I have not ridden this section very fast. My first year, I was
riding with a friend who struggled through this section. Last year, I
stopped too long at both feed stations in the canyon and had a flat through
this section. This year, I really wanted to feel good about my effort
through this section.
After riding through Alpine, I made the right hand turn
from highway 89 on to highway 26. I believe this is called Alpine
Canyon. Just as you make the right hand turn, the feed zone starts.
I rode to the very end of the feed zone to number 9. I was confident that
my food had made it to the feed station because when I was about 10 miles from
Alpine, my family passed me as they drove by. When I pulled up, my family
quickly handed me my scratch mix bottles. I also got some of the food I
had prepared. I was still eating the food I started the race with, which
had been in my back pocket just under 8 hours. It was nice to get some
fresh food, although I didn’t end up eating any of it. I also had frozen
two snickers bars. It turned out that the snickers bars were all that I
ate the last 46 miles. The following you tube video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQW5GyJwxT4
from 7:29 through 8:15 shows the approach to the Alpine feed zone.
As I have talked about in a prior post, those that agree
to be your support group do so much to help you. I am grateful for my
family helping me. There was another funny story that happened with my
support. I can laugh about it now, but it is another experience where I
was rather rude as a rider.
As you may remember, I really wanted a peanut butter and
jelly sandwich at the Afton stop. By the time I got to Alpine, I had
forgotten all about it. My sister felt bad that they didn’t have a
sandwich prepared for me. So, she went to the store and purchased bread,
peanut butter and jelly. Because of traffic and the difficulty of parking
and getting to the feed stop, she got to the feed stop just as I was ready to
pull away. I remember seeing her standing there with a shopping bag and
her asking me if I wanted a sandwich, but I told her something like I didn’t
have time and then I rode off. My brother was laughing at the whole
experience. He said her face was
priceless as I heartlessly road away.
I didn’t realize at the time what had happened. I
didn’t know she had sacrificed time and effort to try and get me my
sandwich. I didn’t realize she had just gotten there the same time I
did. I just saw her there holding the bag and knew I couldn’t wait for
her to make me a sandwich because I would miss riding with Jonathan and the others.
My sister was a good sport about it.
After picking up my food and water bottles, I looked for
Jonathan. He pulled up and invited me to ride with a group that had
gotten to Alpine just after we did. This was a group of 6 to 8
riders. Most of them were from the Masters +45 and +35 group I had been
riding with and chasing all through Star Valley. Curtis, the rider that I
help pull back to his race group was also in the group. He had gotten
dropped again from the lead group again due to leg cramps. There was also
the guy in the red jersey who I rode with on the Salt River Pass descent.
One of the guys was a cyclosupportive class rider like me, who left in the
group just after me, which meant he had made up the 6 minutes on me at the
start.
One of the rules of LOTOJA is that you are not supposed
to ride with ear buds in your ears. I typically ride with one ear bud
when I ride by myself. On some of those stretches through Star Valley
when I was riding by myself, I put an ear bud in my ear. I turned the
music off when I would ride with another rider, but I never took the ear bud
out of my ear. I had forgotten all about it.
When this group got a look at me, I could tell there were
several of them that really didn’t want me riding with them. My guess is
they judged my size and thought there was no way this guy can ride with
us—Strike 1 against me. Then because my ear bud was still in my ear, one
of the guys bluntly told me to take it out and told me he wouldn’t ride with
anyone that had one in. I don’t blame him, he was right—Strike 2. I
wondered if there would be a third strike.
We pulled out of the feed zone and started up the
canyon. The ride up the canyon is beautiful. It has always been a mental
challenge for me. My body always feels like Alpine should be the finish of
the ride. Because of the scenic nature of the canyon, it is easy to get
lulled into enjoying the ride and not riding as hard as you need to. In
my prior two LOTOJAs I never had the opportunity to ride with a group like
this. In fact, with the exception of riding off the back of the Cat 3
group, this was the first group I was able to ride with all day. I was
hopeful it would help me ride the canyon so that I could finish under 10
hours.
