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TMBRA Marathon Series - Roll Call

6K views 78 replies 11 participants last post by  kinsler 
#1 ·
who else is in?
 
#2 ·
Already on it!

RHR to Bastrop SP Loop

Buescher SP to Bastrop SP training loop

Plan on doing Fat Chuck's Revenge, Excruciation Exam 2013, Miles of DisComfort along with the "Epic loop" out in Lajitas in Feb and the ouachita challenge.

I've never been successful at marathon events in the past because I treated them as a long XC race and would do fantastic at first passing racers left and right then a few hours into it the wheels would fall off the cart and it was a death march.

Taking a whole new approach this time miles and elevation plan for this weekend is to do four back to back big loops out at double lake that's all of the "old" trail and enter the new trails at Henry Lake north and do the new stuff pop out at the trail of woe and do it all over again that should give us approx 40+ miles.

Working on getting what to eat while riding down also.
 
#3 ·
Did you see this HAL? https://www.bikereg.com/NET/17579/2012-Cranksgiving-6Hour-Ride-at-Pace-Bend

I might be attending that, since I'm spending thanksgiving in smithville anyways.

You and I have the same schedule I think. Fat Chuck's, EE, and DisComfort. If you want to do any training rides or anything let me know. I have no off-road riding partners so it would be awesome to get some!
 
#6 ·
Awesome! I hope to get out there maybe somewhere Dec 7/8/9 to pre-ride and tune my rig. It even looks like they've got some sort of race/ride thing Dec 8 as well.

Are you in Houston?

I'm way too excited about mountain biking right now. Waiting for the new bike to be delivered sometime late this week.
 
#8 ·
Well, Dec 7,8,9 would be the only weekend I could do it. Dec 15 is the race. I can take the Friday off to go before and my understanding is that there's no event on Sunday. I wouldn't think the event will tie up the park for two adjacent days, am I wrong? Could always take a weekday off too...
 
#10 ·
I'm also planning on Fat Chuck's and the E2 for training and fun. Been spending more time on long 3+ hr rides rather than some quick paced 1.5-2 hr rides a la XC style.

Like Hal, trying to figure out how to spread the endurance over more time and not blow up after 'XC' standard time. I'm also thinking of doing a relaxed pre E2 type ride before the main event. Test some nutritional things, hopefully ride my new wheel set, and just have fun before the XC spring series starts back up.

Johnnybutts- you'll love both Rocky Hill and Warda. Great trails, good amount of techy stuff, flowy stuff and just enough pain.
 
#11 ·
Here is the 2012 Fat Chucks Marathon course map.

Fat Chucks Revenge race coarse for 2012 by PaulRHR at Garmin Connect - Details

I downloaded it to my garmin 800 thinking I'd ride it between now and the race

oh well...

OK, I have arrows on all the main turns and trail heads. We are pretty much using everything we have out here plus some jeep roads that trails that I open up for the Austin Rattler.
Remember it is marked for pre ride. So look for the arrows when you come up to a trail or turn. When I get back from AZ I will close off and get it ready for racing.
Paul Uhl
TMBRA - Rider Board :: View topic - Fat Chuck's Revenge....Map?
 
#12 ·
I did the Camp Eagle event last week, that was badass. It was the first time I'd ever ridden that trail system... the most demanding ride I've ever done.

I planned on doing Fat Chucks as well but unfortunately my daughters first dance recital is the 15th at 1pm... not gonna work.

I want to do the EE, but I'm not sure I can tackle 85 miles yet... that's a looong ride on a mountain bike. Heck, I've only done 5 rides longer than that on my road bike!
 
#21 ·
Was doing well until cramps :nonod: caught up to a slower group in black trac one of them stalled out on the last grinder climb and caused a chain reaction stoppage right when i unclipped and put my foot down my calf locked up with a cramp I was in pain the entire second lap when everything started to cramp up forearms and legs.

