For all us folks who have a few more years under our belts, I found this article written by Frank Overton about the habits of highly successful master cyclists. Click on the button below to read the full article.
Coast to Coast and National 24 Hour Challenge Recap.
By Kevin McWilliams
May 12, 2018. It's 5:30 Saturday morning and the headlights from my truck light the tailgate of the truck in front of us with bikers getting ready for the inaugural Coast to Coast Gravel Grinder. The start line is in Au Gres Michigan and its wet and cold at the start line. The countdown to the race starts and the race begins at 6:12 a.m. temperature at the start was 39 degrees. My riding buddy through all the training rides is Jim Samlow. Jim recently returned to a healthy lifestyle of riding bikes for hours and days on end. Jim wanted to compete later this spring in the National 24 HR Challenge to get his 1000 mile jersey. I said that the Coast to Coast would be a great training ride to get our base miles in before then. I was interested in just finishing the ride before the cutoffs and wanted to survive.
We headed off on our "training" ride at a moderate pace, the race was broken into checkpoint sections and our first checkpoint was 55 miles we had to be there before 11:30 a.m. We were hydrated, we had several pit stops during that first segment of the race. Elevation for the first section was 650 feet and we really didn't notice the elevation. We rolled into our first checkpoint around 9;30 and met up with our support crew of Patrick Smyth and Jim's oldest Daughter Katie. We ate and refilled our water bottles and left the checkpoint before 10 feeling good this was going to be cake. The next checkpoint was at 109 miles and it wasn't flat. Rollers the whole way almost immediately out of the checkpoint and to the next checkpoint we were climbing. When we arrived almost 5 hours later at checkpoint 2 we had quadrupled out climbing totals to over 2500 feet. We still felt fresh and we were still 2 hrs ahead of the cutoff. We reloaded with food and fluid and went off to the next checkpoint which was at miles 169 in Dublin. During this section we hit some sandy single track/seasonal roads the sections was not very long but we felt invigorated at our handling of the course we passed several people in this section who were struggling with the sand. Since we were from the west side of the state we knew a little about handling a bike is sandy conditions we felt good. Then gradually we started seeing more and more sandy and sketchy downhills which started effecting Jim's handling of his bike. Jim rode a cyclocross Specialized Crux with 700x35 tires. Needless to say they were a little too skinny. Right around the Pine River section of the course we caught up to Matt Meyer and Christina Peek on a tandem and Rick Mikkelson who rode along with Matt and Christina we all struggles through the sandy sections with several spin outs that I lost count of. Jim had just about enough of the sand and was getting frustrated with his bike. eventually we made our way out of the sand but still continued to climb by the time we made our third checkpoint in Dublin we were at 4500 feet of climbing. I didn't feel very good going into the last CP I hardly ate any food and could only drink little sips of fluid without feeling sick.. I was dehydrated. During the day temps had risen to almost 70 degrees and I failed miserably at keeping up with my fluid intake. Now as we left for the finish line it was going to be a long night ride. During the last leg of the race we yo yo ed back and forth with a couple of riders. We would make jokes about the conditions and how stupid we were to do this crazy 200+ miles race but our spirits were buoyed by the Salsa Chaise. The Salsa bicycles "Chase The Chaise" series were the place an ornate lounge in the middle of the course and you have your picture taken on it. As we started wondering if they would even be out this ate in the race we started seeing yard sign along the road leading us to the Chaise. Soon thereafter the forest sky was lit up with camera flashes and appropriate lighting for our Chaise pose. Jim and I had discussed some pretty crazy things we were going to do once we got on the Chaise but our tired bodies just wanted to lie down. So we decided to make a quick move and we spooned for the camera on the Chaise. We laughed so hard it hurt. I don't think the Salsa people got our joke but we had a great time doing that photo shoot. Soon we were back on our bikes and reality was setting in Jim became stronger and the night grew long and I couldn't keep my eyes off the Garmin as I watched the miles tic away every so slowly. Finally we made it out of the Manistee Forest and we were on roads again. Hills were there too. Jim would sprint up the hills as I granny geared most of them. My power was gone I couldn't even stay on Jim's wheel on the flats sections. Jim was having the time of his life looking at all the wildlife with his helmet light he had a great time!! I was still looking at my Garmin and was wondering why miles had to be soooo long. We eventually made it to Ludington at around 1:20 a.m. We were met by Matt Acker who was responsible for the course design. If I had the power I would have knocked him over for all that climbing (over 6500 feet) he put us through. I was to tired for that and happily took my finishing mug and other sweet swag for finishing. All in all a sense of accomplishment began to fill our bodies and buoyed us as we continued toward our next goal.
