So I have this nutty idea that putting in a 10 lap day at Fountainhead will have me prepped for the SM100. 7.5 miles per lap or so, but it is all singletrack and several hard short steep climbs per lap. The last time I had this sort of idea I said 100 miles on Skyline Drive was enough. It was , but barely. 150 miles is more like it. Garmin is useless at Fountainhead with all the trees so I went commando, no HRM, and had a blast today. Weather was super, don't get much better. I did only 3 laps today because I failed to lube the chamois and the ass factor swung into play on the third lap. Average lap speed less than 1 hour. ~5 min break for fuel and water between laps. No small chainring either, just the middle one. The road rides pulling the twins(65 lbs) or my cousin (90 lbs) on my road bike are giving me extra horsepower. Especially the little itty bitty steep climb out of the creek area near my house. With the extra 110 lbs of kid and trailer my 34x28 gearing leaves me like I was on Lincoln's (6 Gaps of VT) 24% grade. An all out effort...paid dividends today. Need more MTB rides. Last year I was all about road rides and my fitness level showed great improvement but the loss of what little bike handling skillz I posessed hurt me on the rain slickened SM100 course where I crashed 3 times and quit only 12 miles from the finish. So 2 years ago on my 1st try it took me 14.5 hours. Last year I got to aid station 6 in 12 muddy hours. My goal is to finish without my lights this year. And hang with Doug http://hilljunkie.blogspot.com/ for more than a few minutes. Fat chance on the last one.
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So I mailed my registration in a couple weeks ago to save the $11.71 processing fee and still haven't heard anything. It has been raining so much up here, I think nearly every day for the month of June, I can't get out on the trails. In fact, one popular riding destination, FOMBA, is closed to riding right now. My trip to Colorado next month might be the bulk of trail riding I get in before the SM100.
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