Panada Cup

This weekend I was racing in another Canada Cup, this one being arguably a bit more high profile; it takes place on the Pan American Games course at Hardwood Hills (Pan Ams is in less than a month now!). This brought athletes from all over North and South America to the venue (not to mention the cyclists from all around Canada), which is a neat opportunity for guys like me!

The dude from Columbia was very strong, and apparently a good starter
Thanks Hannah Clarke for always getting photos of our race

There's another reason that this race was very high profile for me; last year I broke my ribs there - I'll admit it, I was very afraid of riding that course again, and I didn't want to have to ride the chicken lines around the obstacles (what I mean by this is that any technical feature on the course had an alternate loop around it, but those took more time and weren't as cool). I borrowed a super light set of wheels with wide tires to help me boost my confidence, and got to the course early on Saturday to practice the course.

I can always count on teammates for help and support!

I got down to business with the goal of conquering every single obstacle on the course with the exception of "endo rock" where I broke my ribs last year. I figured that it wasn't worth the risk of me having a flashback and pressing the brake too much or something. I got my mojo quickly, and aced through the Disera Drop section (which scared me a lot).

Next was a crazy lineup of features, the first of which was a big rock drop (not unlike the one that I had broken my ribs on the prior year), followed by a massive hop over two stacked logs, then a downhill rock garden feature called boneshaker. I was working up the courage to hit the big rock line when team USA showed up. Normally I'd let them through so that I could continue to grow my bravery until such a time that I wasn't scared and would launch myself off of it, but my friend told team USA to wait, and then I really had to step up. I guess I work well under pressure, because I sent it right over the rock, hopped the logs, and that was it. I do admit though, that I was practicing my hops this week in preparation.

Once I got over that hurdle, everything felt easy, I had my flow and mojo, I helped friends and other riders to learn other sections of the course, and my bike was in perfect tune. I really just needed to get my mind around a few things and then I was fine. The weather was supposed to be nice, and I would have the race that I've been working towards, right?

This is us when we though that we'd have a sunny race

The race day was one of those days where it might rain, but it wasn't forecasted to, and everything goes the opposite of plan. I felt like the entire race was underneath a waterfall, which made the trails pretty greasy - kind of like someone had spread a few inches of peanut butter across the entire course. I was grateful to be using my friend's really nice carbon wheels, and also knew that I couldn't afford to fix them if I broke them, so I pumped my tires about 25% higher than I would normally ride with - just to be safe.

This is how we were feeling in the rain
Peter Kraiker photo 

The race start was chaotic as usual, and not even 10 seconds into the race I found myself skidding sideways to avoid crashing into someone - if someone 5 guys up touches his  brake, the resulting accordion effect is dangerous. I lost a lot of positions, but I kept upright and fought my way into a better position by the time we hit the singletrack. As usual, I couldn't ride my own speed because of how congested the trail was with riders, but I avoided crashes and kept the rubber side down, slowly gaining confidence on the slippery tires over the muddy terrain.

By midway through the second lap I was still pushing and making passes, hadn't fallen, and was shooting through all of the technical lines. My tires weren't doing me much of a favor in terms of grip (especially the rear), but I was riding with guys that I hadn't before, moving way up the field compared to the other two Canada Cup races that I'd done this year. I was feeling confident too, because in any section that I could actually pedal hard and use my fitness, I was gaining ground.

Thanks Eric Batty for cheering me on and taking such great photos, it means a lot to have someone that's been so influential in my cycling cheering me on.

By the third and fourth laps, enough people had been through the rainy course that it was totally loosened up and I couldn't ride up any of the hills, hike-a-bike time. I kept positive and rode my best, but I just couldn't keep up with guys who had made better tire choices, or were used to the tires that they were riding.

Another great shot from Eric http://www.ericbatty.com/

I was pulled due to the 80% rule (if you are not within 80% of the leader's time you are pulled off course in elite national races), but I had a lot of people come up to me after the race, saying that I looked stronger than I have before, and even my competitors passed on compliments. Things are looking good for me, I've got the perfect bike (with my own set of carbon wheels being built now), and though it may have taken me a bit longer than the other guys who spent time down south this winter, I am coming into form and there are more national series races in 4 weeks - just enough time to train and re focus for some great road trips, results, and races!

