Tuesday, July 03, 2007

Singletrack Efficiency

Final results from the Marathon race are up. I finished 8th out 11 in my class, but the last guy DNF'd. It was interesting to look at the times from this year's race compared to last year. In general, this year's race was noticeably faster than last year's; this is a little surprising since the course should have been a little longer and a little slower with the addition of the new section in the Roller Coaster. I don't exactly remember what the weather was like last year, it might have been pretty hot last year, and maybe that was the difference.


Even in a race like this, my biggest weakness is still speed in the singletrack. I came up with a new way to think about it this morning, whether it's useful or not. I realized that what I'm after is not so much speed but efficiency. The seeds of this idea were planted in the Bloomer race. The singletrack there is tight and tends to follow a rolling profile, so I was able to stay on a wheel by outclimbing the racer who'd just opened a gap on the descent and the corner. (It may be that I'm at less of a disadvantage in tight singletrack where everyone has to slow down than I am in more open singletrack where I'm considerably slower than the faster guys.) This is obviously an inefficient way to stay on a wheel. I'd be better off using less energy to stay there by maintaining my momentum down the hill and through the corner; or, better yet, using the same energy level, but, having maintained my momentum, make the pass on the climb (easier said than done at Bloomer, but the principle is right).


I had plenty of time to think about this at the Marathon race, as I'd lose a position in the singletrack and then gain it back out on the two-track. I got to thinking about how every time I hit my brakes in the singletrack, it amounted to a bigger gap that I had to close on the two-track. Over the course of a 40-mile race, all of those extra brake touches really add up.


The other thing that occured to me before the race on Saturday was that I think most of the guys I race against have been riding their mountain bikes a lot longer than me. I keep a log of my races, and when I put the Marathon race in, I looked back at my first race, a MTB time trial, also at Stony Creek (end of July 2005). In that race, I averaged 10.2mph over 13 miles. Saturday, I averaged 11.5 mph over the 40 miles (the trails used in both races were basically the same). That's a pretty big difference. So, sometimes I just need to remember that getting faster takes time. It takes time to build fitness, and it takes time to build confidence in bike handling skills.

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