River's Edge Thoughts...

The River's Edge Marathon despite my shortcomings was a well organized and very fun event. I will definitely be looking forward to it next year. Instant race updates and great support during the event really make this a happening race.

It turns out the guy that broke his hip was on Goat Hill which was a rocky climb section, and overall slippery early in the morning...I got through that section by hike-a-biking up it on my first lap... I wish him a speedy recovery and hope to see him racing again soon...

Overall, the trails were fun and fast and once dry, really let me bike hookup on the corners. The USNWC is one of my favorite trail systems when visiting relatives in the Charlotte area. It is amazing how tough they can be after a few nonstop laps on them.

I believe a large reason('excuse') for my performance hit was that I had not properly recovered from the previously raced events. I had just finished ORAMM, and Fools Gold, both of which are giants to accomplish outright for someone like myself. I also think going out surfing from Thursday-Sunday the week prior to River's Edge in hurricane surf for 4-5 hours each morning did not help. I think I have to learn to consider my past actions as well as the future when deciding to race these events since my overall fitness level in the "now" does not always dictate how I will do 4 hours into such an event. I guess I am going to have to learn more about tapering and preparation.

Sleep deprivation may/may not have had such a large impact on my performance, but I am thinking it did. I will have to monitor my sleep levels more carefully and determine what I truly need to have a stellar day...

Once again, I need to refactor my nutrition... My friend Mark is a die-hard user of Infinit liquid nutrition and I may start using this product soon to get used to it before the 12 hours of Unicoi. This will be my first 12 hour and I really want to NOT worry about my stomach clogging up with crap, which is what my gut felt like 3 hours into both Fool's Gold as well as River's Edge...Honey and water seem to really unclog my system, so I am sticking with those. Electrolytes kind of just felt like they sat in my stomach...Less electrolytes may be the key to help keep my system normalized, but I just don't know without further experimentation..so I am going to go simpler in my upcoming training rides.

SHOES....my new shoes hurt so much I am going to be changing them out as soon as this post is done. I had been riding SIDI Dragons for the last 2 years without any issues whatsoever, when they finally felt apart after the Cowbell Challenge scorching heat race... I then went to my LBS and purchased some nice new blingy Bontrager RXLs with lots of toe box room...Well, lets just say what's good for some is not always good for me. Not only will these shoes not tighten down enough to hug my foot, the cleat positioning is still too far forward on the backmost setting which puts my hold over the front of my foot instead of where I was used to it previously, stressing a totally different set of leg muscles. They also have a terribly wide heelcup which makes me feel like I am wearing large flipflops when off the bike and hiking. Partly to blame is the fact that they are fully carbon undersole and stiff as concrete. Power to the pedal is the only thing that these shoes do well. If you are a superhuman biker and never consider getting off your bike to push, these shoes might be right for you, but not for me. Because the ankle strap cannot be repositioned, they dug into my right upper foot pretty badly. I still have a tender lump where the ankle strap meets my foot and cannot even put them back on to do a recovery ride. So I am now considering new pricey SIDIs or some Mavics with the rubber sole for hiking....Cannot wait to get the shoe issue straightened out to get on with my riding...Sheesh!

So to wrap this blathering all up, lets review; recovery, sleep, nutrition, and properly fitting shoes should be my focal points...like I said before, "The learning never ever ends"...