Posts
302
Joined
9/14/2012
Location
San Diego, CA
US
Edited Date/Time
6/22/2017 11:34am
I'll be the first to admit, I was never a mega quick racer. I was competitive in my class (expert//Cat1), and even came close to winning a national with a 2nd place and only 0.02 from the #1 spot (that hurt). Even so, I thought I had a pretty good game-plan when it came to my race weekend routine.
I see this question asked a lot by people who are just getting interested in racing and have no idea what to expect. I also know a lot of the users in this forum are experienced and accomplished racers and lots of people could benefit from that.
I'll post mine, and hope others will share theirs as well.
If there are multiple days of practice I like to take it pretty easy the first day or two. I'll start with a course walk, sometimes with my bike and sometimes without. This is just to know what to expect really, and not so much about picking my lines... even though I tend to do that naturally just by looking.
After I walk the track I'll start sessioning sections of the track that I find tricky. I typically don't ride them over and over but just pull off the track and note how and where the faster guys/gals are going. This, IMO, is one of the most helpful and important parts of practice... just watching. You'll quickly spot the better line after a few fast riders come through. Once I see the line, I ride it and if I nail it first try, I move on.
Once I've got all my lines together, which usually takes the entire amount of practice, I make sure I can picture pretty much every part of the track in my head and just mentally ride the track a few times. Sounds kinda weird but it's just what I do.
I usually won't do a top to bottom run until the day before race day. I'm still tweaking my lines as I ride the track section by section and continue to watch the faster riders to see if any new lines have opened up. If a new line has and it looks faster, I'll change my line and do my one practice go at it. If I nail it, I move on. Basically trying to learn the track and practice it while using as little energy as possible. If I'm racing a track that has a long pedal like Fontana, I never sprint it or push myself... gotta save that energy for the race run.
Come the last day of practice, I'll usually try to do 2-4 complete runs, top to bottom. If I mess something up on the first top to bottom run I'll push back up and try again. I still don't push hard until the last 2 runs.
Race day. At this point, I'll watch the fast guys again on any section of track I'm struggling. If I spot a better line I'll usually give it a go when I do my first run. If I keep all my current lines, I'll only do 1 or 2 runs, top to bottom. If I change something, I might do an extra run and stop riding at 3.
Come race run, I'll usually try and get up to the start a little earlier just to watch the pro riders drop. I'll keep the legs warm by either pedaling backwards or if there's an area I can just spin easily I'll ride that until I have to line up. Once in the gate... and this will sound cheesy as hell... my only thought is "you're here to have fun, that's the number one goal." Of course, as soon as I leave the start gate that thought goes away and I'm pretty much blacked out, only thinking about riding each section as it comes up how I practiced it.
I've never had to worry about remembering to breath or anything, but I do have to tell myself to not just go all-out right away, and to save energy for the WHOLE track, not just the top half. I tend to pedal out of pretty much every corner and rowdy section... even when it really doesn't matter, which is something I have to remind myself not to do.
A few things I always make sure I do: Pedal as hard as you can from the last section to the finish line and don't stop until you're completely through the line. For places like Fontana, this sucks, but start sucking air, stand-up and pedal the entire damn wall. I don't know how many times I've puked after a Fontana race.
One thing I NEVER do: Change my line between practice and race run. That national I mentioned earlier, where I was 0.02 away from first place... I changed my line in one corner just before I dropped in for my race run. Right at the top of the track as a little left turn without much support. I watched Chris Kovarik go inside on his race run and thought "holy shit that was way faster... I can do that." I couldn't. Went for the inside line, lost traction, dabbed as my rear wheel blew off track and lost a lot of time... definitely more than 0.02. If I would have stuck to my plan.... I would have likely won that race.
As far as food, I try and eat reasonably clean. Race day breakfast was usually a bagel with peanut butter, honey and a banana. For practice days, I used to make my own pre and post ride drinks. Beet, ginger root, green apple, cucumber and celery juice for pre and mostly greens (usually chard), green apple, celery, carrot, ginger root and lemon. I'd snack on fruit and pasta salad all day, too. Dinner was wherever the buds wanted to go, and I'd just eat as healthy as possible. Oh, and water, water and more water. I used to avoid beer and liquor, but I'll likely have a couple beers here and there now that I'm not really competitive.
Personally, I'm hoping to get back to a race or three this year, just for fun. So post up your routine... it's likely better than mine. Ha.
