2. The Preparations (Part 1 - Man)

I found myself asking anyone who had already done the race…  How was it?  Is it really that tough?  I never found a single responder who didn’t say it was the toughest bike event they had ever done.  Some folks that I would rank as top notch riders even admitted that they had deeply suffered through a few of the days.  What was my goal?  Was just finishing enough?  I quickly decided that I didn’t want to set any specific time goals.  My goal became:  “Arrive in the best shape of your life.  Suffer as deeply as possible before the race, so that you can ride each stage with a smile on your face.”

What good is spending 7 days riding through this?      (Photo: Coastal Crew)

If you spend the whole time suffering looking at this?

In the 2014 season, I joined Bicisport and took up racing.  While I’ve always been a rider, and have done the occasional event such as Gearjammer or TransRockies 1day stages, I’ve never been a “racer”.  I rolled my new carbon hardtail with racing stiff short travel fork and bald tires up to the start line in Edmonton for the River Valley Rumble not quite knowing what to expect.  1hr and 14minutes later I had learned a lot.  I had placed 8^th in a massive chaotic field of 60 Sport Men.  I then knew what the term “full gas” meant.  I learned not to follow too closely through unfamiliar singletrack.  I learned the importance of the hole shot.  I raced 8 more times that season, including XC, Enduro, and my new love: Cyclocross.

Baseline fitness tests were done in Feb 2014.  Not bad.  My previous hockey career and last 10 years spent (slowly) running half marathons and doing triathlons had built a foundation.  TCR Lab coach Cory gave us some direction on how to adopt a more polarized training approach.  Not just riding more.  Lung/leg searing intervals and a big dose of classic base.

The dreaded VO2 max test.  Try not to puke into the snorkel.

First big step was getting on Strava.  Having an online community of riding buddies and a place to store all your ride data has a powerful impact.  Especially if you are:
A) competitive and 
B) an engineer.  

Being able to measure your training time week-to-week, month-to month keeps your goals in focus.  Being able to see visible improvements keeps the motivation high.  And we started to notice something…  We were actually getting faster.  2012 PR’s were quickly erased in 2013.  Then, 2014 was another step change.  We used to take 3.5 hours to ride Pneuma/Moosepackers/Ridgeback loop, and by early 2015 we has slashed it to sub 2.5 hours.  Strava helped us see that >13kph average speeds on BCBR type terrain for ~3-4 hours at a time was coming into the realm of possibility.

TSS/day average.  Basically a graph of how hard you are training.

Second big step was buying a power meter.  I mounted up the Stages meter to my cyclocross/road bike and started raking in the sweet sweet data.  Having continuous feedback on how hard I was pedaling brought a next level of awareness.  How hard could I go before blowing up?  When am I in the habit of soft pedaling without realizing it?  Most importantly, what exactly does this magical “threshold” power level feel like?  Over time I’ve developed a much better feel for my threshold, which means I can ride pretty hard without crossing the line too long/too often, which causes rides to end badly.

Third big step was buying a Wahoo Kickr stationary trainer from Trevor at ROAD.  This was a game changer for my training program.  The convenience of being able to pop out into the garage and get a top notch workout in while the kids are sleeping is invaluable to the working father.  This technology is incredible.  You get on the bike.  You pick a workout.  Then you just keep pedaling until it says you are done.  No shifting.  No thinking.  Just endure.  We bought the full set of Sufferfest videos, which brought a new level of entertainment to the game.  #IWBMATTKYT  

Laura in the "pain cave".  Why is she smiling?

 I set a plan to ramp up my TSS/day average (training load) from ~40 up to ~70.  This moved me into ~8-10hrs per week.  Not a small task for a full time job/family kind of guy, but lots of it happens during my commutes and after the kids are asleep.  By putting in this work, I was hoping to see my threshold power move up.  Did it work?

I told you this was going to get geeky.

I managed to crank up my Functional Threshold Power almost 12% in the past 16 months or so.  This should really help at the BCBR.

Fitness is only part of the equation.  The trails of the BC Bike Race are not only strenuous, but very technical.  Tight singletrack, rooty/rocky climbs, and of course the legendary BC skinnies and chunky descents.  

Laura and I followed the video blog of a triathlete from North Carolina through the 2013 race.  It was hilarious.  He definitely did not know what he was getting himself into.  We coined the term #BCBlueRun to describe the quantum gap in trail difficulty in BC versus the rest of the world.   

Minnewanka Trail.  Banff, Alberta.  Bikepirate rating: Blue/Black Diamond.  Adam rating:  A nice pedal along the lake.  Black Diamond due to Grizzly bear hazard?  My 3 year old is just about ready.

Sid Slotegraaf Rides Half Nelson from Andrew Santos on Vimeo.

Half Nelson Trail.   Squamish, BC.     Bikepirate rating:    Blue.    Adam rating:   Might as well be Whistler bike park.  Sid rides it with both wheels on the ground maybe 15% of the time...

We signed up for Trek Dirt Series Whistler.  I will admit that I was mostly excited about riding bikes in Whistler with Laura for a few days, and a bit skeptical about what I might get out of the camp.  I couldn’t have been more wrong.  I spent one day on a DH bike, and one day on my carbon hardtail.  The coaches were fantastic.  Fiona rode behind me down “Crank it Up” at the Whistler bike park yelling out orders on positioning my body, leaning the bike, and listening for the sound of my tire grabbing the dirt.  Another coach rode behind me down “Danimal" correcting my line choice.  We stopped several times and sessioned some technical sections.  The benefit of this camp to my riding was immediately apparent.  I set PR’s on every single trail I rode for the next 2 months.  All due to one thing:  Grip.  They had shown me how to position myself and my bike to hook the tires into the ground and use my brakes far less around corners.  (Hint:  Poop off the berms)

Great friends.  Great riding.  Great memory.

A bit of a long story, but it took quite a bit of effort to get our fitness and skills to a point where we can go the BCBR with confidence.  In the third blog post, I will go over the bike and kit preparations.  Far less painful then the fitness part, but a bit more costly...