White Mountains 100

I got into the WM100 race this year. It is open to about 65 bikers, 10 skiers and 10 runners due to capacity restriction of the checkpoints. So there is a lottery for all the interested racers every year and if you lucky enough you will get in. I was couple places under the cut off, but i got in because some people canceled.

The race is held about 35 miles north of Fairbanks in White Mountains. It is definitely colder up there than here in Anchorage so i was pretty worried what the temperature is going to be like. I mean how cold it is going to get. On the way up to Fairbanks i stop at the Denali viewpoints and snap couple pics.

Denali South Viewpoint

Denali North Viewpoint

The race actually starts on Sunday, but there is a mandatory meeting on Saturday afternoon. The atmosphere of the event was really cool from beginning. Everybody is really talkative and sharing the info from the past races along with some advises.

Preparation for the race

 

 The Race itself is held on the snow machine trails and there are about 5 checkpoints evenly spread out over the course. You have to climb over the Cache Mountain Pass which everyone call The Divide. The Divide is half point of the way and it is the highest elevation on the course. The first half of the race is all up and down and along with the above mentioned climb to conquer the Divide make up the most of the about 8000 feet of descent of the race. Once you get over the divide you will be flying down until about mile 90 where you hit so called The Wall! The Wall is a very steep climb which I believe gain about 800 feet over 1 mile. You just want to shoot yourself by that time and not to be climbing the Wall!

Start of the Race

Sunrise at the Start of the Race

Anyhow, I really enjoy the bike ride. I mean it was not without the pain, but man it is beautiful up there! The temperature at the start was about 0 Fahrenheit, but it went down to -15 on the first part of the course and that is when i made a fatal mistake and unzipped my jacket! Part of my camel-back tube got exposed and froze. Well,I did not drink a drop of water for the first 39miles (4 hours). So here I'm at mile 30 and cramps are starting taking the fun out of the race. I made it to the second checkpoint and chug a liter of coke and water, recoup and went to conquer the divide. I did not get rid of the cramps for the rest of the race, but it was manageable.

Race map

 Race profile

Race

The Wall was a treat, as i mentioned previously, but other than that the rest of the ride was pretty mellow. I crossed the finish line somewhere under 11h, which i was happy with as my plan was either under the 12 hours or finish before dark. Every finisher got the buckle, which i think is really cool prize. I love my Buckle!!

Finisher Buckle

However, my adventure was not over yet. I crossed the finish line, but i still had a 7hours drive to Anchorage. So I chow down a hotdog chug 3 beers, just kidding i actually chug 3 sparkling waters or whatever that was, and went on my merry way. I was lucky enough that almost entire way home there were norther lights out! Pretty awesome views.

Northern Lights-It is hard to get good pic

Little Su 50K suffer fest

I did the Little Su 50K fat bike race as last year. I ended up at the same place as last year as if matter, but what was very different as compare to last year were the conditions.

And i mean very very different. It was all hard pack or ice last year so you could buzz along very quickly. if I'm not mistaken it took me about 2 hours and 8 minutes last year. Also if i recall correctly i started cramping up at about 40-45KM into the race last time, which was not really a big deal as all can happen is that you loose the finish sprint.

Well this time around we got some fresh snow throughout the entire week leading to the race so the trails were soft and chopped up by snow machines. it was a slow going for me and pushing uphills. I also run a very low tire pressure which does not help to your speed either. I started cramping up about 20km into the race. i was totally surprised by that. By the 35km slowly rolled around i was almost unable to paddle due to multiple cramps. Not a pretty picture of me. I finished with the pain in my face at about 3hours and 40minutes pretty much one hour and 30minutes slower than last year.

All in All it was a good test for White Mountains 100 miles race which is scheduled for end of the March. Yeah i definitely need to do more biking before that.

here is the map of the course:

Kenai 250 butt massacre

Kenai 250 is the bikepacking race to do in Alaska. It starts and ends in beautiful town of Hope and hits pretty much every singletrack and trail on Kenai peninsula between Hope and Seward. It consist of about 200 miles of singletrack, 65 miles of paved roads and 30,000 feet of elevation to peddle up. It is brutal.

The conditions this year were relentless, wet, muddy and showers definitely guaranteed being wet entire race. The streams which you had to cross were double in size due to rain over the past couple days and temperature was in mid 50's. All in all conditions were just like we love it up here in Alaska.

I was excited about this race entire year as I really wanted to explore all the trails on Kenai. So far, I only did the Resurrection trail as part of Soggy Bottom race in 2015. Here i could enjoy the Resurrection Trail, Devils creek trail, Johnson Pass, Crown Point Loop, Iditarod trail, Lost Lakes, Russian Lakes. Well at least that was my plan until I sat down (by sat down i mean fell) into one of the creeks on the Devil's creek trail and got sand in my bike shorts, which i did not realized until 6 hours later when i could not sit on my arse.

We left Hope at 9 am on Friday and by 9pm we were on the Iditarod trail heading toward Seward (half point of the race) and I had to bike standing up because of the sand paper like feeling in my pants. When we were pulling into Seward at midnight I not only had a mess of an ass but my legs were cramping due to the biking in standing position for past 3 hours.