A poached photo (sorry DHMafia) from my first race ever. Beginner class, 50lbs freeride bike, full body armor.
I see this question asked a lot by people who are just getting interested in racing and have no idea what to expect. I also know a lot of the users in this forum are experienced and accomplished racers and lots of people could benefit from that.
I'll post mine, and hope others will share theirs as well.
If there are multiple days of practice I like to take it pretty easy the first day or two. I'll start with a course walk, sometimes with my bike and sometimes without. This is just to know what to expect really, and not so much about picking my lines... even though I tend to do that naturally just by looking.
After I walk the track I'll start sessioning sections of the track that I find tricky. I typically don't ride them over and over but just pull off the track and note how and where the faster guys/gals are going. This, IMO, is one of the most helpful and important parts of practice... just watching. You'll quickly spot the better line after a few fast riders come through. Once I see the line, I ride it and if I nail it first try, I move on.
Once I've got all my lines together, which usually takes the entire amount of practice, I make sure I can picture pretty much every part of the track in my head and just mentally ride the track a few times. Sounds kinda weird but it's just what I do.
I usually won't do a top to bottom run until the day before race day. I'm still tweaking my lines as I ride the track section by section and continue to watch the faster riders to see if any new lines have opened up. If a new line has and it looks faster, I'll change my line and do my one practice go at it. If I nail it, I move on. Basically trying to learn the track and practice it while using as little energy as possible. If I'm racing a track that has a long pedal like Fontana, I never sprint it or push myself... gotta save that energy for the race run.
Come the last day of practice, I'll usually try to do 2-4 complete runs, top to bottom. If I mess something up on the first top to bottom run I'll push back up and try again. I still don't push hard until the last 2 runs.
Race day. At this point, I'll watch the fast guys again on any section of track I'm struggling. If I spot a better line I'll usually give it a go when I do my first run. If I keep all my current lines, I'll only do 1 or 2 runs, top to bottom. If I change something, I might do an extra run and stop riding at 3.
Come race run, I'll usually try and get up to the start a little earlier just to watch the pro riders drop. I'll keep the legs warm by either pedaling backwards or if there's an area I can just spin easily I'll ride that until I have to line up. Once in the gate... and this will sound cheesy as hell... my only thought is "you're here to have fun, that's the number one goal." Of course, as soon as I leave the start gate that thought goes away and I'm pretty much blacked out, only thinking about riding each section as it comes up how I practiced it.
I've never had to worry about remembering to breath or anything, but I do have to tell myself to not just go all-out right away, and to save energy for the WHOLE track, not just the top half. I tend to pedal out of pretty much every corner and rowdy section... even when it really doesn't matter, which is something I have to remind myself not to do.
A few things I always make sure I do: Pedal as hard as you can from the last section to the finish line and don't stop until you're completely through the line. For places like Fontana, this sucks, but start sucking air, stand-up and pedal the entire damn wall. I don't know how many times I've puked after a Fontana race.
One thing I NEVER do: Change my line between practice and race run. That national I mentioned earlier, where I was 0.02 away from first place... I changed my line in one corner just before I dropped in for my race run. Right at the top of the track as a little left turn without much support. I watched Chris Kovarik go inside on his race run and thought "holy shit that was way faster... I can do that." I couldn't. Went for the inside line, lost traction, dabbed as my rear wheel blew off track and lost a lot of time... definitely more than 0.02. If I would have stuck to my plan.... I would have likely won that race.
As far as food, I try and eat reasonably clean. Race day breakfast was usually a bagel with peanut butter, honey and a banana. For practice days, I used to make my own pre and post ride drinks. Beet, ginger root, green apple, cucumber and celery juice for pre and mostly greens (usually chard), green apple, celery, carrot, ginger root and lemon. I'd snack on fruit and pasta salad all day, too. Dinner was wherever the buds wanted to go, and I'd just eat as healthy as possible. Oh, and water, water and more water. I used to avoid beer and liquor, but I'll likely have a couple beers here and there now that I'm not really competitive.
Personally, I'm hoping to get back to a race or three this year, just for fun. So post up your routine... it's likely better than mine. Ha.
A poached photo (sorry DHMafia) from my first race ever. Beginner class, 50lbs freeride bike, full body armor.
Practice day usually started with a half pace run to just get loose on the bike.
I would start picking up speed and hitting sections faster and faster but taking breaks to rest up. Occasionally pushing up to hit a section again if it really gave me problems.