I would also like to thank my mom for coming out to the race this weekend! Love you mom!

Spring Epic 8 hour

Before my disastrous attempt at the first Ontario Cup of the season and the following flu, I had committed to an 8 hour race the next weekend. 8 hour races are more like festivals really than races; teams of 1, 2, 4, or 6 can be entered and they are raced as relay races. Because there are so many people allowed on each team, you end up with a whole lot of people at the course, all set up with tents, coolers, bikes, and music. Sure there are serious guys and serious teams, but it really just like a festival. Team Progressive/Superfly/Maverix was set up in true style with the Progressive Nutrition girls handing out electrolyte drinks and recovery shakes.

I still didn't really have a stomach that could eat much, but I tried and had an egg and a couple bites of oatmeal, and we got on our way. I was set up to tag team the race with Jasiu Kocemba (also known as Junior), a wicked fast junior racer. We did 2 laps at a time each, alternating while doing the 200+m of climbing. Maverix Racing also had Ryan and Lindsay racing the tag team mixed category, and some guys on a 4 person team, plus Matt and Kelsey testing their legs on the course solo (8 gnarly hours in 30+ degrees!).

Start line stories

The race start was a bit chaotic, I did have a front line position, but I was basically starting in a sandbox and got crashed into by two other people before I could properly clip into my bike and get moving in a straight line. I got pretty flusetered after that and by the time that we had climbed up the first major climb, I was sitting pretty in 4th place - I knew this was pretty aggressive for a tag team rider, but my ego needed it after last weekend. Here I was cruising in the top 10 riders and hear some familiar joking coming from beind me, Kelsey and Matt had made it onto the back of my wheel - for bettter or for worse. I reminded them that their goal was to finish all 8 hours of the race on their own, but I guess we got a bit caught up in the moment. By the last quarter of my first lap I was starting to feel like throwing up and it was a long day after that. I slowed down and let Matt and Kelsey ride away from me, which is never an easy thing to do, but I benefitted in the long run from putting my ego aside and pace more moderately. I still came in from my first two laps in good standing, and Junior was a perfect partner for the race.

Smooth handoffs of the timing chip and safe storage (up my shorts) is important!

I had trouble putting back any food, but between the laps I would eat a half of a CLIF bar and some of the phytoberry and vegegreens product from Progressive nutrition. This small amount of sustenance was enough to keep me motoring as one of the fastest riders all day. Being teammates with Jasiu meant that I was treated like royalty and taken care of by his dad Simon Kocemba, who made sure I always had cold towels after my laps, that we knew when to get the timing chip, and that my bike was always in order. By the end of the day, Jasiu and I managed a collective 15 laps, lapping second place!

A gold medal on my birthday!

The Maverix 4 man team did quite well, with another solid 1st place finish, but I can't say the same for our poor boys out riding on a solo mission. Matt unfortunately had a big crash which resulted in a broken bike and staples to put his knee back together (he has made an unbelievably fast recovery since then), and Kelsey paid for those early sprints with some serious cramping. At one point in the race I passed by Kelsey on the side of the trail bent over his bike all seized up, I wanted to help him but he told me to keep riding. About 10 seconds later my leg seized up too. Real bros have sypathy cramps for eachother.

Happy team going home with lots of hardware, I missed the picture though..

Back to racing 2015 - struggles of the first big race

This year in Canada (especially in Kingston - why did I move here?) we've had a drawn out and cold winter. I managed to get down south for some road bike races with the Queen's road cycling team (not really a focus of mine, but nice to get onto moving bikes outside), followed by an amazing race called the Uxbridge Icebreaker which was the first real mountain bike ride of the season for me!

The weather down south wasn't much better (this is Boston) -Philippe Tremblay photo

The trip to Vermont was amazing, thanks UVM for hosting me!

Second mountain bike ride of the year - Uxbridge Icebreaker - Hannah Clarke photo

There are a few reasons that I didn't cover these races on my blog - school (I've been working so much here that I ended up growing a "paper beard" that I wouldn't let myself shave until I finished a paper)

A quick selfie in my office at Queen's - what do you think of the beard?

