DINO Muscatatuck Mountain Bike Race Report

10th place overall; 2nd place 40-49 age group - Results
Strava data

I missed the first couple of races in the DINO Mountain Bike series as I focused on my running objectives through Spring & early Summer.  They're great opportunities for me to build fitness and bike handling skills for cyclocross later in the year as well as representing The Bicycle Station in local races.
The events are very family friendly with kids and junior races being held at each event - so I was excited to have Angus planning on joining me for his first race in the Junior category which mean he would ride a full race lap starting just after I was expecting to complete my 4 lap race.
The race laps for DINO are typically 6-10 miles with the Category 1 & Elite / Pro race being either 3 or 4 laps.  The Muscatatuck course is one of the shorter laps, 6.5 miles through twisting single track with no sustained climbs, the lap took about 30 mins to complete.  I hadn't had the chance to pre-ride the whole course so my first lap was going to be a learning experience!
At the start, the small Elite / Pro racers set off 2 mins ahead of the larger age group Cat 1 field.  I got a bad start, losing places on the fast grass sprint to the first section of single track - I'm always anxious about my lack of trail riding skills and worry about jumping in front of people, then holding them up in the technical sections.  As we settled into the first lap I let a couple of riders pass as they were clearly faster on the initial downhill twisting singletrack but I also passed a few riders who slowed dramatically on the first short climb.  Things quickly spread out, by the start of the 2nd lap I was part of a small group which gapped me on the more technical sections, but I quickly caught up when things leveled out or went uphill.  People were tiring quickly and I was able to make more & more passes stick, still ending up with clear trail behind me even after the twisty sections.  In the final two laps, I progressively caught & passed several of the riders I had seen riding away from me earlier in the race - I was hoping to catch up with Bicycle Station team-mate, Denny Barber on the final lap, but it wasn't to be - he rode a great race to finish 9th overall, about 90 secs ahead of me taking 2nd in the very wide "50-99" age group!

Me looking worried on the technical downhills....
Photo - William Snyder

I finished in 2:00:08 and had just 14 mins before Angus' race was due to start - having seen the whole lap for the first time in my race, I'd decided that I would run behind him to help instead of trying to ride alongside him.  I dashed to the car, grabbed a fresh water bottle & energy gel, pulled on my running shorts, a dry top and trail shoes and ran back to the start!
Angus' race was an emotional affair - his first real experience of technical mountain bike trails - we had to get off & walk over a lot of the obstacles and he got bounced around on a few roots & rocks which shook his confidence.  It took 90 mins to complete his one lap, about 30 mins of that was stationary as we let other riders pass and took some time-outs to get confidence back - despite some tears part way round, he finished strong with an arm in the air over the finish line.

Angus - still smiling at this point on the lap!
Photo - William Snyder

For me, the additional 60 mins of running / pushing completely emptied me.  Only afterwards, I realized I hadn't managed to eat or drink enough during my 2 hour race - it's a very different problem to riding on the road - it's a challenge simply finding time to take hands off the bars to find a bottle or snack.  My next event is a 6 hour mountain bike endurance race - I will have to do a better job at managing my nutrition if I'm going to finish that with any success.

Firetower 15.3 Race Report

1st place overall; 59:45.6

Strava data for [Run] (17:46.0); [Bike] (25:01.7); [Run] (15:59.1)

The Brown County YMCA organizes the Firetower 15.3 duathlon in beautiful Brown County State Park, this was the second running of the race.  Last year I came second to Greg Fraze who was using the event as a build up to his Duathlon Worlds competition (he got silver in his 35-39 age group), this year I had talked Quaff ON! team-mate Danny Fisher into competing and Greg made a return trip to defend his title.  It was sure to be a hard race!

The race with Danny was going to be interesting since he's a significantly better runner than me and we both figured it would be close, all hinging on how much Danny could limit his losses to me on the bike section with very little training.  He seemed to think there was no hope, I however, was worried - training or not, great athletes like Danny have so much inherent fitness and mental discipline to work through the pain it was no-way a "done deal" in my head.

