La Ruta: Pre-Race 

J. Andres Varga

La Ruta Ready

Day 0 and the race wheels are rolling.  We start tomorrow at 5:20 AM.  Today is the last minute bike prep and registration.  My Specialized teammate Todd Wells has arrived, along with team mechanic, Benno Williet.  It will be really fun to have Todd and his wife Meg out here. The last time we all spent time together was at Leadville when we took home double wins.  Maybe if we’re lucky, we can do that again.  Benno is a world class mechanic and has been with Specialized for years.  The last time he worked on my bike was the Cape Epic a few years ago and I’ve always been super impressed with his meticulous work and ability to tell jokes at the same time.  Both those traits will come in really handy on a race as long and hard as this.  The bikes will get beat up from the infamous Costa Rican mud and rain.

I’ve been here a few days doing some heat acclimatization and my last tune up rides.  The humidity is crazy and the sweat just pores off my nose and chin.  Its quite different from the dry mountain air in Idaho.  My last few rides out here have felt really good.  I usually don’t say that before a race for fear of jinxing myself.  However, I feed excited and anxious to start this thing.  That is usually a good sign for me.  This is my third time racing La Ruta and every year I learn more.  It is the type of event that takes experience, the right frame of mind, course knowledge and a bit of luck to do well.  The course had it’s way with me the first time I raced it and I swore I’d never come back.  It took a few years, but I broke my promise and returned in 2010 with a new attitude and had a great time.  I now feel like I understand what it takes to do well here and decided to come back again and try to improve my result.
This is also a perfectly timed event for me to head into the winter with some miles in the legs.

I just read through my CyclingNews Blogs from 2010 and it was a great reminder of what’s in store for me.  Day 1 is the really hard day.  They are all hard, but the first day seems to make or break people.  It’s probably the longest in time and has a huge amount of climbing, including hours of walking uphill through the Costa Rican jungle mud.

This race always draws a really strong field for both men and women.  I don’t really know who all the players are in the women’s field.  I know for sure that multiple winner  “La Ruta Lou”, Louise Kobin is here.  She’s actually a good friend and has won this race more than any other female.
She is a great competitor and will be super strong as always.  However, as with Leadville this year, I know I need to ride my own race and see where the chips fall.  I do best when I stick with my own strategy and pacing, so that’s the plan again this year.

Race Day 1

Day 1 of La Ruta is in the books.  I had a great day and it felt so good to be racing and working hard again.

I’ve sort of had a couple months of really unstructured training, so I had no idea if my legs would remember how to race. I was pleasantly surprised with how I felt today on what they call the hardest day of La Ruta.  There was over 10,000 ft of climbing in about 110 km.  The jungle hike a bike portion is a bit of a slip and slide event, but it went OK.  I was running cyclocross toe cleats in my shoes and was glad to have them today to claw my way up some of the muddy ruts.  I finished today in 2nd for the women, about 10 minutes of the lead.  I’m encouraged by my ride today because I felt good, was climbing well and my time this year was well ahead of where I was last year.  I was also really encourage to not have Louise Kobin (aka La Ruta Lou) ride away from me today like she has in the past.  It was motivating to be able to chase and I caught and passed quite a few people in the 2nd half of the day.  I rode alone for much of the day, and basically did a 7:16 hr time trial.  I made a point of really trying to stay race focused the whole time and push myself even though there weren’t people around me.  This race takes a hard toll on bikes as well as the racers.  It is 6:45 PM and some of the racers are still coming in after more than 12 hours on the course.  My Specialized teammate Todd Wells threw down today and won the stage and has a 10 minute lead.  It’s so great to have him here and also our team mechanic Benno.  I had a pedal that seized up1/2 way through the stage and a shift lever that was damaged from a crash today.  I felt lucky to make it into the finish with my bike pretty intact and now Benno is basically rebuilding everything on both our bikes for tomorrow’s stage.  I’m riding the Fate this year and I can already tell that the 29 wheels are ripping on the road sections and this bike is so light that it loves to climb.  That’s a good thing because tomorrow is another 10,000 ft of climbing and somewhere around 80 km.

You can follow along with live updates from the Lead Adventure Media Facebook Page as well as the race website.