And because I wanted to give some coverage of the exciting new team that I get to be a part of; Team Progressive powered by  Superfly/Maverix Racing! Small bits of info and teasers have been coming at me all winter from Jay, our main man/team manager and it all came together for me when last week I was invited to a nutrition seminar at the Progressive Nutrition headquarters. I met half of the team there (some of them for the first time), and was greeted in the parking lot by Jay, who had some important things for me. Firstly, he had a burrito, the Jay E. (he's kind of like Jay-Z) special from Mucho Burrito (you can ask for it anywhere in the country, I like mine with a little extra spice), next he had some fresh kits (what bikers call uniforms), and finally he had some AWESOME swag fro POC.

A hood full of awesome new things (good thing for THULE to make my car an SUV right?)

The nutrition seminar was great, but at the end I had to ask "So how big is my shopping list if I want to get all of these things?", apparently everything I need except DHA and EPA fats (which I can get in fish oil) come with 1 shake per day of VegEssentials - not bad. I'm pretty excited to be working with Progressive Nutrition because for a guy like me who's always busy and doesn't exactly have tons of time for shopping and cooking, it's nice to just have a shake and worry less.

Missing tons half of the team here unfortunately

We got all set up on the Saturday of the weekend with a new tent/expo area to hang out under, and it was great to have such support at the race. Saturday a few of us Maverix guys took groups out riding on the course to build confidence on the trails, and I was really enjoying the beautiful day - I really didn't want to leave (and spent a bit too much time in the sun).

Riding with these guys was a treat, So great to see their improvements after just one lap!

On Sunday, I showed up with a perfect bike, but 5 minutes after I got there I had a flat tire, and then a brake issue. I put my bike into the stand under the tent to get to work on it and I was almost pushed out of the way by our MVP this weekend Simon, who fixed and cleaned my bike.

On the start line I was calm and ready, I had trained harder than ever this winter, and some some pretty great fit things - time to reap the benefits. The race start was fast, but not out of control fast until we reached the first steep climb of the lap, and that was when it started to really hurt. I told myself that I would settle in, and that I could do these efforts, so I pushed it hard to keep my position in the pack. I was gasping for air and definitely not going as fast as I thought I should - but I pushed, thinking that the efforts would feel more reasonable once I had raced a bit longer.

I really couldn't manage a smile - not feeling good at all (Thanks Elissa for the photo)

By the second lap I had been passed by more and more riders, and I knew that I wasn't feeling good. My back seized up, and I really contemplated dropping out of the race. What was the point of all the work that I had done if I was even slower than last year? I started to think about all of my goals for the year and how they were all so unlikely now, and really got down on myself. I knew that I was racing for dead last, and it was painful that that became obvious to me in the second lap of a five lap race, but I stuck it out. I thought that maybe all that I needed was to train at the super high heart rates that a mountain bike race brings on, so at least I would be "racing into fitness" (using races to get performance gains). Besides, I'd rather finish DFL (Dead eFfing Last) than have a DNF (Did Not Finish) beside my name, at least I'd finish with my integrity.

Even my hoverbike didn't help me that day (Thanks Elissa for the photo)

Maybe a smile would have made me ride faster? Probably. 

I tried not to show how unhappy I was and be a good sport, but all of the pictures of me in that race I have this same dumb unimpressed look, sorry guys.

This is what grouchy Chris sprinting on to a lonely sprint finish looks like:

I'm convinced that I will be racing a lot faster in the future, and that this is an isolated incident (I was in bed for the day 3 days later with the flu). Thanks Mom too for coming to watch me race and hand out water bottles, love you! I'm planning to be back on top of my game for the 8 hour race on Saturday at Mansfield. It's my birthday and 8 hour races are almost like bike festivals for the day, so I invite anyone to come out and race a few laps! Mostly it's a great social event to get out, try a race course, and meet lots of people.

PS throw my new team some "likes" on Facebook and Instagram, we've got some great media and love to see the support!

Adirondack super awesome shred gnarliness: the path less traveled

Adirondacks March 2015 from Matthew Farquharson on Vimeo.