It really affected my second lap the energy and lungs were there and hydration and nutrition were good but I had to spin a couple gears easier to keep the legs going and small decent where you can normally recover and coast down would lock the legs up so I had to pedal down everything.

My goal was to finish under 4 hours the climb up fat chucks, the fence line climb and black trac section were my undoing in the second lap and where I lost a ton of time compared to the first lap on those same sections.

Distance: 43.12 mi
Time: 4:37:00
Avg Speed: 9.3 mph
Elevation Gain: 2,703 ft

Split Time Distance Avg Speed
1 58:30.0 10.00 10.3
2 58:11.6 10.00 10.3
3 1:10:03.9 10.00 8.6
4 1:08:13.5 10.00 8.8
5 22:01.4 3.12 8.5

Nevertheless I left everything I had out there It was frustration to see folks that I blew by on the first lap going by me on the second that's racing...
 
#22 ·
My first full Marathon.
Finished in something like 4:38. 5th in the age group.

I went and pre-rode last weekend and did 1 lap then. I felt good/strong, course felt good as well. Well the first lap of the race felt absolutely nothing like the pre-ride. When I finished my first lap, it felt like I had been out there for 4 hours. I REALLY did not want to do another lap.

One of my buddies was standing int he feed zone, he was a singlespeeder and he said he wasn't going to do another lap. I sat down for about 5 minutes. Chugged a few gu's. Used the bathroom. And continued debating whether or not I'd do another lap.

Eventually a cute lady came rolling through the feed zone and my buddy said, "there goes your motivation". So I got back on and rolled the next lap. Cramping started about 3/4 the way through the second lap but really didn't become an issue. I had to stop at one of the stations for water towards the end.

Physically, I was mostly fine. I mean, everything hurt, but the legs were mostly there. What I couldn't do was choose my own lines. I seriously messed up every single corner when I wasn't following someone else. I'm not what the reason for this was. I think I should have been a *little* better than I was.

thoughts: tire pressure, I can't remember what I ran during the pre-ride, but I did 30/32 f/r in tubeless @ 170 lbs, I probably could have brought this down a little bit. Focus, I was not focused far enough ahead of myself, focus too close means I was never set up for the upcoming trail, and thus, never did well. I followed the lady's wheel for about 3/4 of the second lap, until I cramped. I could followe her lines perfectly fine. (get your mind out the gutter). and maybe for these marathons, I just need to settle down and treat it less as a race at the beginning. Settle, dial in my skills, then race.

Anyways, lots of fun. Gotta get ready for EE. #instabase
 
#23 ·
HAL- Nice splits. I had around the same splits @ about 1:03-1:08 every 10mi. Avg. speed 8.6, but my elevation was 1k ft more off? I ended up with 3800 something. I kept hearing that Garmins lose signal out there but mine tracked perfectly.

Johnny- what age group? did we race together in 19-29s? I'm 175 and ran 28/30 f/r(and it felt PERFECT), you definitely could have gone softer. I bet you were following Sarah Ginsbach, lol.

My race thoughts: I knew not to go out as hard off the start like a XC, though I probably could have gone just a bit harder. I used the first 5-6 miles to really warmup and let the heart rate dial itself in. I felt great legs and form wise through the first lap. I could sense little cramps start creeping up here and there but I was running Cytomax and Perpeteum as liquid nutrition, so I'd just take a couple swigs. 2nd lap felt great, was sitting on an older guys wheel for a good while(I got really lonely out there for a while lol) then took off until I couldn't fight the cramps. Pulled off twice for stretch and extra water at the neutral stops, then just finished strong.

Biggest difference I noticed from XC to marathon- I was WAY too nice. I stopped and gave a guy my big air can, let a bunch of 30+ pass "just for the heck of it" and wouldn't use their momentum. Granted it's bike karma, I felt like a newbie when I finished and thought about it later, even though I also heard there were a bunch of times people weren't being allowed to pass and pissed off A LOT of riders. Marathons really test your mental sanity! I've never felt myself get so "lonely" on a ride. Maybe it had to do with the endless feeling in the back half of RHR, albeit really beautiful.

