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Stage 3: THE CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF MT. GUYOT
42.6 miles
5:00 time
6115 feet
8.5 mph
Crossing the Continental Divide twice today.
17th 40-49 AG
The fatigue was building going into stage 3. This stage required a lot of hike-a-bike. Here's Karel's recap of the event.
Before stage
After stage
My plan was to do a long run of ~2 hours on the trails before hiking up Buffalo Trailhead. I chose this trailhead because it had an elevation gain of ~3000 feet in 3 miles. For my upcoming ICON tri, I cover 3000 feet in the last 6 miles of the marathon. This was a great opportunity to practice hiking on tired legs and to also see how my body does with the altitude while running on the trails.
Then it was time to hike. My legs felt pretty good after the run. I swapped shoes (more grippy trail shoes), put on my USWE hydration vest, refilled my flasks, grabbed my hiking poles and set out up Buffalo Mountain.
This is what I climbed up.
I made it two miles up before the trail turned into boulders. The first mile I was making great pace but in the 2nd mile, there was a lot more elevation gain and I could feel the altitude. I was able to make my way up some of the boulder sections but it was difficult to make out the cairnes to lead me up the steep rocky mountain. I really wanted to see the mountain goats at the time but I was nervous to climb the boulders by myself. It was much more difficult than I anticipated. I was bummed I didn’t make it to the top. The four mile hike took me 1:56 and I climbed almost 2000 feet up in an hour (11,000+ elevation).
After the run, I had a snack and recovery drink and drove to the pool (which was in the same town). The swim felt really good on my body and I felt like I was able to swim a bit better than the prior days. The lap pool wasn't busy. I swam 4050 yards and did a few sets throughout the swim. Afterward, I picked up Chipotle for Karel, got a few things at the grocery and then drove back to our place just before Karel left for his meeting at 5pm.
I looked forward to hearing about Karel's race. I tried to time my swim so that I could hear that Karel finished before I got to the pool. Thankfully, he finished as I was finishing my hike. Somehow he found the energy to go for a 3 mile run after his stage.
When I got back, I mixed together rice and tomato soup (and a veggie burger) for dinner. We were both pretty exhausted in the evening. Karel was struggling to sleep as his body was exhausted. I was sleeping ok - a little restless throughout the night.
Karel officially reached the half way point of the event.
Stats so far:
~124 miles of mountain biking
~14 hours of ride time
~17,200 feet elevation gain
46.5 miles
4:48 time
6332 feet
9.65 mph
11th 40-49AG
This was a good stage for Karel. Interestingly, many riders who excelled on stage 3 struggled on stage 4. Karel was really finding the terrain technical and difficult but this stage seemed to suit him well.
He was feeling really sore and tired but he was able to put together a great ride for stage 4.
Today was my big day of training. I was looking forward to the ride but also a bit nervous to ride so long and so far all by myself. My new friend Tommy suggested the Copper Triangle route (79 miles) and said it was a great route. I decided to start the ride from Breckenridge which would add at least 30 miles to the ride. This made for a long ride but I loved it. I was a little nervous when I got on the first main road but then I realized that the cars were very used to cyclists. I felt very safe throughout the entire ride. I had plenty of fluids and nutrition with me so I only had to make one stop to refill bottles. I stopped around 4:15 into my ride (in Minturn at a gas station), just before approaching Vail. The section from Leadville to Minturn was about 30 miles and it was really windy. I was in a valley and those miles seemed to take forever. The scenery was incredible and I really enjoy riding through the different towns. I made sure to take a picture of each town that I passed by/through. When I got to vail, I started the longest climb of the day, which happened to be on a bike path to Copper Mountain. 14 miles of climbing with several steep grades. I just couldn't believe that I was doing this on a bike path. The paths are really well marked and it makes it easy to go from town to town. The trail was also really busy with lots of people/families on bikes. There was one section of construction but other than that, the trail was well maintained. I felt like this was the first time that I could push a little more power. Karel texted me that he finished and I was very relieved to hear from him. It was hard to focus on myself when I knew he was out racing. I felt really good throughout the entire ride and was able to finish feeling strong into Breckenridge. After the ride, I went for a 43 minute, 4.7 mile run. Legs were tired but I made it. Karel wanted pizza for dinner so I ordered him pizza and walked a mile (there and back) to pick it up for him. It felt good to loosen out after my long brick. I ended up riding 116 miles in 7:05. The elevation gain was around 7800 feet. Suprisingly, this didn't feel like a "hilly" ride as there were only a few longer climbs. Here's a video on Instagram that I put together from my ride.
Karel went to bed feeling very anxious and nervous for stage 5: The Wheeler "time trial." He was warned in the athlete briefing about the difficulty of the route, all the hike-a-bike he'd be doing and the technical descending.