We made a family weekend of it, camping in the state park on Friday night (even though it's only 15 miles from home!), this made the early start easy for me.  After a Skratchlabs recipe baked egg bite (see below) I simply rolled down the road on my TT bike to complete registration and get my transition area set up.  The race isn't a huge affair which is nice in one way - no lines for sign-on, plenty of transition area space with no fighting for places on the racks, but it's also something I hope will change as the organizers persist with it as an annual event and work on promotion to attract more people.  The 5k pavement run, 10 mile pavement bike and 2.2 mile trail run course is challenging for people wanting a hard race, but safe and manageable (with no swimming!) for first time multi-sport participants.  The final trail run is a really fun twist to the traditional duathlon format and takes advantage of the amazing trail network and challenging terrain in the park.

The first part of the race unfolded pretty much as I had expected.  Fisher was gone off the front in the 5k, and after the first mile or so it was just me & Greg Fraze running about 5 secs apart (Greg ahead of me) all the way to the turn.  I felt pretty good with the pace (about 5:45/mile) and in the second half of the 5k closed the gap on Greg to enter transition only 0.6 secs behind him - Danny of course was long gone, having run a 16:29 5k, he was about 1:20 ahead of us.  Closing the gap on Greg gave me some confidence as last year he was pulling away from me.

Making the turn in the 5k run

The bike section is quite technical, downhill with sweeping bends to a pivot turn, then climbing all the way back to the start / finish area which you ride past to re-trace the 5k run course making ~9.9 miles in total.  Greg has killer transition skills and opened up a gap as we set off to chase Danny Fisher down.  Just as we got going, Greg missed the first turn but quickly rejoined, still ahead of me after a trip over the grass!  I passed Greg with a surge of effort on one of the short uphill sections but I knew it would be tough to open any significant gap on him.  It wasn't until the turn that we finally got sight of Danny, who was, by that time about 20 secs in front of us.  I finally made the catch as we climbed back towards Hesitation Point, to be honest I was getting worried about how much effort and how much distance it had taken to recover the time loss from the run.  It meant that I had about 4.5 miles to build a big enough cushion to avoid being caught in the second run.  Having completed the climbing, the road flattened out and started to feel more like a traditional time trial, I found the legs to turn a bigger gear and pushed on towards the turn, and finally the transition area for the second time.  I only had 10 secs advantage over Greg and his superior transition skills meant that once again, I was following him out onto the final trail run.

Coming off the hard bike effort, my calves cramped as soon as we started to run and the first mile of the trail is almost entirely downhill over rough terrain giving no respite to settle into a stride & shake out the cramps.  Having Greg clearly in sight the whole time was pretty much the only thing which kept me going at this point!  After about half a mile the cramps eased and I started to feel a more normal running gait come back to me whenever the path leveled momentarily.  The second mile of the trail is, you guessed it, almost entirely up hill with some brutally steep sections.  Each time we attacked one of the steep pitches, I felt I was taking some of the gap back to Greg and by about 2/3rds of the way up the hill I'd closed to only a couple of seconds - this was fortunate as I saw him go off course again and was able to call out to him the mistake (although I was so short of breath, I was worried that my feeble "yell" hadn't been heard).  He quickly rejoined just behind me and I didn't know what to do - I hadn't earned the lead on merit and I didn't really want the race decided by a simple mistake.  I eased up just a bit but on the next steep section, the sound of Greg's breathing dropped away and with a quick glance over my shoulder I saw a clear trail behind me, I had maybe 3 secs gap.  The final section of the trail climb is ridiculously steep, simply maintaining forward motion is a challenge let alone anything that might be considered running!  I knew this was coming and had saved something for the final effort (as the Strava data shows my heart rate peaked at 176 bpm) I stayed on my toes and tried to spring with each step as I climbed, finally breaking out onto the level trail with 0.2 miles to the finish and the win.  Greg finished 2nd and Danny came in 3rd, a minute behind me having run the trail 40 secs faster than me.  Quaff ON! team-mate, Erin Webb also had a great race, coming in 5th overall and first female.

