So…What Have You Learned & What, If Anything, Are You Doing Differently?
That is a question I get asked a great deal. It is also a question I ask myself…A LOT!!!
2024 Represents the 4th time I have trained for the Tour Divide. Ray Johnson and I originally planned on racing “The Tour”, not to be confused with that little race in France, (Apologies to my friend Matthew Busche. If you don’t know who he is, look him up!!) in 2020. As you MAY recall, there was a little world changing event that took place that spring. We trained as though the race would take place, right up until it was officially cancelled in April-ish of 2020. We also trained for the race in 2021, the result being a successful finish in Antelope Wells. 2022 was a year off from the Divide. Last year I trained and attempted to race it again, only to get sick after about 600 miles and 6 days. Looking back on 4 years of training for an event of this magnitude affords a great deal of opportunities to learn. It also provides a huge amount of time to think. Time to think about what worked. Time to think about what didn’t work so well. Time to think about changing things up that might have worked a little. Time to look at and reconsider everything!!!
SO what have I learned? How much time do you have to read??? You’re going to need a lot of time because the Tour Divide is a task master!! It provides huge lessons in all things long distance bikepacking related, it teaches you about yourself, and it even provides instruction in living a full life.
I’d written in September of 2021, after the successful finish, about what I learned about myself, others, and life with the Epilogue #1 submission on this blog. I just re-read it, something I should do more often, as it gives me a renewed appreciation of the changes the Divide prompted in me. It also serves as a reminder not to forget the lessons learned.
But what about the bike part of things????
First off, I KNOW I learned that training isn’t something that stays with you once the Divide ends. You must put in the work if you want to be successful, and you must put it in EVERY YEAR you race!!!! Below is about 3 years of data that I recently took a long hard look at. One thing I noticed immediately after finally looking back at this data is that I didn’t train the same way in 2023 as Ray and I did in 2021. I took a decidedly softer approach to preparing physically for the race. I understand it is not easy to see in the data, but if you look at my fitness (the light blue shaded area) as calculated by the TrainingPeaks (trainingpeaks.com) software, you can see that I was about 25% less fit in 2023. I had a fitness score of about 120 at my peak in 2021 and about 90 in 2023. Not a great way to start arguably the toughest mountain bike race in the world. I thought I was fit and ready, but data doesn’t lie. I absolutely took it soft in training, and I paid the price. In 2021 I had about 5000 miles and 250,000’ of climbing in my legs from January until the start. In 2023, those numbers were 3500 and 150,000 respectively. And the fitness data verifies it. I reasoned, looking only at the miles and feet, “I’m still in great shape!! I’m 10 pounds lighter and feeling fine.” What I also failed to understand in 2023 was that while I wanted to, and did, go faster and farther each day than in 2021, that additional effort would put a MUCH bigger strain on my physical and mental systems. The pink line on the graph is the fatigue associated with the training and racing I was doing at any time. You can see that at the start of the race in 2021, my fatigue was calculated to be about 125 or so. Now, one issue with the graph is that I didn’t use my Garmin device as strictly as I did during the race in 2021 as I did in 2023. As a result, I don’t have the fatigue numbers I experienced in 2021. That said, if I look at 2023, my fatigue the first week of the race was OFF THE CHART!! (Figuratively not literally). I’m guessing that my fatigue in 2021 would have been on the order of 175, and in 2023 it peaked at 221! While I can’t prove it, my best guess is that is why I got sick after the first 6 days of racing. I went too hard (Fast and long) for the fitness I had. And, as I said, I paid the price.
Dearly.
So where does that leave me today, and what am I doing differently?
Far to the right-hand side of the chart is my current training status. I am not as fit as I was in 2021, though I am gaining rapidly!! I started seriously training a bit later in the cycle, January as opposed to November the previous year. I hope that two fewer months of intense work will leave me a bit more fresh in June. I believe, or maybe hope, that I can be smart and still reach that 120 fitness score in two fewer months of super hard training. I am also going back to the type of training Ray and I did in 2021. I hike Tortugas Mountain every weekday morning as I did in 2021, and will do so until mid March, when I will replace the daily hike with mornings riding my loaded bike up Soledad Canyon here in Las Cruces. I am also riding EVERY weekday evening 2-3 hours, and trying to mimic the long Saturday and Sunday rides I did in 2021.
So, am I only trying to replicate 2021? No, that would be way too smart!!
In 2021 I did zero road miles and no super high intensity rides like the Wednesday ZiaVelo Heater races. I will be doing those this year to add more intensity to my training. I sincerely believe that the Heaters will add something to my 2021 and 2023 training that was greatly needed. I am also playing basketball 2 hours every Sunday evening to work other systems and muscle groups (Plus I love playing basketball. Training is just the excuse to do so!)
As of today, I am training, between the hikes, rides, and hoops, about 22 hours a week. That is increasing weekly, paying close attention to how I feel and making sure I take easy days as well as recovery weeks as my body tells me to.
I want to say I’m learning. I hope I am.
I’m an old dog, but I’m definitely not opposed to learning s few new tricks. Time will tell if those tricks help!! As I say often, “Old age and treachery overcomes youth and enthusiasm!!”
Thanks for reading along!!
Ride On!
Shane