Different people have different tactics for getting to through the winter, I'm all about embracing winter for a period of time, then forcing it out of my life. One way I like to do this is give it a good wrap up weekend; "Hey winter, let's have fun one last time, then see you in November, okay?". I decided to plan a trip in the Adirondacks and invite all of my friends! Matt. I love you buddy.
I got confirmation that I had a travel partner at noon on Friday, while gorging myself at an all you can eat buffet for students, Matt was coming and he'd be at my place around midnight.
Around 1:30 Matt showed up, we finalized our route plans, and went to bed at about 2 (I was too excited to sleep actually) and we woke up at 5:30am to get an early start on a big trip (Noonmark Mountain, Dix Mountain, Beckhorn, Hough Peak, South Dix Mountain, East Dix (Gracie) Mountain and Macomb Mountain on day 1, followed by a massive hike around Elk Lake to the next range where we would do Pinnacle Mountain, Blake Peak, Mt. Colvin, over Elk Pass to Nippletop Moutain, then Dial Mountain, and Finally Bear Den Mountain before a big hike out to the car.). We didn't look too hard but it seemed to be something like 2 20km days and about 13 mountains or something. Time to sleep.

The first mountain (Noonmark Mountain) was 75% incredible, the whole way up was really nice and challenging, but once we were about 3/4 of the way up, we were above the ceiling (in the clouds), and couldn't see much. We quickly found out that down could be a lot more fun, and started running and jumping to a slide on our bums (or I even penguin slid on my stomach once or twice). This was like going down a waterslide, except for the fact that there are trees and cliffs around, but it was fun and significantly less effort so why not?

We made quick distance along the valley to the next mountain range, where we started climbing Dix Mountain. This was a complete wall to climb, but once we could get to the top we were able to hike along the dagger's edge of the range, the problem was that there had been so few people using these trails that they were very hard to find.

Matt climbing up Dix Mountain, we did this steepness for about 45 minutes. 

I managed to spot some faded snowshoe tracks, and we began our treck from Dis Mountain to Beckhorn, then across to Hough Peak, and eventually South Dix and East Dix. Getting along the razorback of the mountain proved tougher than we expected for a few reasons. Firstly, it being so late in the winter, we figured that we didn't need snowshoes because it hadn't snowed recently. What we didn't foresee was that nobody gets that far out and does the trails so that we were sinking into the snow up to our knees or crotch or armpits. The next problem was that because the prevailing winds always come up one side of the mountain and down the other, you end up with a snowdrift effect that piles snow taller than the trees, and out past where the cliffs and rocks are. This made for precarious walking, as it was a pretty snowy storm, and if you stepped to close to a buried tree, the snow wouldn't support you at all and you could be up to your armpits in snow.

The struggle was real here (and in the video at the end of this post). 

Hiking along the ridgeline was pretty awesome as the cliffs dropped off on both sides, but it was a bummer that there was so much snow that you couldn't really see out. It was a slow going, with lots of crawling just to keep on top of the snow, or to duck under the limbs that make the tops of these trees, and by the time we hit the turnoff where we would go to East Dix Mountain, we decided to do the responsible thing and get over Macomb Mountain so that we got to shelter on time before it got too dark.

Look how skinny these trees are, they're the tops of trees!

When we summitted Macomb, the trail just stopped. We couldn't even find the faintest trail at all. Upon looking at the map, I realized that we had definitely continued along the Dix Mountain chain, and were actually way out on East Dix mountain. We ended up there because we mistook a fork in the trail. In the summer there would have been more forks than there are because nobody had blazed these trails, so we went much too far up another mountain, and now had to get to the shelter for the night as fast as we could before dark. It was hard to see trails in the light when you're not near the well traveled paths, and it was starting to rain. We never got up the elusive Macomb mountain.

Cliff? What cliff?