Tim, Danny & Erin - Quaff ON!

It was great to win the race, having such a close battle with Greg made it more fun, but also made me try harder in every part of the event - it was a shame that he went off course, I'll always have a question in the back of my mind if I would really have caught & passed him on the final steep pitch of the trail but there's no way to know that - all I know is I put it all on the line, gave my best and had a great time being tested by both my peers and the terrain.

The race with Danny, which we'd debated over several pints of Busted Knuckle in the preceding weeks shook out like this:

5k run - Danny beat Tim by 1:17

T1 - Tim beat Danny by 0:17

10 mile bike - Tim beat Danny by 2:19

T2 - Tim beat Danny by 0:32

2.2 mile trail run - Danny beat Tim by 0:40

Equipment:

Shoes - Saucony Kinvara with elastic laces

Bike - Mercian TT bike (all steel frame, 26" front wheel) - retro still works!

Nutrition - Skratchlabs Lemon & Lime hydration mix; Baked Egg bite for breakfast (Skratchlabs Feedzone Portables recipe here)

Dances with Dirt Race Report

Dances with Dirt - 10th May 2014

Team placed 2nd overall

Strava data for my legs: Leg 1; Leg 7; Leg 10

Dances with Dirt (DWD), Gnawbone is arguably the biggest race of the year for the Quaff ON! Race team.  It's a trail race festival hosted in our "backyard" of beautiful Brown County - there are 10k, half marathon, full marathon, 50k and 50 mile solo races as well as the 100k team relay race - all these events are off road and cover some pretty extreme hilly trails as well as some bush whacking.

I've participated in the team relay race regularly since 2009 when one of my neighbors put a team together - we were much more in it for the experience and atmosphere of the event than the racing at that time, with fancy dress and fun being top of the agenda.  Last year was the first time I ran for Quaff ON! being part of the second team and this year we were able to enter 3 teams, each named after one of the signature beers - Busted Knuckle, Hare Trigger and new for 2014, the Six Foot Blondes, our all female team.

The Quaff ON! Crew

The relay event involves teams of 5 each running 3 legs spread throughout the day.  The nature of the legs varies between long & fast mostly on trails to short, technical & nasty bush whacking, the challenge is to try to match up the strengths of the team members to the different demands of each section.  The two male teams were, on paper, pretty evenly matched in terms of running strength but the Busted Knuckle team had a distinct advantage of consistency, 4 of the 5 members had run (and won) the race for the last 3 years.  Familiarity with the course and the same people running the same legs year after year really makes a difference - knowing which way to go as well as when to push hard.  I was on the other team, Hare Trigger and we had a collection of great runners most of whom had done something in previous DWD events but none of us had run together as a team before and experience on specific legs of the race was practically zero.

Team Hare Trigger (from L to R): Pat Thomas; Jeff Yoder; Scott Breeden; Logan Worley and Tim Proctor

The race started well, after leading the whole first leg, I made the first hand over with something like 15 secs over Busted Knuckle.  The next team to exchange was the Six Foot Blondes, some 3 minutes back - Quaff ON! racing held 1-2-3 and it looked like that is how the race would continue.  However, after leg 2, Busted Knuckle had taken a 2 minute lead and never looked back, stealing a little more advantage on just about every leg.

My second run of the day was on Leg 7 and pitched me against Danny Fisher over 5 miles - I knew that I would lose time but was determined to minimize the loss.  The leg was about 3 miles of fast singletrack trail and then 2 miles of bush whacking, including about 3/4 mile directly along a creek and climbs so steep I needed hands and feet to scramble up.  The briers took their toll and I ended the run with bloodied and torn legs.  I was pleased to finish only 2 mins slower than Danny's time but this was just another add to our growing deficit in the race for the lead.

Briar'd & Bloodied

My final stage, Leg 10, was a relatively easy 2.8 mile run all on trails, unfortunately the other team now had such a lead that I shared the first mile with Cole Smith who was their runner starting the leg ahead of mine!  This did give me something to chase down and I was able to close a ~15 sec gap over the first mile before our paths separated.

