CC Saturday scouts the carnation TT course

Afternoon Ride

CC Saturday

Morning Ride

Note: Turned off the gps for a few miles to conserve battery.  

Another year.  Another DAMN.  This year, I'm showing up a bit stronger, but also a with a bit less targeted training and other prep because of my 9 month old daughter and the responsibilities that come with fatherhood.  So I had a mix of higher hopes and tempered expectations coming in. 

Prep.  For the last 4 weeks, I have been focusing on getting one big ride in every week.  I did a 162 mile ride around Camano Island.  I climbed Hurricane Ridge.   I climbed 5 passes around Mt Rainier.  And I did a ton of 3+ hour rides trying to hold high tempo for as long as possible.  My general goal was to build up as much time as possible at the intensity I wanted to be able to find sustainable for the duration of the DAMN (~310 watts).   The only thing I would have changed is that I would have tried to get a 10+ hour day in the saddle in there too.  But ultimately, my fitness and endurance was fantastic so no real complaints about how things ended up.   

Sleep.  I am a strong advocate of adjusting your sleep schedule in prep for the DAMN.  The event starts at midnight.  That's 7AM in Paris.  So, just pretend you have flown to Paris and are adjusting for the jet lag!  I usually advocate dedicating the week before the race for this -- going to sleep 1-2 hours earlier every night until you're going to bed at 2PM and waking up at 10PM.  This will leave you enough time to wake up, eat breakfast, and visit registration before it closes at 11:15PM.  

Well, this year, I did a sort of compressed version of this with baby-related setbacks.  On Wednesday, I went to bed at 10PM (aiming for 8PM).  On Thursday, I went to bed at 7:30PM (aiming for 5PM).  On Friday, I went to bed at 2PM (as planned thankfully) but I only slept for 5 hours before my body refused, so I spent the last 3 hours pretending to sleep and that helped a bit I'm sure.  Despite the setbacks, I managed to feel wide awake the whole race.  So I'm declaring success. 

Nutrition.  Per my usual strategy, I loaded my bottles up with Rocket Fuel (my own mixture of Coke syrup and Maltodextrine).  I started with a very heavy 1:1 mixture for the first 140 miles (still dark and cool).  Then I switched to a 1:2 mixture for the next 60 and a 1:4 mixture for the last 40.   This was perfect.  It covered almost all of my nutritional needs (only 3 cliff block packs otherwise) and kept me well hydrated.  No cramps.  No bonks.  

Pacing.  This is the first year that I entered the event with absolutely no pacing plan.  My plan was to try to win.  So that meant I was following the front of the race.  Chase set a blistering pace for the first 20 miles or so and I was feeling surprisingly good so I reciprocated when it was my turn to pull.  The conditions were not conducive to speed.  It's been very very dry for months in MN so the roads were glorified sand traps.  That means (1) the draft is far less beneficial than it would be otherwise and (2) the day is going to have a way higher calorie expenditure than it would normally have.  

Story.  Chase lit things up as soon as we hit the gravel (mile 1 or so) and there was an immediate shuffling.  Luckily, I'd placed myself at the front of the crowd of 500+ racers so I was able to dodge around one rider with a BMC jersey who was not out to play games and join Chase and Josh for a fast AF start.  We averaged 22.5 MPH for the first 80 miles on some of the slowest gravel I have ridden.  We built such a gap that I never saw another rider for the rest of the race.  

Around mile 50 Chase's light died.  I was wondering about it since it seemed like he was not conserving at all and he only had the one light.   I had a third light that I brought.  It was a mini (be seen, but not see) light, but in a pinch I figured it could help me see in complete darkness.  We pulled over and I gave Chase my light.  2 miles later, it fell off of his bike and we stopped the breakaway again to let him pick it up and catch back on.  If we were selfish, Josh and I could have at least put a few minutes into Chase right then and improved our position in the race, but it seemed pretty lame to leave someone in the dark.  