I would have loved to have ridden with Rex through this canyon.
We complement each other when we ride. The canyon is suited for our
strengths. Maybe next year we will be able to stay together and ride the
canyon as a team. Rex taught me how to think about this last
stretch. Last year, he thought about as if he was just riding to South
Prairie and back, because it is about the same distance as when we ride to
South Prairie and back from our homes. I adopted his way of thinking
about this stretch and I think it helped.
The majority of this group had ridden together through
Star Valley. We had a headwind in the canyon and so the group preferred a
continuous rotating pace line. This seems to be popular among the racers
at LOTOJA. I am not convinced it is better than the normal linear pace
line I am used to.
The way the continuous pace line worked is that the pace
line would start up the left side. Once a rider on the left side got to
the front, he moves over to the right and starts soft peddling. The
riders in the right line that are soft peddling drift back until they are the
last rider. Once a rider is the last rider on the right side, he moves
over to the left line and follows the guy ahead of him. So the pace line
really turns into two side by side pace lines with the one on the left going
harder than the one on the right. Because you have riders moving over to
the right on the front and then to the left on the back, the pace line is more
like a circular pace line than a linear one.
I suspect this makes everyone go faster with a lot less
effort. There are no long pulls on the front. You are on the front
only for a few seconds as you move past the rider on the right and clear enough
room to move over. I struggled with this type of pace line because there
is a lot of finesse involved. I need someone to explain to me the
different pace lines and what are the strengths and weaknesses of riding the
various ones. I always feel like this continuous pace line neutralizes my
power. I am used to getting on the front and really pulling. That,
however, is not the object of this pace line and when I do that, I blow it
up.
The guys I was riding with were very patient with
me. Despite getting off to a seemingly bad start with them, they were all
very helpful in coaching me how to ride the continuous pace line. They
were constantly telling me to take it easy. I kept wanting to go
hard. It was difficult for me to hold back. If I used my power for
this type of pace line I could leave the guy following me in the lurch.
So, they would coach me on backing off the power. The second area where I
struggled was when I got in the right line I needed to soft peddle.
Again, I am used to peddling harder than what I needed to in this pace
line. After several miles, I started to get the hang of it.
The road is about 100 feet above the Snake River.
You can see the river down below you as you ride up the canyon. There are
quite a few rapids through the canyon and there are plenty of groups floating
the river. The you tube video I keep referencing shows this really well from
8:22 until about 9:00 minute mark. You can see the Snake River far below
the road
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQW5GyJwxT4
Coming out of Alpine, the road has a bunch of large
rollers with the net effect of you climbing higher towards Jackson. I
enjoyed riding in the pace line. I could tell that I was conserving a lot
of energy, but I also felt like I wasn’t going as hard as I could on my
own. Understandably, I hadn’t ridden as hard as most of these guys for
the first part (unless they really benefited from riding in groups). Most
of them had ridden the race 30 minutes or so faster than I had at this
point. I think it was the right choice to ride in the pace line but I
will wonder if I could have gone harder on my own. I just don’t know if I
could have sustained it.
After about 10 miles, I must have impressed some of the
riders with what I was doing because the rider who told me to take my ear bud
out asked me “Where do you get your power from?” I responded, “I train on
Mount Rainer.” He then replied “It shows.”
The disadvantage of riding this type of pace line is I am
used to getting on the back and eating and drinking while I am on the
back. It was difficult to do that because you are constantly moving in
the continuous pace line. I am not smart enough to figure this stuff out
on the fly. I think what I really needed to do is eat and drink as soon
as I got in the right hand line as I drifted back and not wait until I was on
the back. I didn’t realize this and made the mistake one time of eating
once I drifted to the very back. One of the problems with eating real
food instead of getting my calories from gels or from a drink mix is that it is
more difficult to get the food out of your pocket and eat it.
