Matches

This weekend in western Massachusetts, the Deerfield Dirt-Road Randonee rolls out for its 21st (grueling) edition.  If you love riding gravel and relish a challenge, it’s worth checking it out sometime.

A handful of Bell Lap athletes are tackling the D2R2 this year, and we’ve been talking about individual approaches to pacing the numerous hard climbs that define this event.

At the outset of the D2R2 (and most other events), the first climbs feel manageable: you're fresh, the legs are willing, other riders around you are pushing themselves.  It’s easy to get swept up in the nerves and excitement early into the course, and it’s here where riders often overestimate their fitness.  

I had an athlete learn this one the hard way a few seasons back. He started strong, hammered the early pitches with fresh legs, and felt unstoppable for about two hours. But the climbs kept coming, mile after mile, and suddenly he had nothing left.  Not bonked, exactly. Still able to pedal OK on flat roads, but otherwise….just spent. 

There’s a phrase we use in coaching: burning a match. Think about your hard efforts — every surge, every climb and steep pitch you push through — as a match burnt from a limited supply. You don't get a fresh matchbook halfway through a five-hour gravel race. You get what you brought, and you find out how many you have left right around the time you need them most.

The fix isn't complicated, but it is uncomfortable. On the early climbs, when everyone around you is riding by feel and the feel is good, you have to actively hold back. Let the group go if you need to. Check your effort against something other than the rider next to you — heart rate, power, or just the honest question of whether you could do this again in another four hours. If the answer's no, you're burning a match you'll want later.

D2R2 or not, the math's the same. Spend early, pay late.

Yours in speed, 

Steve