Up next was the National 24 hr Challenge held on Fathers Day weekend every year for 36 years in Middelville Michigan. Jim and I had the Coast to Coast training rides under our belts and even threw in an easy 106 miler before the June 16th event. The day started out cloudy and humid with a forecast of low 90 degrees. We got lucky in that it stayed overcast for most of our 120 loop and the 25 mile loops we completed in the afternoon. Jim and I rode together up until our second 25 mile loop in the afternoon. I did not want to hold Jim up for his quest for 400 miles and he was much stronger than I so we parted ways. The heat was started to build during my second loop. I kept to my schedule of drinking every 15 minutes to stay hydrated fortunately I set a timer on my Garmin Vivoactive monitor and tt worked well for me. After completing my second lap my beautiful wife met me at our tent and I got to see the dogs. For about twenty minutes I sat in air conditioned comfort of my truck and played with my dogs. When I emerged if felt refreshed, I waited for Jim to complete his third 25 mile loop (wow). When he pulled into the tent area he was ready to start the night loops I was ready also. We both quickly completed two night loops and I quickly started fading. At this point Jim continued on his night loops and I opted for a shower. A 30 minute shower with just the water running over me reinvigorated me once I got on the saddle again. I felt so good I was afraid of getting off the bike!! Somewhere around 1130 I caught up with Jim and we rode thru the night playing our music and taking turns on pulls and latching onto groups of faster riders as we clicked off the miles through the darkness. Around 4:00 a.m. I began to feel the effects of all day riding. Jim had felt tired earlier around 2:30 in the morning and he was able to fight off the sleep monsters by drinking caffeine. He was able to fight through that rough period and continue to grind out miles. I drank some coffee and my gut started telling me to back off so I continued to drink my Tailwind liquid nutrition and eat my plain rice/date balls. Now after completing a lap around 4:30 I felt very tired so I climbed into my zero gravity chair and snoozed for 20 minutes when I woke I felt fresh and was able to ride without the fatigue I felt before the nap. I was riding with Jim again, our conversations started focusing on making our goals. By 5:00 Jim figured he did not have enough time to reach his goal of 400 miles and was a little disappointed. However my goal of 300 was still within reach. Not until 6:30 did we figure out that I had 3 laps to reach my goal. Jim's girls Katie and Brooklyn had calculated my mileage and told us what we had left to do. We had two more laps and well over and hour to finish them. My goal was in sight. Jim and I watched the sun rise and took our sweet time to finish up without incident. In the end Jim had a personal best 359.5 miles and he got his 1000 mile Jersey!!! I finished with 306.8 miles and the satisfaction of riding until the end which was another lesser goal of mine. Our crew commented that we looked strong all the way to the end. Didn't feel strong on the way home.
Next up ODRAM.
By Kevin McWilliams
May 12, 2018. It's 5:30 Saturday morning and the headlights from my truck light the tailgate of the truck in front of us with bikers getting ready for the inaugural Coast to Coast Gravel Grinder. The start line is in Au Gres Michigan and its wet and cold at the start line. The countdown to the race starts and the race begins at 6:12 a.m. temperature at the start was 39 degrees. My riding buddy through all the training rides is Jim Samlow. Jim recently returned to a healthy lifestyle of riding bikes for hours and days on end. Jim wanted to compete later this spring in the National 24 HR Challenge to get his 1000 mile jersey. I said that the Coast to Coast would be a great training ride to get our base miles in before then. I was interested in just finishing the ride before the cutoffs and wanted to survive.
