Laramie Enduro Recon Mission 2

As I mentioned in the training update below, I went on another Recon Mission to Laramie last week. After the first one I knew I had to go back (see Laramie Enduro Recon Mission 1). I just hadn't ridden enough of the course to feel prepared for the race this Saturday. After the first mission I thought about selling my GPS and trying to find one that I could upload the course tracklog into. This turned out to be prohibitively expensive and excessive as I would only use it for the race. Besides if I could just find a good topo map the GPS would be moot.

In the first post I ranted about how there was no good map on the race website. Well I rescind those rants and admit that I am an idiot! There is a good map on the website; I just couldn't seem to find it in the fog of my sleep deprivation the night before. Right under the Course Map title on the webpage is an "Open Full Map for Printing" link. I'm not sure how I missed this, but I did. I saved the larger map and used Photoshop to further enlarge and sharpen it. Then I cropped it into 2 main sections of each loop and cropped 6 enlarged sections for navigating through the many intersections. Here is each loop:

Loop 1

Loop 2

Unfortunately, I cleared all the waypoints out of my GPS after the first mission so I had to re-enter them all. Before, I connected them into a route which showed a course of straight lines between them. Trying to follow the straight line course on a trail that was anything but straight was a huge distraction. Instead, I just added more waypoints, but didn't connect them. On the ride I displayed them on the map page and used them as a backup for my primary navigation off the topo map. It worked like a charm, although it took forever to enter all the waypoints again. Just like the night before Mission 1 I was up until the wee hours of the morning.

Real Map this Time

I woke up at 7:45am Wednesday morning on a mere three and a half hours of sleep. I was hurting bad, but determined to do the ride. I met Jean-Paul at Whole Foods and after some last minute nutrition we were on the way to Laramie by 9:30am. Driving the Civic through morning rush hours of Boulder, Longmont, Loveland, and Ft. Collins took forever. We finally arrived at the trailhead about 11:45am.

Finally on the Bike

I wanted to ride the entire loop, but we made a plan to play things by ear and see how we felt. It only took 25 minutes to get to the second barbed wire fence were Jo and I turned around the first time. We dismounted, dropped our bikes over the fence and hopped it, careful not to tear any lycra or testicles. Barbed wire fence crossings would be something we frustratingly encountered way too often throughout the ride. I'm assuming they will open all the gates for the race. If not it's okay because by the end of the ride my fence hoping skills were quick and solid.

Jean-Paul Hopping one of Many Fences

The first loop went quick. After the fence crossing where Jo and I turned around, the course followed a long gradual fire road descent. After two 90 degree turns it started a long gradual climb, which with the exception for a few bumps was a long continuous false flat. Although the fire roads were boring (which would become a theme for the ride), I'm glad we rode it because I could see myself pushing too hard on this section and cracking later. During the race it's going to be early and I'm going to feel strong, I'm going to have to make a concerted effort to keep myself on a leash.

After the long false flat the race course crossed two narrow valleys and then spit out on paved Happy Jack Road. Across the paved road it turned into single track and climbed back up to the end of the loop. At the top of the climb the course turned left starting loop 2 with a long switchback descent. It was fun to be back on trail and with the exception of a few fence crossings we enjoyed it. Soon though we found ourselves back on fire road. Jean-Paul was coming off a 50 mile race followed by a long training block and the risk getting immune compromised wasn't worth the reward of riding miles of flat boring fire roads to him. I couldn't really blame him and not knowing what the course entailed I didn't give him a proper warning of what we were in for. I wanted to ride the entire course, but it was starting to get late and neither one of us had brought lights. I agreed that we should cut the second loop short, but cutting out the section East of Happy Jack road. This turned out to be a wise decision, especially considering how late we finished and that a closer look at the topo map showed we would have had wet feet from 6 creek crossings. I read the creek crossings on the Eastern Section are like the one below:

Middle Crow Creek

Wild Turkey

Aspens

Wildflowers

Beaver Pond

Vedawoo

We picked up the course near Vedawoo. This would prove to be the most crucial portion of the loop to ride. Once we were back on course, the fire roads soon gave way to single track. It descended along the edge of the Sherman Mountains to Middle Crow Creek. It was less established and ridden than Front Range single track. The trail was narrow and overgrown in places with plenty of tech sections and a few swamps. I rode Sourdough with Jo on Sunday to simulate this section. After the creek it began a net elevation gain all the way to the end of the loop. The trail winded its way through the rocky crags of the lower Sherman Mountains to the last major climb up to the top of Brown's Landing. It wasn't a long climb, but it was technical and being at the end of a 70 mile race it's going to hurt.

Laramie Singletrack

Overgrown Trail

Jean-Paul Riding through a Swamp

My Shoes Still Sink

We got back to the car just as the sun was slipping below the horizon. Jean-Paul was great company to have and rode strong as always. He rides with a competitive drive that most mountain bike racers would do well to have, I was stoked to do the ride with him. Even though we decided to cut the second loop short, we still ended up riding 65 miles that day in just under 6 hours riding time. It was cold, late and we were tired and hungry. After some foot long subs at Subway (the healthiest place we could find in Laramie) we rallied home. I walked in the door just past midnight.

Sunset

THOUGHTS ABOUT THE COURSE:
If I could describe the race course in one sentence it would be as follows: 50 miles of mostly flat fire roads with short single track sections followed by 20 miles of semi-technical single track with short fire road sections. The challenge for me is going to be to meter my energy in the first 50 miles so I'm competitive in the last 20. In the past I've used Nat Ross's endurance racing strategy and gone out hard early on, settling into a sustainable groove as the race wore on. I don't think that will work for me in the Laramie Enduro. I'm going to pre-ride the section we cut out Friday so I have a complete mental picture of the entire course. If I can get through the first 50 miles with enough energy to avoid cracking on the last 3rd of the course I think I will do pretty well. The ball is my court to be disciplined and focused, to ride my own ride and not get caught up with other people.