With the lead team being a complete leg ahead of us, the rest of the race was pretty much a solitary affair.  We saw them briefly at the remaining exchange points and we were by this time so far ahead of the 3rd and 4th placed teams we didn't see them either.  It turned out that the Quaff ON! girls were having an epic battle for 3rd place finally stretching this to just over 15 mins after over 8 hours of running.

At the finish, we cheered home our anchorman, Logan, and took the obligatory trash talk from the winners whilst the after-party started.

The race was sponsored by Quaff ON! and our trusty beer truck, Smokey, was already serving beer to the thirsty runners who had already completed the 10k, half and full marathon distances.  The girls brought home 3rd place to complete the Quaff ON! domination of the event.  Not long after they got home, we were able to cheer in Joe Bell, Quaff ON! team mate who had chosen to run the 50 mile race (yes, 50 miles all on his own!).  He finished in 9 hours 33 mins and took 7th place overall, a truly awe inspiring result.

DWD is a great event - it can be a serious race (and we love that), but equally it's a wonderful way to spend a day with 4 companions enjoying the beautiful countryside and natural resources we're so fortunate to have so close to hand.  I know that I'll be back for more and I hope that we can keep the Hare Trigger team together to capitalize on some course knowledge and close the gap on Busted Knuckle!

Getting older... getting faster - Seymour Half Marathon Race Report

Seymour Half Marathon (5/3) - P1 overall - race time 1:16:42 (13.1 mile time 1:17:26)
Strava data from this race

On May 1st I turned 44 - not a momentous age milestone, not even a change in age group, and I didn't really pay it much attention.  The age group fact isn't strictly true because of a strange quirk in season start / end definition I actually have a Cyclocross racing age of 45 now!  I only started running seriously in 2010 and I've enjoyed a continuous improvement in both my 5k and half marathon times.  With my recent PR at Louisville, I was wondering if this would be a turning point.  It's hard to imagine running faster, the training intensity and race effort were quite daunting - I was starting to think that things would be downhill from here, certainly for the half marathon - I still have aspirations to break 17 mins for a 5k race this year!

The Seymour half marathon is a small race promoted by the Crossroads of Indiana race series, it's the same weekend as the Indianapolis Mini-Marathon but has only 200-300 people vs 30,000 in Indy - far more relaxed and easy to access.  I'd signed up ages ago with no real agenda, two weeks after Louisville and two weeks before the Dances With Dirt team relay race, it was always going to be "just another run".  I had a plan to make it a training race - run 4 miles hard, take a mile easy, run 3 miles hard, take a mile easy, run hard to the finish.  My race preparation was very different to Louisville - instead of careful diet, focusing on good things to help my body perform, I had my birthday meal out, drank more than I would normally in a week and ate a lot of birthday cake.  The night before the race, Clare and I went to Bloomington on a date night and consumed hot dogs, pulled pork nachos and dips at Quaff ON! Bloomington as well as couple of beers and a late night!

I set out fast at the start of the race per the "training plan" however, when I got to 4 miles (on schedule @ 5:50 min/mile) I still felt good, the next couple of miles were both sub 6:00 and then I started to think that I could perhaps break my PR, a year older than I just set it!  After a pleasant run out into the country north of Seymour we made a turn-around and I face a block head wind for about 1.5 miles back into town, despite this, my pace stayed good, all below 6:00 min/mile which meant with a push in the last 5k I should be able to go under my Louisville time.  I was conscious that the race course mile markers were coming early relative to my GPS watch markers, coming into the finish I knew that the official distance would be short of 13.1 miles but with a PR in mind, I resolved to run on after the finish to get to 13.1 miles by my GPS - which in fact is probably still short of an official USATF course distance despite my efforts to run the shortest course.  I'm sure I looked ridiculous continuing through the finish shoot at race pace and running off down the road, but I wanted to know what a real half time would have been.  My GPS watch measured the race at 12.98 miles with a race time of 1:16:42.  I ran on to a GPS distance of 13.11 miles in a time of 1:17:26 which I feel is a legitimate PR, some 19 secs faster than my Louisville effort.