There is a great photo gallery that shows how difficult Stage 1 was on CyclingNews.com.

I’ll do my best to keep the updates coming, but it all depends on how I feel and if we get internet connection at the next hotels.

Race Day 2: Mud-Surfing & Hill Climbing

I’m in the hotel room after day 2 with ice bags on my legs.  There’s no bath tub here, so I can’t take a full ice bath.
It was a really tough day with about 45 miles of riding and 11,000 ft of climbing.  The climbs were so steep that some of them were unrideable.
I guess it’s typical Costa Rican style of power climbing.  The 6 am starts with no warm up are a bit rough because every day shoots straight up out of the host town and there’s no time to get the legs ready for the sort of punishment the day is going to unleash.  I was climbing for about a while with the women’s leader Adrianna Rojas.  She got away from me one of the many steep climbs.  I have a feeling she is more used to this style of riding than I am.  The mountains in Idaho are just so different.  Instead of sharp, 30% grades that blast your lungs and legs, I’m used to more steady, long climbs.  Once Adrianna got away, Louise Kobin and I rode about the first 1/2 of the race together.  It was really motivating to be riding with her and pushing each other.  She is a super consistent racer and knows this course better than anyone out there.  It definitely helped keep my head in the game.  I got away from Louise at about 45 km, which is when I started to feel like I was warming up and could put more pressure on the pedals.  We were told the stage was 63 km, but it actually ended up being 74.  Nothing like thinking you have 1 or 2 km to go and it’s really more like 8 or 9! I kept my head down on the rollers and tried to let the 29 Fate do it’s work on the open roads.  That bike is so fast descending and on the flats.  I had a few close calls on some of the muddy, sliding descents, but managed to stay upright.  It’s like surfing and I’ve never been good at surfing.

The women’s finishing places were the same as yesterday with Adrianna 1st, me in 2nd and Louise in 3rd.  Adrianna now has about 16 minutes on me in the general classification. It’s a hefty gap, but this is the sort of race where you and your bike need to make it through all four days.
Tomorrow is the big climb up the volcano.   There are some really steep parts at the beginning, but most of the climb is a steady paved road where you can settle into a smooth pace.  At the top, you head down for about 40 km.  It sounds amazing, but the descent is really technical and tiring.
My plan is to put the work in on the hill and stay safe on the descent.

My Specialized teammate, Todd Wells, was 4th today after flatting and damaging his rim.  Luckily he made it into the finish with his bike intact and still holds onto his general classification lead by about 7 minutes.
Remember to check out Velonews.com and Cyclingnews.com for photos and videos of each day.

Race Days 3 & 4: Lost & Found

The La Ruta is in the history books, and I am fully reminded of how difficult this race truly is. It is such a fun experience though to come race literally from one side of the country to the other, and have the support of a international crowd along the way. Despite the bad luck on day 4, this was still my best La Ruta finish to date and my riding performance was better than expected given that I didn’t really train or focus on peaking for this race.

Day 3 at La Ruta was OK.  Not great but not terrible.  I felt OK, but just wasn’t climbing as fast as I would have liked.  I fell off the pace right from the beginning.  I did get to ride with Matt Luhn, a friend from Sun Valley for the last part of the climb and the descent.  It was really nice not to be alone out there.  The 8000 ft descent was super sketchy because the fog and light rain had moved in.  It was impossible to wear glasses because they were fogging up so badly, so the descent was sort of a one eyed squint alternating eyes depending on which one had mud in it.  I was grateful for my bike and body to make it down the descent intact. There is huge consequence on this day to flat, crash and really mess yourself up.

Found out I broke my saddle on Stage 3, luckily I made it to the finish and I had no idea.  Benno had a replacement for me so the bike was all set again.
I also checked my time from last year and was like 17 min faster this year than last year, so I’m happy with that, especially since the descent was in the rain this year.

Stage 5 of La Ruta is underway, racing from Costa Rica to Idaho.  After finishing the race, it was a 3 hr bus ride, packing my bike and gear, 4 hrs of sleep and another 4 AM wake up call to get to the airport in time.  I’m a bit beaten and exhausted from 4 days of super hard riding and now the 5th day of hard travel before getting to Idaho tonight at 11 pm.

