The 6hr Salty Dog race in Salmon Arm last weekend was a lot like the Toronto Maple Leafs 2012 hockey season.   A complete 100% catastrophic meltdown.  On the first lap I set a solid tempo up the first climb and to my pleasure had a solid gap on the field.  Riding within my means I set a new course record on the first lap at 33:52, followed up with a decent 2nd lap and then things started to slide backwards.

Lap 3 my buddy/part time coach, Luke Way caught up to me for a bit and then played it smart and stayed riding his own race as I upped the tempo to pull away.  He was ripping today, which didn’t surprise me as he is wise beyond his age with all his racing and training experience/knowledge.  I knew if I faultered he would be there to take over as he knows his body like a computer and rides a very smart race.

Coming through after lap 6  I was in trouble as a 39 minute lap isn’t victory worthy.  It was no surprise when Luke joined me half way through lap 7 and then lap 8 he slowly pulled away as my legs and body disintigrated into a pile of goat turds.  Getting tired during a race happens but usually there is a little something left in the tank. As lap 8 went on I went from a bike racer to survivor, very similar to the Whisky 50 a couple weeks ago and the VCL in Victoria this past week.  Finishing lap 8 was a survival mission and instead of racing laps 9 and 10 I curled up in ball on the side of the trail and tried to fight off puking, sleeping, cramping, and pulling a sore tooth out my mouth.  My body was pissed.

This race was good as it was the final straw for me in trying to be stubborn about a soreness in my mouth which I’ve had for over a month.  One of my biggest strengths is also one of my biggest weakness’s as I try to ignore pain.  When that pain is in your mouth that is a problem as teeth don’t fix themselves as I found out after weeks of ignorance.  Luckily for me Sean Mcevoy was racing at the Salty Dog and was pitted under the same Balance Point Racing tent as my support crew, Eileen Mcdonald and my Dad.

Eileen being a nurse was the first to notice I had a problem in my mouth  and talked to Sean, a pro dentist, who immediatly said he would look after me Monday morning, even though the dental clinic was closed.  2hrs in the dental chair later I had a nice root canal to show off and a bottle full of Penicillin to look after a bacteria infection which was eating away my jaw and heading into the left side of my head.   I have my fingers crossed the Penicillin goes to work as there is a bit of a problem in my head at the moment.   Thanks Sean for taking care of me on your day off and for the racer discount!  I should have payed you double time and a half for what you did.

Looking back on my lap times for this race over the last 2 years seems like  is a good case study for a mad scientist.  This winter everything has been dialed, great training, great sleeping etc and my lap times look like this… Slowly dropping off till a complete meltdown.

2012 Lap splits: 33:52,  34:42, 35:52, 36:51, 37:42, 39:39, 39:46, 47:45,  KABOOM!, passed by 200 lb fat guys in baggie shorts,backpacks and 35 lb bikes,passed by kids,  passed by girls, DNF>

Then there’s the lap times from 2011 where I did 10 laps and managed to keep my last 5 laps within 23 seconds of each other, all between 37:24 and 37:47.  All this after 3 months of insomnia and a 70 hr week of tree planting before the race.  Which leaves me to wonder if  A) tree planting is like blood doping  B) Insomnia is a magical training weapon, or C) that my body is just completely f’d from a sore tooth and that things will shape up as my head gets un f’d.  I am crossing my fingers and going with answer C.  As I am really unsure of what to think otherwise.

After the Dental surgery yesterday it was off to Kelowna to get my new carbon Kona King Zing road bike fit by Luke and to go for a little recovery ride.  Peter Watson joined us as we road up to Carmelis Goat farm for some fresh cheese and Goat gelato.  Riding in the sun with some buddies, eating goat gelato and getting miles in on our new bikes was the perfect way to forget about a not so memorable weekend of meltdowns and teeth gongshows.   This week will be an easy one as I search for some health before heading out to Pennsylvania later next week for the Transylvania Epic.

PS  Nice work Michael Robinson on the 10 laps and victory at the Salty dog!  very solid riding.

