Not really. Just before the start the battery on my controller/shifter went out. Luckily I was able to quickly change it just before the start, but I was rushed. The bike felt odd, slow and sluggish for some reason right from the start .
When it started my legs felt heavy and stiff. I tried to ride myself into it, but I suffered the entire first lap. About an hour in I was still struggling and strongly considered quitting after the first lap. I thought if this is how bad lap one felt, I can’t imagine how lap two and three will feel. Midway through lap one, it already felt like lap 3.
I stayed with it though and continued, my wife/support later said I looked bad after lap 1. I felt better mid lap 2 and had a bit of a second wind. Finishing lap2 I was in better spirits, but I realized there was no way I was going to make sub eight hours. As I went out for lap 3 I was a bit disappointed and frustrated with my body/legs, but I continued on at a steady pace, but not willing to bury myself.
At the finish, I ended up having my fastest lumberjack 100 yet
(4th attempt) however, finished in 8:12:54 just missing my goal. Spent the last few days really analyzing my training, fitness, and recovery. I will be making big changes going forward.
What did the well before the race look like? Did you taper before the race? Maybe you’re someone that needs to do openers or a tempo ride to get good legs again after a rest? For some people they need that. Also, tapering too much can hurt the leg’s ability to handle intensity.
I went 9:43. I never have rode more than 55 miles on my mtb so I focused more on consistent pacing, getting hydration right, and minimizing stops. My first two laps where within 30s of each other, the last was within 5 minutes. No serious cramping or gut problems, pit stops where about 2-5 minutes. Overall though, I really enjoyed this event.
What really caught me off guard was my IF ended up being .65, I really thought I could at least do .7-.75. I was happy to see though that 9 hours in I could still do 30s 120% efforts to slowly crank up the hills.
I gave the mid volume polarized plans a shot for the event and felt just okay about them. Not peak FTP, but the numbers I have feel more of a solid foundation. I kind of want to take the two intensity workouts from those plans and then go easy on singletrack for endurance moving forward. On the west side of the state I have series of 4 single track loops I can string together in one ride that comes out to about 60 miles that I want to try to add in for “endurance.”
So weird…this is the third reference I have seen to this race in the last 72 hours. Listened to the Unbound recap episode on the TR podcast and a listener mentioned doing it, then during the ride when I was listening to the pod I saw a guy riding in a Filthy 50 t-shirt and now it popped up here.
@brendanhousler What did you think of Funk Bottoms? I did a single lap pre-ride a few weeks before the race and then promptly missed the signup for the race. I was only going to do the 100k unlike you crazy folk. No individual soul crushing climbs or anything but man pretty relentless course.
Would have been fun if they left this secction in…
Funk Bottoms was amazing! Loved the event. Local race vibe in a really cool area of the country (SO HILLY)…promoters were amazing group from Cleveland OH. I will def be going back next year (and hoping it’s not the next day after Road Nats!) The two back to back was really hard for me. Esp with the driving.
hahahah this would have been “interesting” cyclocross / tough mudder section. I know @Kuttermax and i are excited to see what the course will be!
Did the Dustbowl 100 on Saturday, outside Indianapolis. Did it last year and it was a great event.
We were doing it with different goals this year as one of our buddies is fighting Stage 4 prostate cancer so we were gonna ride with him the whole way and get him to the finish. He can still hold a good tempo pace, but surges and high intensity stuff are a challenge. Unfortunately, the start of this race is much like a crit if you want to stay at the front…lots of VO2 max efforts out of every corner until you pop.
However, one of my buddies went down at mile 5 when some riders got tangled up. He eneded up getting his bars rotated backwards (along with some scrapes on his knee and elbow). So we got him sorted and by the time we got rolling again, we were pretty much DFL.
Settled into our rhythm and jsut started chugging along, picking off riders. If I am reading the results correctly, looks like we were close to the top 50 by the time we got to the 77 mile checkpoint, so we made a nice little comeback. But then our buddy with the prostate issues went down pretty hard at mile 79. He took some pretty good chunks out of his elbow and knee, plus is on blood thinners so he was bleeding pretty good.