The last stage of La Ruta was a bit of a cluster.   It is the longest stage at 120 km with all of the climbing in the first 40 km.  The remaining 80 km is mostly flat with railroad bridges, lots of small towns, and fast roads.  It pays to be with a group for the 2nd half of the stage.  I started out feeling OK and after a couple of hours of super hot, hard climbing topped out with Louise and Adam from Carmichael Training.  We formed a great posse and were moving really well on the descents and flats.  We picked up some other riders including a guy from Scotland and some Costa Ricans.  We had a great group of about 8 of us all working together and flying through the kilometers.

My finishing time on this stage last year was 5:30 and although I knew it was unlikely I could catch Adrianna to take the overall win, I was really gunning for a stage win and to improve on my time from last year.  I’ve been riding well this week and have been much faster than last year.  I’ve had a clean race with no mechanicals or big crashes, so I’ve been happy with my performance.  A race like La Ruta takes great fitness, but also a good deal of luck.

Stage 4 was apparently where my luck ran out.  Somewhere between kilometer 60 and 80, our group got off course.  We had been speeding along in a pace line and there are multiple turns through small towns and the markings in this race are sometimes less than obvious.  After quite a while of not seeing any markings, the group realized that we were off course.  We started stopping people on the streets and asking if bikes had gone this way by pointing and gesturing.  We stopped multiple people on bikes, in cars, in their homes to try to get back on track.  Luckily, Martin from Scotland had some money with him so since the whole group was out of water, he bought drinks and we continued on our adventure through the back roads of Costa Rica.  The temperatures were soaring near 100 and my mood was pretty deflated.  I also started to get worried that we’d actually get disqualified for going off course, even though we were clearly doing more mileage than prescribed.  After a 22 km detour and multiple sides of a square, we joined the course again at the 80 km check point.  At this point, we’d ridden 102.  We still had nearly 40 km more to go.

I was grateful that we had a group while we were lost and that Louise was with me.  She’s done La Ruta 8 or 9 times and knows this course as well as anyone.  We both agreed to stick together and finish the stage together.  We had no idea how much time we’d lost or if our detour was going to change our placing in the general classification.  The last 40 km were mentally hard since we should have been done at that point.  We started moving through the back of the pack of racers.  Shortly after we joined back onto the course, a car had stopped about 30 racers in the middle of the road.  We came up on them to find out that an athlete ahead had been held up at gunpoint and robbed of his bike.  They grouped us together to ride through that section as a group.  After our crazy detour, this was just another thing to add to the chaos of the stage.

Louise, Adam and I finally rolled into Limon into the finish in a time of 6:05.  The winning women’s time was just over 5 hours.  With our detour, running out of water and the mental blow of being lost, we were just an hour off the lead.  It’s frustrating to know that we would have had a strong shot at winning the stage, but luck was not on our side.  I do know that my time would have been faster than last years if we had not gotten lost.  Our time was still fast enough to keep our overall placings of 2nd and 3rd.

Overall, it was a good week for me.  I loved being able to ride with Louise and the Carmichael Training Group and have some friends out on course.  I also spent a portion of day 3 riding with my friend Matt from Idaho.  I owe Martin from Scotland for saving us on day 4 with the Cokes he bought and shared.
I also want to thank Benno from Specialized for keeping the Fate running perfectly. The bike was amazing and having one bike survive this adventure with no mechanicals is a great feat.  Congratulations to Todd Wells who had a stellar race and proved the doubters wrong that a gringo couldn’t come in and win La Ruta in his first year. There is a great race report and photo gallery on Cyclingnews.com as well to check out.

Q: I generally race long distance events: 100m to 24hr to multi-day. Recently I did a shorter race–63m–and cramped badly, which is something that almost never happens in longer races. In two weeks I do another 100 mile race at high elevation. Should I be worried about cramping  and re-think my hydration strategy or do you think that was an anomaly due to racing a shorter distance?