PS2 Nice work Luke on your 10 laps,  very  impressive, especially considering that your focusing on Triathlons this year.

This weekend is the 6hr Salty Dog Marathon in Salmon Arm BC.  It is going to be rad as the trails are great and the atmosphere is pretty cool with 400 + bike riders out in force to battle it out for freshly baked apple pies. 

The crew from Balance Point Racing will be there.  They are a great group of riders, mostly from the Okanagan which train under the watchful eye of there experienced Coachs, Ginny and Andrew Sellars,  Luke Way and Chris Willet.  There philosophy for training is based on lots of testing and analyzing numbers, picking out a riders weakness and focusing there trainining there. This biomarker based program which has helped riders such as Geoff Kabush reach there level seems like a solid way to make the most of your training time.  It has me intrigued and I have started to work with them a bit for this year as riding a million miles will only make you so fast.

For years Luke Way has also been bike fitting and has looked after me like his brother.  I highly recommend getting your bike dialed for anyone who has never had it done as there’s weird little tricks that can make you and your bike a little bit closer and a little bit faster.  Often by changing your set up by just a couple millimeters  is enough to leave that poor sucker without a properly fitting bike in the dust!

Victoria is a pretty stellar place to come back to too regroup.  Last Wednesday night was a local VCL (Victoria Cycling League) road race out in Latoria.  It was hard as we road around a 2.5 km loop 18 or 20 times with numerous attacks by the roadies.  By the last lap the pack of 25 had dwindled down to 7 of us, two of them being Red Truck Riders, Tyler Trace and Adam De vos, who I figured I likely wouldn’t beat in a sprint.  So I attacked with half a lap to go and held it till about 70 ft from the finish line when the rest of the pack caught up.  Close but not quite, another solid training ride none the less. 

Saturday was a hammerfest with Plaxton up on his trails.  Sunday I woke up feeling like a train hit me, partly wrecked from riding with Plaxton and partly some sort of lingering sickness.  Being sick at home is lame so I packed up a tent and drove up the west coast to Sombrio beach and set up camp for a couple days.  Lazing around by the ocean and having beach fires is a much nicer option then feeling sub par at home and having your brain sucked dry by the tv or surfing the net.  Mid afternoon I had a nap on a rock ledge just above the crashing waves.  I woke up when a bit of  splash hit my face from a large wave crashing below.  The tied was coming in.  I layed there watching as another larger wave crashed below and got me a little wetter, and then a layed there even longer as I saw a really large wave coming to shore.  I was thinking “danm that looks really big, it looks like it might hit me.”  And then I was drenched. My peaceful day was lifted upside down and shaken around for a while but it was nothing a fresh change of clothes couldnt fix.   It was another West coast lesson for a boy from the mountains.

Wednesday evening was another VCL, this time out at Newton Heights.  The course there is the devil.  A wall of a climb and then a quick decent around the quite road to hit the wall again, times this by 18.  I don’t think there is any better training then to hammer this with a large group of excited men in tights.  Looking at it as a training race I went hard from the gun and established the winning break with Adam De vos.  Unfortunetaly my mind is stronger the my legs right now and I blew up after 3 laps and then was on damage control the rest of the race as I drifted back to the pack and fought to stay in there. Adam was riding really well and deserved the win.   I’ve felt weird lately and am not sure if there is a lingering bug in the system or what is going on but things are not firing at full steam right now as every hill seems to be a battle.    

This year is starting out interesting as its the first time in 4 years I havn’t heald my fitness all winter.  Taking 3 months off to work up in the oil patchs of Alberta provided a much needed mental relief from the bike.  Some fitness was lost for sure but after a stellar 3 months of base miles feb-april and the start of some intensity training these past few weeks I am confident things will be online soon.  Putting in a huge base is a test of patience as it takes alot longer to hit your peak but once you get going there seems to be no limit to where you end up.  With the big goals, 3 and 4 months away it is shaping up to be a really good year.

Enough blabber, time to ride!