When we got my support point at mile 80, I asked my support team (Midtown <3) if anyone could spare a light for Chase.  Without even thinking, Guy Smith pulled his headlamp off and gave it to Chase.  Now he had a much better light that would make it through the night.  Good.  Let's roll!  

Well, about 15 miles later, Chase decided to attack on a minimum maintenance road (MMR) climb and dropped me.  I honestly, expected that we'd regroup at the top of the climb as I was pretty close, but when I crested the hill, I saw that Chase had hit the gas.  I chased Chase and Josh for about 20 minutes as I watched Chase drop Josh a few times (tail lights tell a clear story) before I decided to give in and settle into a more sustainable pace.  

So it's now 100 miles into the race.  It's still pitch black out.  I'm in 3rd place.  And my headlight dies.  I had a big "Oh shit" moment as I quickly turned on my helmet light.  I did not expect my headlight to die.  It should have lasted the whole dark period on the low mode I had it on.  Maybe it's showing it's age.  I totally expected my helmet light to die, so I'd only been turning it on when I was on the front of the rotation.  Now I was relying on it to let me keep pedaling.  There were a few points where I tested out turning the helmet light off and *nope* super dangerous totally black can't see anything.   I fully expected to lose this light and said a few choice curses about letting Chase take my spare light and then watching him attack me and leave me without it.  But it turns out my helmet light was a champ.  Somehow, my conservation and some solid Chinese battery technology left me enough to make it to sunrise.  At about 5:45, I took it off and put it in my pocket.  

Thus my long drag had begun.  But wait.  I could see that there was a rider behind me.  Several minutes back.  Looked to be solo.  I figured it was Lee, Anders, or Joel.   So I started soft pedaling and eating.  I was only 120 miles into this race and solo.  I needed to get a bunch of food in.  And let me tell you, my stomach was telling me to stop the whole time!  But I just kept eating/drinking and the legs kept working.  

Eventually, the rider caught up and I saw that it was Josh.  Apparently, his aid station came shortly after Chase and him left me behind and I'd zoomed right past him in my effort to chase them down!  Josh and I settled into a nice and easy rotation for the next 100 miles -- stopping with each other at aid stations and supporting each other through the highs and lows. 

At mile 210 or so, my knees started to hurt.  Strangely, I could get out of the saddle and hammer but I couldn't stay in the saddle and put down meaningful power.  Josh was a bro and let me draft quite a bit while I was figuring things out.  I did a few out of the saddle pulls to try to contribute back and otherwise, pedaled predominantly with my right leg (that felt better).   

Regretfully, I forgot to either grab my spare GPS or grab the battery for the one I had at my last aid station so my GPS was dying.  My math suggested it would probably run out of battery within 5 miles of the finish line, so I told that I needed to power it down for a few miles and he'd need to call out the turns.  We kept up our pattern of Josh mostly pulling and me sometimes pulling through for a minute or two of out-of-the-saddle efforts.  Eventually, we came up on the start of the climbs just east of Cannon Falls and I told him to not worry about me, turned on my GPS again, and watched him ride away.  

For the last 25 miles or so, I nursed my knees and pedaled the best I could.  My chain was starting to make noises and I had some oil in my pack, but I didn't want to get off the bike for fear my knee wouldn't let me start pedaling again.  I knew if I could just keep it moving, I'd be on the podium at least.  So I suffered and pedaled and counted down the miles.  

Luckily, the rest of the race went without issue.  I was actually even able to put out a decent wattage on the hills near Red Wing because the out of the saddle pedaling was so good.  Coasting on the downhills was actually kind of a relief!  When I rolled up to the Secret Sprint Finish line for the podium riders, I saw Randall, my mom, Emily, and my daughter Nell waiting for me.  Like you do, I gave it a nice little bike throw across the finish line and turned around to give Trenton a hug and complain about the sandy conditions.  

Another year.  Another DAMN.  Not too bad for a new dad, right?  



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Aaron Halfaker

Day Across MN - 3rd

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