As I drifted to the back, I tried to get a snickers bar
out of my pocket. It just so happened my timing was bad. I did this
just as we came to a hill. The group hit the hill but I only had one hand
on the handlebars and was caught off guard. They dropped me because I
wasn’t ready. I quickly recovered and got to the top of the hill as fast
as I could. A gap had developed, but I used the power I had been
conserving and soon caught back up with the group.
As we approached Jackson, there were many sections where
we were unable to maintain the pace line because the shoulder was too
narrow. About 12 miles from the finish, there was a little bit of
climb. I thought this might be a challenge for me to stay with this group
because all of them can climb well. The past two LOTOJAs I have struggled
on this incline. I had plenty of power to stay with the group and the
hill was not a problem for me this year.
As we approached Jackson, I had to deal with my last
challenge of the ride. On longer rides when I approach about the 150 mile
mark, I start to develop hot spots on the bottom of my feet where I have been
pushing on the pedals. As I understand it, this is probably something
called metatarsalgia. I believe what happens is the metatarsal bones of
the feet have been pushed together so much during the ride that it causes nerve
pain. The feeling for me is an incredible painful sensation in the balls
of my feet. It really hinders my ability to apply any power.
I had two strategies to try and combat the pain. My
first was to take some ibuprofen. My second was that I purchased some
shoe inserts from specialize that have something called a metatarsal
cushion. The concept is that this cushion pushes against the bones in the
feet to keep them separated so that they don’t pinch the nerves. I was a
little nervous about the inserts because I had not used them on a prior ride.
It ended up that I think the inserts really helped me and
kept the pain away for longer. But, the pain still eventually came.
I started to get some twinges as I approached Alpine, so I took some ibuprofen
and that seemed to help. I was alright until about 10 miles from the
finish when the pain came on strong and I couldn’t stop it. I tried
taking some more ibuprofen, but it didn’t seem to help. As a result, it
became incredibly painful to pedal. I would end up pedaling to get my
speed up and then coast to let the pain subside.
At about seven miles from the finish, you turn off one
road onto a bike path. The bike path takes you to another road. As
you approach the other road, you pass through a tunnel. The transitions
are tricky and you need to be in the right gears. Just after the tunnel,
you turn into an uphill climb. You can see this transition at 9:22-9:45
on the following video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQW5GyJwxT4
I was on the back of the group when it went through the
tunnel. It was just too painful for me to pedal as hard as I needed to
stay with the group. I was dropped on this hill, which was 7 miles from
the finish. For the next 7 miles I rode by myself, which was fitting for
the sort of LOTOJA I was having. I could see the group up ahead, but it
was just too painful for me to put the kind of pressure on the pedals that I
needed to in order to catch the group. I felt like I had plenty left in
the tank and if it wasn’t for the pain I think I could have caught the group.
I just continued to pedal hard for a few strokes and get
my speed up to 27 to 30 mph and then I would coast for 30 seconds or more until
it dropped down to 25 mph or so. This would give my feet some relief from
the pain I was feeling. I really started watching my total time. I
realized at this point, I still had a solid chance of finishing under 10 hours,
which was strong motivation to ride through the pain.
The finish line at LOTOJA is really neat. The last
several miles you see the Grand Tetons in the background. The approach to
the finish is also flat.
This allows you
to see the finish line a couple of miles away in the distance.
They race organizers have signs that count
down the last 5km of the race.
You can
see the last KM in the you tube video starting at about minute 10
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQW5GyJwxT4
The last 7 miles I rode all by myself. I was able to maintain a strong pace albeit
not as strong as the group I was dropped from.
No one passed me during this stretch. I was grateful when I saw
the sign that told me I only had 5 KM to go. I looked at my time and saw
how fast it was taking me to ride a KM. When I hit the sign for 4 KM to
go, I realize I was likely to finish in under 10 hours. At that moment, I
felt great despite the feeling of pain in my feet. The last 4 KM I
reflected on the past year of training. I thought about all of the early
morning rides I had done. The great rides I had done with the Cyclopaths
this past year, and of the many other fun training rides I was able to do.