A: Steve:  I am going to refer your question to Dr. Holden MacRae, professor of Sports Medicine at Pepperdine and part of the Red Bull Performance Testing Team.  I have worked with him and discussed cramping with him recently.  Here is his response to my query about cramping in Leadville.  It relates directly to your shorter distance, higher output cramping issue.  Read on, but bottom line is more strength training.  Here is Holden’s response:

I am assuming that the cramps did not start until the final 25% to 33% of each race when you were most fatigued, and that the cramps were localized (either gastroc/soleus – “calf muscles” or quads). I did my PhD in Cape Town, and one of the researchers there, Dr Martin Schwellnus (an MD/PhD) has done quite a bit of research in this area and has also worked in medical tents for years at endurance races. They have proposed a neural fatigue mechanism for cramping that has high validity. Basically, you have 2 important types of neural control at the muscle level via

·         Type Ia muscle spindles whose activity will cause a muscle to contract, and

·         Type Ib Golgi tendon organs (GTO’s) whose activity will cause a muscle to relax. If the GTO is inhibited, then the muscle will contract.

In studies of muscle function and fatigue, the following has been found:

·         When muscle becomes fatigued, the firing rate of the Type Ia afferent fibers from the muscle spindle INCREASES (the muscle contracts)

·         and the firing rate from the Type Ib afferent fibers from the Golgi tendon organ DECREASES (the muscle contracts)

Therefore, my thinking on this is that you are racing at higher speeds which requires higher power outputs (and hence higher levels of muscle activation), and when the muscles are not conditioned for this, as you get far into the race, fatigue causes the following;

·         Spindle activity increases – alpha motor activity increases – muscle contraction

·         GTO activity decreases – alpha motor activity increases – muscle contraction

And so in muscles that cross two joints (gastroc/soleus and/or quads) you will cramp more often; if a muscle crosses two joints, then it means that the muscle is going to be in a shortened position when it contracts. When the muscle is in this position, then the activity of the GTO is going to be reduced even more than normal. Add to this the contraction, which stimulates the muscle spindle, and the net result is that the inhibition of the motor neuron is reduced even further, predisposing one to cramp.

So in conclusion, thank you Steve for the wonderful question, and thank you Holden for providing the best answer we could have ever asked for!

Probably the most effective countermeasure for those affected muscles will be to increase their strength/power such that they will be less prone to fatigue during high levels of activation.

I had to blast back from the ride in Pocatello to Ketchum where the Elephant’s Perch was hosting a Specialized demo days and also Leadville celebration party for me. I had the trophy out on display, wore one of my buckles and told the story of the race a bunch of times to friends.  The best part about living in a small town is coming home and being welcomed by pretty much everyone in town.  It feels great to know all these people were following the race and pulling for me.

Monday, I headed North to Stanley again for a Blaine County Recreation District fundraiser ride.  A group of locals bid generously on a two days of mountain bike riding with Greg and me in the Stanley area.  We had a couple of great rides and fun overnights at the quaint Danner Cabins.

Since coming home from Leadville, I’ve done more backcountry riding than I have all summer.  I’ve not worn my Suunto HR monitor and have just been getting out with friends for 4-5 hour social rides all over the Wood River Valley.  It’s been a great way to celebrate all the hard work for the season and take the pressure off a bit. This weekend, Greg and I head to the Park City Point to Point.  Greg is racing and I’m signed up to race, although it’ll be more of a fun ride than a focused race for me.  The trails and the race there are amazing,  so I didn’t want to pass up the chance to get to explore them for an all day adventure. Hope everyone else is enjoying their summer and I’ll see you out on the trails.

I’ve been polishing off all the bikes that have been neglected while the Fate was racing.  The Safire, the Enduro, the P Bike are all getting some ride time!  It’s been a super chill week of getting the house back together after 3 weeks away.  Unpacking, doing laundry, tending the garden, baking bread and just doing some casual fun rides with friends.  I’ve also been sitting down evaluating what races I’ll do for the remainder of the year.  I told myself I wouldn’t make any decisions on Fall races until after Leadville.  It feels so amazing to have my #1 goal for the whole year in the bag, but now I’m already starting to get antsy and wonder what’s next?  I love relaxing and taking it easy after a long stint of hard work, but I guess I’m just not built to sit still for too long.

This week at home has been sort of like one big celebration. My first night home from Leadville, I went to a Michael Franti concert on the lawn at River Run and it felt like my very own party.  I saw all my friends and it seemed like everyone was following the race on Twitter and were so stoked!  It felt so good to share the win with all the locals.