Stop to eat and give myself a bit of rest around lunch. Even if I felt I needed to do more runs I found that rest and fuel was better off in the long run.
The second half of the day I would try and do a full runs towards the end of the day. Of course I would blow up, blow offline, etc. This usually gave me an indication of how hard I could push and how to react to being offline.
The very last run of the day I would try and do a full race run.
Eat, sleep, rest.
Race day I would always do around 3 runs before the race. By now I knew my pace and where I kinda wanted to be on the track in each section. Each run is solid, nonstop and hopefully my last run had a crash to loosen me up.
Try to eat and drink before race run.
Right before the race run try and find some dirt that was representative of the track and do cutties. This helped me get a feel for the dirt just prior to my race run.
Race run- start slow and smooth maybe 85% output until I got 2-3 turns in and then start to build to the end. I never wanted to peak before the last 1/4 of the track. I wanted the last 1/4 to be pinned.
I would try and analyze the track to identify where most time could be lost and most time could be gained. I would try to develop a strategy that worked with my strengths and weaknesses. gaining as much, but never loosing too much.
I learn trails best by sectioning them, then switch to all-out practice runs as race day approaches.
On race day, my third run is consistently the quickest, so I'll do two practice laps if possible before it's time to drop in. My body has enough time to warm up, I can evaluate the course conditions, iron out any last minute line changes (often heard through rumors like "so and so do ___ during qualies and it was fast!"), and get into go mode.
Enduro is fun because there is a lot more pacing and strategy going on than a DH race where its one-and-done, and this suits my style anyways.
A couple weeks out, give everything a once over on your bike: bleed brakes, check brakepads, tires, chain, etc. You want to work out the mechanical kinks now so if they fail after fix you can re-fix and Murphy's law applies - the part you want won't be available when you are 48 hours out from racing and that can ruin your psychological game. Then ride hard. I think 'tapering' is bullshit unless you are really a full-time athlete, and face it, the vast majority are not. Put in some long rides that emulate the time/distance demands the race will place on you. Two day race? Then spend two days in a row (weekend) hammering out more miles than the race is. Go top-to-bottom, and treat every mistake or mechanical like a race situation and get on your bike and GO. This is also the time to adjust nutrition or other mechanical things like tires. You do NOT want to change anything up day before the race, that is a rookie mistake.
If the race is close, go pre-ride the week before to get a feel for the course. For me at least, there is little value in riding it over and over and over all days leading up to the race. If it is not close, then plan accordingly - either mentally prepare to race blind or build in 2 days beforehand to pre-ride. A lot of people bitched and moaned about practice for EWS Crested Butte this year, which is a failure on their pre-planning part, not the race organizers.
Also depends on length of the race:
1-day race, I can usually ride relatively hard (~80%) the day before, but take a full rest day two days before.
2-day race, I'll take a full rest day 2 days before then do a short and easy ride (~60%) the day before.
Don't be a dumbass and go balls to the wall the day before the race starts, or think you can pack in an entire inspection day. If you didn't do your preparation, suck it up and deal with it. This is not the time to work on your fitness or inspect every single stage. Also realize there are plenty of people in the same situation as you.
For specific stages, at least with Enduro, there are usually a few tricky sections, those are the ones to get your line dialled:
Don't worry about the handful of places you might lose a second or two, worry about the turn/rock garden/wierd corner where if you screw up you're losing 30 seconds. I usually will check it out, and ride it until I clean it. Once i clean it, I'm done, file it away for race day.
Day before, hydrate, stretch, foam roll, eat health. I'll say it again, DONT change anything up. Just because the fast bro you met today told you a beet powder suppository helps him, you'll end up shitting yourself and bonking. Allocate a couple hours the evening before race to clean your bike, lube your parts, give it another once-over...
Race day - preplan your nutrition and hydration demands. I like Enduro too because its more about riding consistently for the whole day than blowing yourself up on the first stage. I usually tell myself to go 80% on the first stage then taper to 90%+ for the stages that really matter (the long ones). Relax in the start gate and tell yourself you're there to have fun and not get injured, ride hard and ride smart.
The best advice for everyone on this thread, from my freeskiing days, was from an ex-Olympian: "Go 95% on your race run. Don't ever go 100%. The adrenaline will always take you another 5-10%, so if you go 100% it'll take you over the limit and you'll blow up. If you go 95%, and you have to deliberately try and do this, the extra adrenaline will make you peak at 100-105% and you'll be on the controllable edge."
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