When you accomplish a goal that you have worked hard for it is always
rewarding. LOTOJA is a great race but
you really have to prepare for it, which takes a lot of time. I started
to pick up the pace and finished at a strong pace.
I ended up riding in 9 hours and 54 minutes. I
finished 2 minutes behind the group that dropped me. As a comparison, Jonathon and Curtis, both of
the riders I road with between Afton and Alpine, respectively took 11th
and 12th in their Masters +35 race. They finished in 9 hours
and 13 minutes. There were over 60 riders in their group.
Several of the other riders that I rode pace line with took 5th
through 8th in the Masters 45+ race. They finished in 9 hours
and 31 minutes.
I had the 12th fastest time through the canyon
for the non-relay Cyclosportive group. As it turned out, I rode from the
top of Salt River Pass to the finish (which is about 97 miles) in 3 hours and
58 minutes. If you add on three more miles, which would be most of the king of the mountain climb, I rode the last 100 miles in approximately 4 hours and 15 minutes.
Because the racers ride 3 miles less than I did, it is
not really fair to compare my time with them. If I normalize my time,
which basically means I replace my Logan to Preston time with their Logan to Preston time, I
would have finished in about 9 hours and 41 minutes. All of this means that I think I could become
competitive enough to ride with one of the race groups next year.
After finishing, I spent time with my family and waited
for Rex to finish. During this time, I talked with some of the guys that
I rode the pace line with through the canyon.
They rider who bluntly told me to take my ear phone out of my ear asked
me if I drank because he wanted to buy me a beer. I told him I didn’t drink, but thanked him
for the offer. Apparently, I did
something right riding in the pace line and it does not look like I ever earned
that third strike. I think whatever I did
I earned some of their respect.
I believe Rex would tell you his 2014 LOTOJA was
disappointing for him. After recovering
from his problems early in the race, Rex didn’t have stomach issues but he
battled cramps most of the day. Whenever he went to put some real power
down, he would cramp. As a result, he
could not go as hard as he felt he should have been able to go. Rex told me he rode well through the canyon
and toward Jackson. He was on the front
of the group doing most of the pulling.
But, it just wasn’t his day again.
In the last couple of KM, Rex broke a spoke. He was riding his low spoke count wheels and
he was afraid he might taco his wheel.
He had to ride rather gingerly to the finish.
The finish gathering place is right next to a
creek that is mountain fed, which means it is cold. Many cyclists just sit in this creek after
LOTOJA. I have a picture of Rex cooling
off after his finish.
I really enjoy LOTOJA. It is one of those epic
rides that you will never forget. What I enjoy about it is that it makes
you use all of your skills as a rider. You have to be able to climb, ride
in the flats, and ride rollers.
On the whole, I was satisfied with my ride. There
are several areas I need to improve on. I was a little disappointed with
the last 10 miles of the ride. The pain in my feet kept me from riding as
hard as I thought I could. I felt like I still had some fuel in the tank
when I finished. If I ride LOTOJA again,
my goal will be to try and ride it under 9 hours and 30 minutes.
What this ride did for me was give me the confidence that
I think I could race this in the future. I think I have had about as much
fun riding with the Cyclosportive group as I can. I will only ride again with the Cyclosportive
group if I am riding with friends and do not care about how fast I finish the
race.
You register for LOTJA sometime in March or April. The registration fee is nonrefundable and
nontransferable. If you get in, because it’s
a lottery, you are committed once you register.
If I register next year, I will likely race it in one of the race groups. I wish we had more rides like LOTOJA closer
to Washington. RAMROD, although not a
race, is the closest thing I think we have to LOTOJA in the northwest.
I would highly recommend putting LOTOJA on your bucket
list.