But he is hard as freakin’ nails and never though of stopping. My daughter was at mile 80 with support, so we got him there, cleaned him up as best we could and got going again. Obviously as a reuslt of the crash and then cleaning him up, we lost a fair number of spots again, but we got him to the finish.
Once he got home, he went to the ER and they needed to stich him up and give him some pain meds. Like I said, tough as nails.
Anyway…a great event and if you are looking for fast, fun gravel race in the Midwest, I highly recommended it. It is as well organized as any of the marquee events, IMO. Definitely worth checking out!!
Bummer about the crashes! There were quite a few that I saw this year, luckily I managed to keep my face out of the gravel this year.
I thought about making a dedicated thread for this race as it’s really becoming a big national attraction!
I’ve never followed basketball much but having Reggie Miller there this year was pretty awesome! I didn’t get a chance to talk to him but from what I saw the way he interacted with people, even after racing 100 miles, he looked like a genuinely nice guy!
As for my race, I did all I could to stay up towards the front as long as possible. Backed it off on the downhill before the first covered bridge where I crashed last year and watched 2 guys wipe out like I did in 2022. Lost the front group going up the climb, pretty sure they hit it way harder than I could’ve fresh.
Rolled in a big chase group of 25+ riders until I had to stop at the mile 62 sag to refill. I was the only one that stopped out of the group. Went pretty deep and caught back on just as everyone slowed to get handups in that small town. Doh.
No real games the rest of the race as the group just kept thinning down. About 7 of us left on the last long straight road, we were all chatting by then and it seemed like everyone wanted to roll in together. Not me though lol. I wanted a more exciting finish so I just sprinted from 3rd wheel about 1.5mi out and shouted “someones gotta do it”. Immediately regretted it as I was pretty smoked but I somehow held them off to the finish.
Shocked myself getting on the podium there again for my age group. Here’s some numbers…
A couple people I follow on Strava crashed out, too. Is that a feature of the race? Or odd for this year? Like, are there choke points that inherently cause like ups?
Never done the event but — finger in the wind — seems like a lot of crashing this year*
*Says the guy who crashed in the only two races he’s done this year🤘
It is a flat, fast course….with a fair number of 90* turns on gravel.
But I don’t think there is any exceptionally higher rate of crashes vs. other gravel races. You probably just have more people involved since it is harder to break the groups up.
Anyone else doing Chequamegon this year? I’m curious what others are using for their TR training plans.
I’m near the end of a MV Polarized build phase and I’ve enjoyed 1 VO2 and 1 threshold workout per week. My Cross-Country Marathon Specialty phase starts 8/15 and it doesn’t include any VO2 workouts, only threshold, sweet spot, and endurance. Having done the race many times before, it seems like the XCO plan might be a better fit for the course’s repeated punchy hills since it keeps the VO2 workouts. My expected finish time is typically 2.5-3 hours, right between the 60-90 minutes cited for the XCO plan and 3+ hours cited for the XC marathon plan.
Anyone else making the trip to Cable in September?
I’ll be at Chequamegon again this year. Looking to break the 3 hour mark - was on pace for it last year until the rain hit….
As far as a TR plan I think the Rolling Road Race is a pretty good fit. You’re right about the marathon plan - I did that last year and didn’t feel prepared well enough for all the short punchy climbs. I looked at the XCO plan also, but the MV Rolling Road keeps in one threshold a week with the 2x vo2.
Having done the race many times before, it seems like the XCO plan might be a better fit for the course’s repeated punchy hills since it keeps the VO2 workouts.
Exactly. Did Chequamegon in 2019 and 2022. Finished in 2:52 last year. I’m totally switching up my training this year. Last year I came in preparing for a XCM race. Oh no no no. This is a 40 mile, 2.5-3.5 hour, XCO race. It’s so hilly that there’s almost zero places you’ll be putting out steady power. There’s no use in trying to pace this like you would an XCM race. It’s just constantly up and down and the ups are steep. I’ve spent all summer building a solid base and now I’m just hammering VO2 max workouts.
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