As a middle-aged female, I am not in the camp of professional racers, and also not genetically advantaged to race bicycles at 5 feet tall.
However, that does not stop me from loving cycling and dreaming up goals and chasing after them. My goal was to ride the 40-mile distance of a cross-country Leadville series race. So if this is your situation, read more to find out how how I did it, because it was a really rewarding and fun journey, and I want you to do the same!
The Goal
The Rattler, my favorite race xc race, is an annual part of the Leadville series that includes options for trail running and mtb racing. Mountain bikers can choose 20, 40 or 60 miles, with the 60 mile race opting them into a potential race entry for Leadville.
Rattler takes place at Reveille Peak Ranch, a private location an hour north of Austin - well known and loved by many local Austinite mountain bikers, hikers, dirt bikers and sometimes concert goers. Reveille has strikingly beautiful terrain with pink and black granite marked by languid cows grazing in fields.
Central Texas is hilly but not particularly “mountainous.” There is some hilly elevation in that area, which makes it a good spot for for these races.
Getting Started
I raced the 20 mile distance of the Rattler in 2020, 2021 and 2022. As these things go, to get the same positive benefit of goal setting and good ole rush of accomplishment, I had to push for the next distance. My husband who prefers enduro and downhill agreed to sign up as well, and for the record he ended up liking it.
Gear
I've ridden a 2020 version of the Pivot 429 Trail bike each year and I feel like it is a solid bike for that terrain. You see a lot of lightweight cross-country bikes there as well. Also, most xc racers in the 60 are using lighter bikes and clipping in. I use flat pedals.
Enlisting Help
As this was going to be my first 40 mile attempt on a mtb, I enlisted a professional coach to get in shape. This became a game changer for a couple of reasons. Reason 1, I worked with my coach and used Training Peaks to track my workouts and metrics, and he provided daily workouts based on my data that allowed me to slowly increase without getting injured or burning out. Reason 2, I got a solid energy strategy going.
Train by Pedaling
Zone 2 training is the big thing right now. And it works!
Though I have seen guidance that mountain bike training should be done on a mountain bike, which has a logical ring to it, it's not always feasible. With the need to train daily, work full time, and not living near trails, and 100+ degree heat of Austin summers, daily trail riding was beyond my reach.
So I used what I had and trained on a Peloton during the week, supplementing with 2 to 6 hour outdoor rides on the weekends.
I rode mostly zone 2 with some interval training for 1 to 1.5 hours on the Peloton most mornings, and Jason did similar with Zwift (and eventually switched to Trainer Road).
I combined an instructor led warm up and cool down ride with a “just ride.” “Just ride” is an option on Peloton that is what it sounds like - no instructor and you are just riding. With this approach I was able to get more precision on the workout targets assigned to me based on wattage and zones on my Peloton. Audiobooks are your friend to combat tedium of hours on the bike.
From a data collection perspective, I had to do some manual effort of downloading and combining Strava files to upload them to Training Peaks for analysis. That is one minor annoyance of Peloton/ Training Peaks combination that Zwift or smart trainer with Trainer Road doesn't have.
Peloton offers a lot of shorter workouts that are more in line with spin classes than long distance training. However, there is an offering of long zone 2 training options that are instructor led. If you are into long distance training rides can really help. Shout out to Matt Wilpers who is my favorite endurance coach on Peloton! Sam Yo and others also do solid endurance training rides.
It's good to have checkpoints, so we signed up for a couple of 50 and 60-ish mile road rides during this time. I was really impressed with how far I'd come. I was in the best cycling shape of my life!
The power of the almighty carb
A big moment in my fitness and training was that my coach finally convinced me that energy gels wouldn’t make me gain weight. I know all the progressive thinking on this matter but look - true honest confession: I avoided carb intake during training and races for close to two decades due to an irrational fear of gaining weight.
I expressed resistance in a few long, skeptical email exchanges with my coach, especially to taking in the amount of carbs (30-60g per hour) prescribed by my coach, which seemed like a LOT.
He convinced me that carbs not only enhance performance, they are absolutely necessary past a certain point of endurance. And they keep us from overeating after races, so in some ways are useful for weight management. What? After some deliberation and research, I decided to give it a shot. I tried some energy gels and carb mix with water while I rode, somewhat below the levels assigned but still way more than I ever had.
And I was… amazed. My fitness and endurance increased significantly.
WHAT! I have been running races (up to marathon distance) and doing sprint triathlons since 2005, and I have never had more than 1-2 energy gels in the entire effort, maybe a few cookies or a sip of gatorade at the aid station.
I would race to the point of delirium often and thought this was a normal part of racing. Once I started mountain biking same thing, I would hit a wall at 3-4 hours, no ability to ride the next day and thought this was just the limit of my fitness. If this is happening to you consider whether your fueling strategy is working.
After I got on the carb train, I could not believe how much I had been limiting my performance this way. Furthermore, the realization that I had gotten used to delirium, dehydration and mild bonk state and even looked forward to it in a way, well.... that's just how weird I am.
By refueling on carbs, I took my longest training ride from 3.5 to 6 hours with no issues. Achievement unlocked!
Outdoor Training
A big challenge to training cross-country in Austin is the lack of many long distance cross-country trails. After much trial and error here is my report of the options.
Location | Pros | Cons |
Slaughter Creek Trail |
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South Austin Trail Network |
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Walnut North Metropolitan Park |
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Reveille Peak Ranch |
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Rocky Hill Ranch |
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Pace Bend |
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If you don’t recognize any of these locations, just know that while there are some options, it is pretty difficult to avoid monotony and to find elevation when training for long-distance on a mountain bike in Austin, but we made it work.
Race Day Location and Diet
Staying at a location close to the venue can really help out. We do not have a camper so we stayed in a tiny house on site the night before race day, which saved us from having to get up super early, drive in and wait in traffic.
To prevent digestion issues we avoided fiber (and drinking coffee too late in the morning). So our breakfast was scrambled eggs with brown rice that I had cooked the night before. We added Tamari to give it more flavor, and it was delicious.
I was amped! My nerves were going nuts.
After some of the other waves started out, the 40 milers lined up.
After months of training I couldn’t believe it was finally happening. It started, I played my the special Spotify playlist I made the week before with hours of music (bone conduction earphones so I could hear the environment) and took off. Loop one went great, and on loop two I started to feel the climbs. I couldn’t eat solid food but I was able to choke down the energy gels and drink carb mix. At hour 5, I pulled into the finish line. Boom!
Success
So finally, I was standing on the podium of women’s riders for the Rattler 40. I was 12 minutes away from 2nd place, so I silently vowed to get more efficient with my transition tasks next time.
In any case, my goal was to finish so I was ecstatic about this result.
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