EE!!
 
#24 ·
Afro: yes 19-29. I must have just finished a coulpe minutes ahead of you!

And yes, it was Sarah. She was very nice and good company for the second lap.

I think the 'loneliness' really got to me too. As well as "perceived speed". I was getting passed nonstop by the 30ers and 40ers, which made my perceived speed slow. combined with the fact that I couldn't hold any of their wheels = very lonely riding by myself.

I'll have to work on my pressure dialing. Normally I run it a little lower, but I was out at memorial park the day before and hit the tires a few times pretty hard on roots, so felt I should up the pressure a bit. Maybe not.

I'm honestly kinda scared of EE, but another friend was tellign me it is on par with FCR since a lot of it is road.
 
#26 ·
I'm honestly kinda scared of EE, but another friend was tellign me it is on par with FCR since a lot of it is road.
It's easy to get caught up in the excitement of the start folks go out XC race pace through warda and hit the road with adrenalin and drill it by the time they get to RHR they have burned up most of their matches and it's a death slog all the way back.

I've done good and bad at the EE in the past the last one I did I was cooked by the time I got to RHR before that time I was passing folks from the gun at warda only till I got to RHR did I notice that I was now going in reverse bad for the mental game.

Since there is so much road on the EE don't get caught up in the temptation of getting into a paceline early on that has been my downfall in the past YMMV .
 
#25 ·
I'm 180lbs and run 23psi tubeless on S Works renegades 29x2.0 can't imagine 30+ psi

Johnybutts were you in the Tad Hughes kit? following the lady in the WTF blue jersey on a one ghost 29er? Y'all had been chasing me all through tris cross and omar's howl I waved y'all by finally when we were hitting that sandy section on the double track in the back i was cramping that bad.

I followed y'all but she took off on a short rise and I think if thats where the guy in the Tad Hughes kit let her go also.

Afrobiker passing was a huge PITA!! one reason is they have all categories out there mixed along with folks not used to passing etiquette like everyone else I was caught up in a clusterf*ck conga-line of riders going up fat chucks as we caught the back markers of the 30-39 group.

once on the jeep road we drilled it and got in a good group of five of us but had difficulty passing riders that we came upon then there was the whole incident with the half marathon riders that came upon us and were yelling at perhaps eight riders in the longhorn loop to let them pass.

they needed a much longer parade lap to stretch things out and have at least 2 min. between classes and have the 1/2 marathon start 10 min. later
 
#28 ·
I was following y'all and it was when you take a sharp left then up a short grinder you popped off and then i can't recall if you went on ahead or I went around you on the following decent with the sandy left hand sweeper.

A lot of stuff on the second lap is a blur.
 
#29 ·
haha! I know where you passed me up Johnny. The end of Omar's, I had to hop off for a couple seconds to get a cramp out, about 45 seconds later Sarah and you come by me along with 3 others that were trying to hang with her. I caught the last couple guys but I'm not surprised I didn't catch you or Sarah.

HAL- I agree on the parade start loop and start times. Bottle necking happened way too quickly! My buddy in the 40+(and eventual winner) saw that him and his 'train' were coming up quick and gave me a good amount of heads up. 6-8 guys flew past me...

As for EE, yea I kinda feel the same. I'll be looking at just getting A LOT of solid Zone 3 miles with plenty of recovery work in it, before then.
 
#30 ·
It was my first half marathon and I really enjoyed it. Placed 14th in 19-39 and learned a lot about my pacing nearing the end. I did stop once early on to fish a c02 out of my camel back for another rider that I saw had issues with his. I felt glad knowing I stopped instead of blowing by him and I hope he finished the race.
 
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