We found a lean to just as it was getting dark, and after about an hour of running/hiking in the rain.  Thank you Lillian Brook for giving us a dry spot to sleep. I guess that you can't really trust maps in the winter so much, because you're at the mercy of whoever has blazed the trails before. We were pretty relieved to get to the lean to and start boiling water and re-hydrate our space food. I was sitting in my sleeping bag mixing my packet of dehydrated food and boiling water that I realized what my greatest fear would be: if the whole mixture somehow opened while in my bag. Which happened about 20 seconds after this thought occurred. I may have had water and pad thai all over me, but that night's sleep was the best one that I can remember in a while, bundled up in a 3 sided log cabin with a roof over my head. We slept from 8pm to 7am, ate some oatmeal (we had to share Matt's breakfast because I thought that he said he was going to bring me one too), and hit the trail.

Ready to leave our snowed in accommodations

We got out for a long day and started to work our way around the southernmost bit of our route, out past Elk Lake and then wrapping up north west toward the Blake Mountain Range. It was precarious just like the day before, sinking feet in the snow all of the time, which led to a nervous mission-impossible style of hiking, trying to be light on our feet even with the heavy packsWe got about 14 km from where we started and the trail just stopped. Judging by the map however, there would be a trail intersection in less than 1km, so we decided to trudge through some seriously deep snow. How deep? I don't actually know, because if you're walking on pure snow you typically only ever sink to your crotch. I did however see the tops of what would be ~8ft beech trees sticking out from the snow, so I like to imagine that we were in snow over our heads. Went went over a small mountain pass this way and then the trail stopped. 

It took us more than a half hour to go about 700m. And the there was no trail, just signs where the intersection should be. Our options were clear: hike 4 more miles to up two mountain peaks to where we THINK there would be packed trail again, or turn around, and hike 15km back to where we started, and another close-to-20km back to the car over the Dix range again. Given that we couldn't even guarantee that the trail was packed in 4 miles (and that that would take about 8 hours maybe), and that we only had a couple of CLIF bars left, we turned back. Close to 9km later we were back on trail that was hard enough to run on, still 5 or 6km from where we had woken up, and more than 6 hours into our day, which started at 8am. This meant that it was time to run. We set a good pace along the trail, with a fast walk up hills and inclines, and running flat sections and downhills. Our next trail decision came when we got to the fork that would be either taking a trail straight up Dix Mountain, or going a slightly longer route up Hunter's Pass. Either way, we were more than 30km into our second day of hiking, with limited food, limited daylight, and weather that was getting colder. Matt was a big advocate of going straight up and over Dix, we thought that we could back down in the valley on the other side in an hour and a half. Dix mountain broke us. It took more than 2 hours just to reach the summit, and the trail was TOUGH. 

The higher we went, the further from the top we seemed, worn out smiles

Matt had gotten into his every man for himself mode. We were no longer singing songs (which is fair because we were going up a mountain and that requires a lot of breathing), but the banter back and forth had stopped, and it was a stone cold process of walking, crawling, and sinking through the snow. I could also tell that something was wrong because I could take it easy for a minute and still catch up to him. I'm never faster than Matty up a mountain. After more than an hour of silence (mixed with my mumbling about stupid snow and having to swim through snow to get up a mountain) Matt looked back at me and said that he was cold. Sure, it's the winter and it's quite cold and windy, but the trail was very steep and I wasn't cold at all, the poor guy had bonked, and had no blood sugar left. We stopped and shared the last CLIF bar, getting colder but re energizing at the same time, and kept going. We were climbing a bit of a razorback up the mountain, summitting Beckhorn before continuing up Dix, allthewhile with cliffs on both sides, and only somewhat sheltered by the trees from the wind which prevailed from our left. Finally, we were completely exposed and had made the summit of Dix Mountain, which was a dangerous mix of icy rocks and a lot of wind. 

The way down Dix gave us both the energy to keep trucking, sliding down wall that took us 45 minutes to climb the day before was pretty awesome, like a dangerous icy waterslide that lasted 5 minutes. I set the pace across the valley as we ran back to the car, and just as it was getting dark, after 11 hours of hiking, we got back to the road. It was 19 combined hours of hiking, and about 74km in 2 days, I'm glad that I've got great friends to push myself and find new places with, and that when things go went bad, we manged to make the right call and get out of there, even if it involved 48km in one day in the Adirondacks. Thanks for the support buddy, we'll get that whole route in the summer.