My first weekend home, Greg and I headed up to Stanley for a couple of amazing backcountry rides and camping.  No heart rate monitor, no training agenda and no schedule.  It was the first weekend in months that I’ve done that and it was glorious.  Saturday we did a great ride with friends that felt like there was way more downhill than uphill.  That does not happen much in Idaho.  Greg and I camped by Stanley Lake and took a swim in the icy water with views of the Sawtooth Mountains all around.  Riding on Sunday was a huge adventure ride where we only went 25 miles in 5 hours.  Hike a bike above treeline and lightening threatening all around us made me think of my adventure racing days.  It was amazing, but way different than the previous day’s ride. I took the Safire for the weekend and it was so much fun to have that much suspension and a Reverb dropper seatpost.  That bike really makes me smile.  It’s a blast.  Next up, I’m not sure yet.  I’ll let you know when I figure it out.

Todd Meier Photography

As soon as I won the Leadville 100 race last year, I was already getting questions about racing in 2011 and coming back to defend my title and attempt the first ever women’s “threepeat” at this race. I remember saying last year, “can’t I just enjoy this win for a little while before having to focus on 2011?”  Well, the break didn’t last long and my coach and I targeted the Leadville 100 race as my “A” race for 2011 and the training and focus for that began almost a year before the actual event.

Heading into Leadville this year, I had some highs and lows in the season.  I knew my training had been better than ever, but my results weren’t necessarily showing the fitness I’d been building.  A few weeks out from Leadville, I had one of my worst races of the season and suffered some serious doubts.  I trust in my coach and the work I’ve done, but could not figure out why I was so flat so close to my key race.

I stuck to my plan to head to Colorado a couple of weeks early for one last race and then some much needed quite time without distraction. I have had a season full of amazing women’s events, sponsor appearances, movie screenings all piled on top of trying to maintain laser focus with my training.  I had some doubts that perhaps I had spread myself too thin and it was now catching up to me.

Todd Meier Photography

The two weeks of isolation prior to the race proved to be just the focused recovery and rejuvenation that I needed.  I slept a ton, trained at altitude, ate really well, tinkered with my bike and just decompressed.  I was strangely calm before the race, despite the fact that the women’s field was incredibly strong and hungry to take me down.  I wasn’t really nervous and my mental energy was focused not on my competitors, but more on bettering my own time from last year.  I knew that if I went faster than I had before, I would have to feel good about that regardless of my placing.  Winning is addictive, but it’s also not the only definition of success.

People kept asking me how I felt about the stout competition.  Without hesitation, my response is a positive one.  The fact that both men’s and women’s fields were much deeper with pro riders is always a good thing for endurance racing, for the event, for everyone.  It means the sport is growing and more top athletes are lining up.  It adds credibility to the event and keeps it exciting.  If you knew who was going to win a race every time, it wouldn’t be that stimulating to watch.

Todd Meier Photography

Race day was clear and warm.  I lined up with Specialized teammate, Todd Wells on the front line.  My boyfriend, Greg, was once again there to be my one man crew.  I looked around at my friends Gretchen Reeves, Jenny Smith, Kelli Emmett and gave them all a smile.  I had a race strategy in my head and knew these girls were gunning for me, but they are all friends and I honestly wished them all a safe and good race.   As we rolled into the very first climb at St. Kevin’s I was feeling OK, but could not really respond as four women slowly rode away from me.  I wasn’t panicked and just put my head down and tried to remind myself that I had lots of time and to stick to my strategy.  I was sitting in 5th place and a few minutes off the lead as I rolled into the first aid station at mile 30.  Greg was there and asked me how I was doing.  He could see in my eyes that I wasn’t as spunky as usual.  I told him I was fine, but just a little flat.  By the time I reached the 2nd aid station, I got reports that I was just 2 minutes off the leaders and sitting in 3rd going into the Columbine Mine climb.  Apparently both Kelli and Pua had mechanicals and had dropped back, but I never saw them.  The news that I was that close to the lead got me amped and some of my confidence started to come back.