All this goes to show that preparation isn't everything - sometimes it all just comes together when you're not really expecting it.  I certainly put less pressure on myself for this race compared to Louisville, maybe that is a factor.  I also went out harder than I would normally, I am a conservative pacer and paranoid about "blowing up", going out hard and holding on to a pace at the finish is something I'm rarely brave enough to do and I think that was a bigger factor in this race than anything else.

My team mate Joe Bell came home 3rd overall and Sara Martin took first place female with a PR, cheered home by her parents.  Joe and I were also able to cheer on Chasity Smith (although not wearing a Quaff ON! jersey, she's the brains behind our race kit design and logos).

Joe Bell; Tim Proctor; Sara Martin
Quaff ON!

Carmel Sprint Triathlon - Race Report

Carmel Sprint Tri (4/27) - P3 Overall - race time 51:34.6
Strava data from this race : Swim (no data) ; Bike; Run

I raced the Carmel Sprint Triathlon at short notice.  It had been a long time since I'd been in the pool but managed to get two swims in during the week preceding the event which gave me confidence I wasn't going to drown!  My Quaff ON! team mate, Erin Webb was competing in her first ever triathlon, I was there for moral support and to help with things like transition set up as much as to race myself.  In the end I came 3rd overall after a comically slow swim (124th out of 300 starters) - my bike and run redeemed me!  I often wonder what it would be like if I could swim - everyone assumes that my bike & run speed would mean domination but I doubt that I could retain that level of performance with the amount of time in the pool that would be necessary to get good at swimming.  And besides, I hate treadmills for running, and the pool is just a treadmill with greater sensory deprivation - I can't see me finding the motivation to make the leap to competent swimmer!  Erin had a great race, taking her age group and 6th overall female - I was able to run the final 1/2 mile with her yelling motivation as she finished strong.  As with most first time triathlon racers, the intensity of the race vs typical workouts or single discipline races surprised her, but she's hungry for more!

Kentucky Derby Mini Marathon Race Report

This was it, my "A" race for the first part of the year.  The hard training, the losing weight, the taper tensions all added up to this race, my goal to go under 1:18:00 for the 13.1 miles.

I rode my bike Friday and had a great time, didn't try too hard and felt great.  On Friday evening I headed down to Louisville, there's no race morning packet pick-up, so the day before race trip was necessary.  Instead of facing the drive home again and the 4am wake-up to drive back down to Louisville, I stayed at a hotel out of town near the Cyclocross track at Eva Bandman park.

Louisville looked pretty good in the spring evening sunset

I ate pasta with my family before leaving Columbus, later in the evening I had a baked egg

Protein & Carbs

from the Skratch Labs Feedzone Portables book as well as a U-Go bar, this "last supper" was washed down with some Hare Trigger beer and a large glass of Beetroot juice - not exactly an inspiring culinary experience but quality fuel for the task ahead of me.

Waking up at 6am was far better than the 4am alternative even if the price paid was not sleeping in my own bed and a hotel air conditioning unit which sounded like a small aircraft trying to take off in my room!

A short drive had me parked about a mile from the start location, it was a cool morning, but not cold.  I started a short warm up run, after about half a mile I picked up the pace to what felt like a comfortable race effort.  Looking at my GPS, I was at 5:45 min/mile - faster than my target pace, and my legs felt good.  Sometimes in these brief warm up efforts, you just get the feeling that it's going to be a good day - today was one of those days.

After 2.5 miles of warm up I arrived at the start.  I hadn't appreciated how big this race was going to be.  With the mini-marathon and full marathon combined, there were over 16,000 participants - that's a lot of people trying to use a porta-potty within 30 mins of the start!

I was seeded in coral A based on my projected finish time - this was great - only the second time in my life I've been brave enough to stand right at the front of a big race & watch as the elite athletes (who don't get a coral) finished their warm ups and lined up just ahead of us.  My Quaff ON! Racing team mate, Danny Fisher was running the full marathon and as a previous champion was seeded #6.  It was great to see a friendly face and shake hands before the start, even though I knew I wouldn't see him again until he finished his race!