We headed off on our "training" ride at a moderate pace, the race was broken into checkpoint sections and our first checkpoint was 55 miles we had to be there before 11:30 a.m. We were hydrated, we had several pit stops during that first segment of the race. Elevation for the first section was 650 feet and we really didn't notice the elevation. We rolled into our first checkpoint around 9;30 and met up with our support crew of Patrick Smyth and Jim's oldest Daughter Katie. We ate and refilled our water bottles and left the checkpoint before 10 feeling good this was going to be cake. The next checkpoint was at 109 miles and it wasn't flat. Rollers the whole way almost immediately out of the checkpoint and to the next checkpoint we were climbing. When we arrived almost 5 hours later at checkpoint 2 we had quadrupled out climbing totals to over 2500 feet. We still felt fresh and we were still 2 hrs ahead of the cutoff. We reloaded with food and fluid and went off to the next checkpoint which was at miles 169 in Dublin. During this section we hit some sandy single track/seasonal roads the sections was not very long but we felt invigorated at our handling of the course we passed several people in this section who were struggling with the sand. Since we were from the west side of the state we knew a little about handling a bike is sandy conditions we felt good. Then gradually we started seeing more and more sandy and sketchy downhills which started effecting Jim's handling of his bike. Jim rode a cyclocross Specialized Crux with 700x35 tires. Needless to say they were a little too skinny. Right around the Pine River section of the course we caught up to Matt Meyer and Christina Peek on a tandem and Rick Mikkelson who rode along with Matt and Christina we all struggles through the sandy sections with several spin outs that I lost count of. Jim had just about enough of the sand and was getting frustrated with his bike. eventually we made our way out of the sand but still continued to climb by the time we made our third checkpoint in Dublin we were at 4500 feet of climbing. I didn't feel very good going into the last CP I hardly ate any food and could only drink little sips of fluid without feeling sick.. I was dehydrated. During the day temps had risen to almost 70 degrees and I failed miserably at keeping up with my fluid intake. Now as we left for the finish line it was going to be a long night ride. During the last leg of the race we yo yo ed back and forth with a couple of riders. We would make jokes about the conditions and how stupid we were to do this crazy 200+ miles race but our spirits were buoyed by the Salsa Chaise. The Salsa bicycles "Chase The Chaise" series were the place an ornate lounge in the middle of the course and you have your picture taken on it. As we started wondering if they would even be out this ate in the race we started seeing yard sign along the road leading us to the Chaise. Soon thereafter the forest sky was lit up with camera flashes and appropriate lighting for our Chaise pose. Jim and I had discussed some pretty crazy things we were going to do once we got on the Chaise but our tired bodies just wanted to lie down. So we decided to make a quick move and we spooned for the camera on the Chaise. We laughed so hard it hurt. I don't think the Salsa people got our joke but we had a great time doing that photo shoot. Soon we were back on our bikes and reality was setting in Jim became stronger and the night grew long and I couldn't keep my eyes off the Garmin as I watched the miles tic away every so slowly. Finally we made it out of the Manistee Forest and we were on roads again. Hills were there too. Jim would sprint up the hills as I granny geared most of them. My power was gone I couldn't even stay on Jim's wheel on the flats sections. Jim was having the time of his life looking at all the wildlife with his helmet light he had a great time!! I was still looking at my Garmin and was wondering why miles had to be soooo long. We eventually made it to Ludington at around 1:20 a.m. We were met by Matt Acker who was responsible for the course design. If I had the power I would have knocked him over for all that climbing (over 6500 feet) he put us through. I was to tired for that and happily took my finishing mug and other sweet swag for finishing. All in all a sense of accomplishment began to fill our bodies and buoyed us as we continued toward our next goal.
