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TD 2010 Entry #9: Lessons Learned
Posted on February 25th, 2011 9 commentsMy 2010 Tour Divide, though short lived, was still an experience like no other. From the time I began training until the day I dropped, it was a phenomenal ride, full of equal parts grueling hardship and ever-remembered beauty. Although I still yearn for a finish (and by God I will have it this year), I feel that I have learned some valuable lessons in how to approach the race this time around. Because I am not your typical TD racer, I do not assume that these lessons will be of great use to the endurance die-hards that the TD attracts, BUT if you’re a rookie, and especially if you’re a flatlander and/or a relative noob like I was, then perhaps you will find this helpful. By far, the best advice for green horns is probably from Marshal Bird, so be sure to give him a read.
Training:
- Train with extra weight. In my opinion, this is a biggie. The gear/food/water you will be carrying on the Tour Divide makes a huge difference. Load your bike up with stuff wherever you can put it until you get your bikepacking bags…stick a dumbbell in your backpack, whatever. Load up and ride with it every time you go out. Become accustomed to it, build those muscles, let your knees adjust to the added grind. In my case, I also supplemented with weight training in the gym…squats and leg raises went a long way for me and kind of gave me a jump start towards building my endurance.
- Climb your ass off. I know this one should be obvious, but I state it here mainly for fellow flatlanders. You’ve heard how many feet of climbing there are on the GDMBR, right? Yeah, people aren’t whistling Dixie when they throw that number out. The climbing n.e.v.e.r. e.n.d.s. Spend as much of your training time as possible climbing…the steeper the better (lots of steep stuff in Canada and Montana). In my opinion, if you become a great climber, the distance portion of your training/race sort of takes care of itself.
- Train in bad weather. When cold, rainy days move in over the divide, things can get miserable really quick. Spend as much time as you can in crappy weather and become friends with it. Get to the point where you don’t fight it. Accept that you will be wet and cold, and that your only way out is to ride. Use this training time to nail down your rain/cold weather gear.
- Don’t neglect your upper body. You will be pushing/pulling your bike and gear over snowy passes and up monstrosities like the Flathead Wall. Conditioning your torso with circuit/core work and building some endurance upstairs will help you through these times. You will also be losing a lot of upper body weight during the race, so it may not hurt to have a little extra going in.
The Race:
- Don’t settle. My biggest mistake, by far, was settling: allowing myself to stop riding for some reason when I could have moved on. Avoid the temptations of the city or the comforts of wilderness use cabins or opting for group camaraderie if you still have plenty of juice and/or daylight left. Because if you settle regularly, before you know it, you’ll have a bunch of sub-par mileage days behind you and you’ll be in or near last place. (I raise my hand sheepishly)
- Consider using a GPS as your main nav tool. You may hear people say that a GPS is non-essential…if you can read basic cues, you will not need one. The amount of people getting lost on the route says otherwise. And not just rookies, either. Look back at 2009, when the veteran elite Petervary tandem team went off course 30 miles before realizing their mistake and backtracked, eating a 60 mile penalty that could have been avoided. Listen, you will never hear anyone complain that the cues are too specific! Some of them are vague or even flat out wrong. Why waste an hour or two per day trying to figure out where to go and/or backtracking multiple times a day when all you really have to do is look down once in a while at a purple line on your GPS screen? I don’t get it. I’ll take the small weight penalty, the peace of mind, and the accuracy of my GPS and Scott Morris’ split track, and I’ll use the cues as backup (or even better, a backup GPS and ditch the cues and maps). I might add that the distinguished bikepacking statesman Marshal Bird champions this approach.
- I’m slow. No way around it. Therefore, the lesson I learned is that I better start earlier and ride later if I want to compete for a decent finish time. This may mean leaving your buddies and/or a warm place to sleep for the night. Don’t dawdle in towns, or anywhere else for that matter. Take care of your business and go. Just remember the ol’ fable about the tortoise and the hare!
- For the love of God, be careful out there. You probably know about the tragedy that befell Dave Blumenthal this past year. And if you read my story, you know about Bob Moczynski’s accident. Pete Basinger was hit by a vehicle head on in 2009. And I can’t tell you how many…let’s say “safety concerns”…I witnessed during the race. Keep your wits about you at all times and don’t take chances. If you’re falling asleep on your bike, don’t be a hero…just bivy up and get a fresh start tomorrow. Vehicles DO appear once in a while on some of these remote roads…I made it a point to ride as if there was a car or a bear about to come around every blind corner I encountered. There was a time when I was very glad I did that. Just be safety conscience at all times.
So those are some major things I can think of. There’s always lots of little stuff to think about…that’ll get sprinkled into my training posts. Speaking of which…time to move on to those now. I been slackin’ on the writing!
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9 responses to “TD 2010 Entry #9: Lessons Learned”
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Hey Tony,
When you say you’re not the typical TD rider, what do you mean?
I’m so tempted to still try the race this year. It seems that there are too many people signed up for it though. Any thoughts on the amount starting this year?