There were two things I noticed about my peers in the race - this is a group of people who've all trained and are strong enough to run a half marathon at around 6 min/mile pace, so they're all experienced runners
First - within the first 5 miles, 2 people stopped to tie shoe laces, one of them ran past me again, then stopped again to tie the other shoe lace!
Second - the number of people not running the shortest course.  USATF certifies the course over the shortest distance, the roads are closed which means you run corner to corner.  I passed people running the left hand gutter like it was a training run expecting oncoming traffic.
So my takeaways from this, even for experienced runners is (1) always double tie your shoes, really, it takes no additional effort, just do it! (2) run the shortest course - turn off the training mentality and look for the line corner to corner.
Sounds basic, it is basic, but there are plenty of people running semi-elite times that aren't paying attention to these basics.

My race quickly settled into a rhythm with my pace at or just below my target of 5:58 min/mile.  It quickly got thinned out and by 10k there were really only 3 or 4 people around me. The course goes through the Churchhill Downs race course, as we dipped back under the tunnel to start the dead straight 4 miles to the finish, Paul Althoff, caught up with me and we exchanged a few panted words about our objectives - both wanting to break 78 mins - we came through 10 miles in 59:33, I knew it would be a close call to hit my goal time - we remained in sight of each other to the finish briefly exchanging positions as one started to fade, or the other felt strong it was good motivation to stay on pace and definitely helped me when the going got tough.  We were running into a head wind which at first was hardly noticeable but the closer we got to the down town, the taller the buildings got and channeled the wind directly at us.  The final mile of this was truly miserable, culminating in running under the long bridge of the conference center which was like a full-on wind tunnel.  I kept telling myself that once we turned out of the wind onto Main Street for the final 0.6 miles, I'd find some speed but when we finally made the turn, there was nothing left to accelerate, just maintaining pace was taking my full effort.  Finally I made the last turn to the down hill finish and found something to pick up the pace.  I could see the clock already past 1:17:00, with a weak surge I crossed the line with an official race time of 1:17:45.

Finishers medal 1:17:45 - new PR!

I had beaten my goal time, I came 23rd overall (out of 11,800 starters!) and won my age group.  A result I'm really proud of - the preparation in training paid off.

After a short cool down run back to the car, I was able to cheer on Danny Fisher who finished 4th overall in the marathon with a PR time of 2:30:18 - he'd just run two half marathons back to back faster than my personal best - a humbling thought!  Also running the full marathon (his second in 7 days) was team mate Joe Bell, who come in at 2:58 - sub 3 hour marathons are becoming the norm for Joe who's endurance and persistence are inspiring.

Tim Proctor, Danny Fisher, Joe Bell
Quaff ON!

Link to my Strava activity for this race

A very Good Friday

For the second year in a row, I've been on vacation Good Friday whilst the kids have to go to school as a make up for snow days over the winter.  I planned to take advantage of this some time ago with a buddy of mine, we'd ride about 50 miles to Bloomington and meet our wives for a lunch date whilst the kids were in school - this year the Easter weekend coincided with the Kentucky Derby Half Marathon which is the focus of my training in an attempt to set a new PR.
To avoid tired legs on Saturday, the ride to Bloomington was much more leisurely than normal.  The slower pace, actually trying not to try hard, combined with a beautiful spring morning and great conversation found me reconnecting with the child-like joy of riding my bike to get somewhere, just for fun.  In a life with continuous pressures on time, I end up feeling that every moment I get to ride or run has to contribute to the training objectives.  I enjoy working hard and feeling my body responding to the training but the focus & intensity can get in the way of the magical pleasure of being outside, enjoying the world moving by at a pace dictated solely by personal propulsion.  I realize that I need to do more of this to prevent things getting stale, making space for just fun as opposed to training activities will be a priority in my plans for the rest of the year.

Lake Lemon - South Shore Drive on Good Friday