So i decided that rather to continue as part of the lead group out of Seward and getting droped off from the group somewhere on the climb to Lost Lakes, I took couple hours of sleep and tried to recover my butt and legs. There is nothing more scary than bike in the middle of the night on overgrown trail in bear country. And i mean there was bear shit everywhere.

Next day at about 6 am I headed lonesome to the Lost Lake Trail, but I was not able to sit on the seat. Bottom line is that i called it in and biked the highway back to Hope, which still was 75 miles away.

I really enjoy the ride despite of the sand and not finishing and I definitely will come back next year.

Little Su 50K alias leg burner

This past weekend I had a privilege to race the little sister of the Susitna 100 race called Little Su 50K. After long week of fucked up random acts of a human scumbag including stealing my car along with my bike, I thought that the race is lost and the pleasure of riding in Alaska backcountry with about 125 of the finest bikers, runners and skiers is not gonna happened. BUT! my bike was recovered in full glory and I was at the start bright and early on Saturday morning at 11 am.

The weather was balmy around 28 degrees along with the sunshine and the pace was fast until about mile 8 when the beautiful hard snow was changed to sugary leg burning pain. That is where I lost contact with the front group and suffer by myself for about another 8 miles. Lucky enough the trail switched back to nice and hard surface so hurrey! I go turning and churning the cranks to the finish. Last 3 miles was in the name of a cramps but who cares when is so nice outside and you are on the bike.

Anyhow, I finished  top ten and had a freaking blast. Afterall, the whole week was just so screwy that even if it would be shitty weather and I had to walk out due to defect I would still be happy.

Frosty Bottom 2016

 The Frosty Bottom happened!

Yes! 2016 Frosty Bottom was raced this past Saturday January 16th. It was almost canceled but at the last moment we got about 1-2 inches of snow which was exactly enough what we needed. If it would snow little more it would be a slow race due to unpacked snow and if it would snow little less it would be probably canceled due to icy conditions. So we got lucky!

The race was very fast and very entertaining well at least for me. I really had a blast. My hot bun strategy worked out pretty well and i ended up top 20 and under 3 hours which I'm happy with.

Results: The Frosty Bottom Results

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Here is the update for Frosty!
Due to a suckage of weather here in Anchorage, The Frosty Bottom race is postpone until January 16th, 2016.

It has been above freezing since 28th of December, and I mean 15 degrees Fahrenheit above freezing. And it seems like it will continue that way for about another 4 days. There is no snow just mud and ice. We will be happy to get any snow before the 16th so I can see that the race might be postponed even further out. Ohhh and we also got some rain and high winds:(
Man, I want some winter this year!

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Alright, here is the skinny on The Frosty Bottom of 2016! The event is planned for 2nd of January and includes somewhere between 44-50 miles on your fatbike, cold, snow, falls, cramps, and hopefully finish!

What is my strategy you ask? Well, given that it is day after New Year my strategy is to keep all my body fluids inside for a duration of the race. That includes no puking! 

Also i will use my "hot bun" approach. For those who do not know what the fuck is "the hot bun" racing strategy, not to be worry as i just come up with this name.

 "The hot bun strategy" is to find a peloton or group of riders (oven) who are little faster than you. I will hide within the group for good 80% of the race and keep my buns warm. Once you feel hot, somewhere around 5 miles to finish, you shoot out of the oven and hope that your hot buns will carry you victoriously to the finish.

I will be riding my 9-zero-7 aluminum whiteout with carbon fork, handlebars, seat post and sram GX1 11 speed ( more specs later). 

Here is the links for all info about the race: http://www.chainreactioncycles.us/events.html#frosty-bottom

What the future holds

....and by future i mean good part of 2016. Here is couple things which i would like to do:

Frosty Bottom- i really love this snow bike race. Not only it goes right outside of the house where i live but also it is shitload of fun. I did this one last year and i had a blast. It is or suppose to be 50 miles race but last year it was only 44 miles so lets see what is the race course like this year.

If anybody is interested here is the link: 

http://www.chainreactioncycles.us/events.html

 

Little Su 50k snowbike race- i have never done this race, partially because im scare shittless of cold and remote areas. This race has a big brother called Susitna 100 which as it says is 100 miles race out of Big Lake, Ak. It is somewhat remote race on partially maintained trails. It involves a lot bike pushing, all depends on snow condition.

Here is the link: 

http://www.susitna100.com

 

I'm already signed up for those two above so here is a my work/wish list:

Kenai 250- is bikepacking endurance race on freaking beautiful Kenai peninsula. I already did part of this course last summer as the 90 miles Soggy Bottom race. Oh and that reminds me that i need to do it again!

https://kenai250.wordpress.com

 

Soggy Bottom- as I said I did the petite version last summer which was 90 miles from Hope to Coopers Landing via Ressurection trail. It is a phenomenal ride! The classic longer course is 110 miles which i planned to do this year.

http://aksoggybottom.com

 

Denali Hwy- Paxton-Cantwell-Paxton- this is not any official race this would be more bikepacking opportunity to have a fun with bunch of friends. It would be 260 miles self supported ride, but more about this later on.

I will be adding more stuff here along the way. I'm not going to mention here the usuall suspects as local mountain bike and fatbike races, triathlons, swim meets etc.