Up next was the National 24 hr Challenge held on Fathers Day weekend every year for 36 years in Middelville Michigan. Jim and I had the Coast to Coast training rides under our belts and even threw in an easy 106 miler before the June 16th event. The day started out cloudy and humid with a forecast of low 90 degrees. We got lucky in that it stayed overcast for most of our 120 loop and the 25 mile loops we completed in the afternoon. Jim and I rode together up until our second 25 mile loop in the afternoon. I did not want to hold Jim up for his quest for 400 miles and he was much stronger than I so we parted ways. The heat was started to build during my second loop. I kept to my schedule of drinking every 15 minutes to stay hydrated fortunately I set a timer on my Garmin Vivoactive monitor and tt worked well for me. After completing my second lap my beautiful wife met me at our tent and I got to see the dogs. For about twenty minutes I sat in air conditioned comfort of my truck and played with my dogs. When I emerged if felt refreshed, I waited for Jim to complete his third 25 mile loop (wow). When he pulled into the tent area he was ready to start the night loops I was ready also. We both quickly completed two night loops and I quickly started fading. At this point Jim continued on his night loops and I opted for a shower. A 30 minute shower with just the water running over me reinvigorated me once I got on the saddle again. I felt so good I was afraid of getting off the bike!! Somewhere around 1130 I caught up with Jim and we rode thru the night playing our music and taking turns on pulls and latching onto groups of faster riders as we clicked off the miles through the darkness. Around 4:00 a.m. I began to feel the effects of all day riding. Jim had felt tired earlier around 2:30 in the morning and he was able to fight off the sleep monsters by drinking caffeine. He was able to fight through that rough period and continue to grind out miles. I drank some coffee and my gut started telling me to back off so I continued to drink my Tailwind liquid nutrition and eat my plain rice/date balls. Now after completing a lap around 4:30 I felt very tired so I climbed into my zero gravity chair and snoozed for 20 minutes when I woke I felt fresh and was able to ride without the fatigue I felt before the nap. I was riding with Jim again, our conversations started focusing on making our goals. By 5:00 Jim figured he did not have enough time to reach his goal of 400 miles and was a little disappointed. However my goal of 300 was still within reach. Not until 6:30 did we figure out that I had 3 laps to reach my goal. Jim's girls Katie and Brooklyn had calculated my mileage and told us what we had left to do. We had two more laps and well over and hour to finish them. My goal was in sight. Jim and I watched the sun rise and took our sweet time to finish up without incident. In the end Jim had a personal best 359.5 miles and he got his 1000 mile Jersey!!! I finished with 306.8 miles and the satisfaction of riding until the end which was another lesser goal of mine. Our crew commented that we looked strong all the way to the end. Didn't feel strong on the way home.
Next up ODRAM.
WMCR Announces Changes to it’s Board of Directors
Geoff Burr has resigned from the WMCR Board and the remaining board members give Geoff a big heart-felt thanks for his cycling related labors over the last several years. Geoff coordinated the WMCR road racing efforts in recent years and also managed all of the club’s clothing projects, but a young family and extremely demanding work schedule necessitated him stepping down from his positon on the board. However, as the weather turns warm again, I’m sure we’ll occasionally see Geoff sporting his WMCR kit and joining into group rides!
The WMCR Board is pleased to announce that Chad Huchison has been appointed to fill the vacancy on the WMCR Board of Directors. Many of the club’s members already know Chad as he’s a mainstay in the local “roadie” scene and loves to “put the hammer” down on multiple area group road rides. Chad’s role on the board will be to help coordinate local group road rides – and perhaps a few road races too – plus manage the clothing projects; like Geoff did before him. (And, Chad also promises to dust off his 29’er and get some dirt on his tires too….).
Ride On!
The WMCR Board of Directors
Geoff Burr has resigned from the WMCR Board and the remaining board members give Geoff a big heart-felt thanks for his cycling related labors over the last several years. Geoff coordinated the WMCR road racing efforts in recent years and also managed all of the club’s clothing projects, but a young family and extremely demanding work schedule necessitated him stepping down from his positon on the board. However, as the weather turns warm again, I’m sure we’ll occasionally see Geoff sporting his WMCR kit and joining into group rides!
The WMCR Board is pleased to announce that Chad Huchison has been appointed to fill the vacancy on the WMCR Board of Directors. Many of the club’s members already know Chad as he’s a mainstay in the local “roadie” scene and loves to “put the hammer” down on multiple area group road rides. Chad’s role on the board will be to help coordinate local group road rides – and perhaps a few road races too – plus manage the clothing projects; like Geoff did before him. (And, Chad also promises to dust off his 29’er and get some dirt on his tires too….).
Ride On!
The WMCR Board of Directors