I went to work to chip away the deficit on the climb.  I was catching other guys, so I knew I was moving the bike better by now.  The male racers were telling me that Jenny and Gretchen were just ahead.  I finally caught both of them right where the climb really kicks up and gets super hard.  I passed Gretchen, but Jenny stuck to me like a terrier for the remainder of the climb.  She was right on my tail at the turn around.  I was able to shake her on the descent and then got really focused on not crashing, not flatting and taking care of my fueling.  I had the lead, but not by much.  It was mine to keep if I didn’t make any mistakes at all.

Coming down Columbine and hearing all the uphill riders scream my name gave me a huge boost of energy.  Rolling into Twin Lakes aid station with thousands of crew members all screaming gave me another second wind.  I was past the 1/2 way mark and time to finish the job.  I made it to Powerline climb and still could not see any female riders behind me.  I had gotten a split of around 3 minutes at the Pipeline aid station, but that was dangerously close.  I was cramping and at my limit.  I ended up walking the lower section of the Powerline climb for fear of pushing my cramps into full blown spasm.  I slammed a Red Bull energy shot and walked/ran hoping that it wasn’t a mistake to be conservative in this spot.  Back on the bike, I finished the huge climb and focused on the last 15 miles ahead of me.  These are mentally the most challenging miles.  Town feels so near, but is still so far.

Todd Meier Photography

I was focusing on nutrition and being very light on the descents.  A flat tire at this point would have really been a game changer.  Once off the last descent and onto the flats before town, I relaxed about flat tires and stole a look at my watch.  It read 7:10 and I knew I was only about 20 minutes out from the finish.  I couldn’t believe the time I was seeing on my Suunto.  I was blown away that I was this far ahead of my own course record.  I knew the other girls must still be nipping at my heels, but this was the first point I actually thought that I might have it in the bag.  Always a realist, I still kept my head down and snuck looks behind me when I had a stretch of visibility.  I did not relax until I turned onto 6th street and could physically see the red carpet and the famous finish line.  That view rolling into town is like looking down the Champs Elysee for mountain bikers.  Instead of seeing the Arc de Triomphe, you see the historical old brick buildings on Harrison Blvd that mark your ultimate destination.

I have visualized that finish in my head for more than a year.  I admit, I was not certain that I would be the first woman to roll across it and never dreamed I’d break my own record by over 15 minutes.  Even during the race, I felt a little flat and off the back for a while.  Perseverance, race experience and staying calm paid off.  This third win was all the more sweet because I really had to work for it.  Not only did I break my own course record, but so did the top four women in the race!  Now that is the true definition of success for women’s cycling!

A big shout out to Todd Wells for his win as well.  Specialized and SRAM had an awesome day on the top of the podium.  Thanks to both for the incredible support and tech work for the race.  My brand new Fate remains undefeated and was the perfect bike for this course.

Most of all, thanks to Greg Martin for being my training partner, my motivator, my crew, my voice of reason and the best musette bag handler ever!

For more photos of the whole Leadville race experience, click here and dont forget to “Like”

For a great video of the women’s race finish, click here.

This is a big prize, and to the right person, an invaluable training tool. So as always, best question wins. Please refer to the Ask Reba Archives so we don’t ask the same question over and over again, and so that you can formulate the winning question more efficiently! Best of luck.

I’ll find some pics of Nationals and send them soon.

Sergio Herrera

How much do you rely on what your equipment like HR Monitor and Computer tell you versus how you feel, do you do exactly what the equipment says you should be doing for HR? You are the Queen of Pain after all…

The tools I use for training and recovery are my Suunto T6c and Restwise recovery system. I just got a brand new PowerTap that I have yet to learn how to use yet. Suunto and Restwise are basically my daily training partners and are essential to keeping me on track. They both give me numbers that help shape my training. My coach and I look at the numbers every single day, however, how I’m feeling must play a big role. People are not machines and the measuring tools we use are just guidelines.

Many times, if my heart rate is not responding how I’d like or my Restwise numbers are low, it tells me to back off on training and take a rest day. Tools like these are excellent guides as long as you supplement their use with your brain as well. I see many athletes just relying on a number on a digital readout instead of making intelligent training decisions. As a side note, when I’m racing, I have my HR monitor on, but don’t look at it until after the race is over. I rely on my own brain to pace during a race.