The mind game of biking independently and avoiding the ‘group’ decisions has to be very difficult. I have three 1000 mile hiking trips on the AT…it was always difficult to do what was best for me and not just hang with the group. Interestingly, I suppose one of the reasons I consider trying to do the race is so I can start with people. It’s looking like I’m going to start the second week of August. I’m not sure how many people I’ll see out there. On the other hand, I like the idea of doing what I want and not worrying about other people.
I’m kicking around starting a blog about my training and my trip. If I do I’ll let you know to get your feedback.
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Hi Paul,
I’m not your typical TD rider because I had zilcho bikepacking/endurance/elevation experience when I started training…I was a total noob to it all, having only previously ridden singletrack at a few parks around Houston. I’d never even ridden above 100′ elevation, let alone a mountain pass. I’ll wager that I am still the only TD rider who can claim those lofty credentials.
Yeah the number of starters could be problematic in the beginning of the race. If you’re slow, you better not be depending on Boulton Creek trading post for food…it will probably be wiped clean by the time you get there! Hotel rooms in Elkford and Sparwood could fill up quick. In short there will be more competition for resources early on, maybe not so much later on.
Anyway, please do shoot me the link to your blog if you get it going, and good luck with your training!
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Tony I am a long time lurker of your blog, and an aspiring fan (maybe one day it will be my turn) of the TD. I wanted to commend you on your writings of the TD and your experiences with it, they really show how raw the race is, how low times got for you, and how at times the simple things were of the most joy or comfort to you and your companions out there. I also admire your efforts in coming to good terms with what you went through last TD and getting yourself to a place where you have the desire to pick yourself up from it go back at it again. I had my doubts when I checked into your blog after the TD and didn’t see very many new updates. But it seems you are in a good place now with it and it also seems to be just a little behind you now instead of right there in front. Very inspirational reading.
I will be doing my first bikepacking experience this summer with a friend on the Dixie Lite route in Southern Utah created by Dave Harris. This last post contained a lot of very useful information for us. We are both new to it but have done a fair amount of mountain biking in the Rockies but nothing on the same level of multiple back to back all day rides self supported in the mountains, especially something like the TD. The careful planning involved with being self supported, and the isolation in the mountains and exposure somehow are very appealing to us.
I found some similarities from your last post, and training classes in the military. One of the lessons I learned was always conquer your demons before the class or before the evaluation ect. Finding out too many hard lessons in the main event will crack even the toughest of individuals. Its hard enough just doing the race, much less figuring out that your kit was all wrong or your training was way off as well. Some can’t be avoided but too many is disaster waiting to happen.
Well best of luck to you Tony, myself and most likely other gdrquest.com lurkers out there are rooting for you.
Oh and Marshal Bird if you are reading this, greetings from COS, I’m a long time fan of your blog as well. Like Tony mentioned it holds a wealth of very useful hard earned wisdom and information for the prospective bikepacker like me. -
Hi Heath,
Thanks very much for the kind words. Your comment encompasses my entire purpose for starting this blog. When I first began my quest, there wasn’t a whole heck of a lot of material out there to study up on. A few blogs and some forum posts at mtbr.com was about it, aside from Billman’s article in Outside, of course. So I made it a point to document everything I did, from ground zero training on through to race’s end, so that I could give an interested reader the whole nitty gritty. If I have helped to inspire you to take on the TD and/or to “adveturize” your life a little bit, then I am a happy man.
Nowadays, of course, there is an abundance of TD media for folks to get their hands on…books, a movie, bikepacking.net, and blogs galore…it’s a veritable bonanza! Self support purists may lament over the readiness/availability of information, but I think its wonderful giving people the info they need to accomplish a dream adventure like the TD.
Anyways I guess my point is “you can doo eet!” Set a date and make it happen! You’ll undoubtedly a get a nice feel for the whole bikepacking thing on your Dixie Lite trip. And you’re gonna be hooked…I can tell from how your write about it that you’re gonna love it. Hell if you’ve been reading mine and Marshal’s blog all this time, you’re prety much already out there!
Good luck Heath! If you write something up after your trip, please shoot me a link!
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I kept thinking “bingo, bingo” as I read your Lessons Learned post. In many ways you be a vet now Tony.
And while not true for every TDR participant, I think a hard core focus of ‘race’ before ‘adventure’ helps a lot during the 1st half of the TDR.
After many days it becomes very hard to maintain a high level of ‘race focus’, but by then the finish is pulling-you so strongly only illness or injury will keep you from it.
Side Note: Sort of like you did last yr, are you going to set up some type of self-supported multi-day ride/race/training event, you could invite all the other TX riders?
(or even better come to the AZT 300 in April and see what a ‘sprint style’ multi-day is like on technical terain)
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Good stuff!
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Nice lessons learned. I’ll make sure not to forget them in my bid this year!
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Ilalo March 3rd, 2011 at 11:04
Man, thanks a lot for your time on writing this blog. It has been so inspiring to me. I’m 46 years old, and planning to race the TD this year. You have no idea how helpful has been your articles!!
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Thanks for posting your story Tony. I know the end wasn’t what you wanted, but you’re helping out the rest of us that might be crazy enough to put wheels to the trail. So thanks again, and I’m looking forward to your posts about this year!
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Paul February 25th, 2011 at 21:38