"You are better than you think you are"

Bad Legs

We've all all been there. Sometimes there is a day when you just do not have the legs to ride well. The french say "Un jour sans" - a day without. The Italians phrase it "Giornata no" - no day. This a day with no strength. My 2010 Leadville was one of those day. I have had a perfect training plan, perfect hours for me, perfect intervals & a great taper. Soon after the start I felt I was not going to have a great ride. You have to be careful though because you can start out feeling crappy & roll into a great race. My training buddy, Davis Phinney, had a couple of his greatest races where he started out feeling as if he was not going to finish & ended up with a win. I always remember this & hang in there waiting for to power to return.

Anyway - PRs were not going to happen & my power did not return. However, I was going to finish. Leadville is about finishing. 9 hours is the arbitrary cut off time for a "big buckle" - at Leadville (the buckles themselves are a good story - google it). Typically about 100 riders meet this mark. This was not any big goal for me. I have buckles & really was shooting at 8 hours. As this was not happening I just wanted to ride peacefully & quietly to the finish.

At 99 miles - actually 5 miles to the finish as the Leadville 100 is just about 104 miles - a friend blasted up behind me (he too having a bad day as he was behind me), gave me a big push & screamed "You are better than you think you are! You can do more than you think you can".  Any Leadville rider or runner knows these are the words of the Leadville founder Ken Klouber. This is part of his outstanding pre-race talk. We had 16 minutes to ride 5 miles uphill to make the 9 hour cut off. I was pretty fried at this point or I would not have been at this point anyway. Its not as if I had been saving my legs all day just to sprint 5 miles. The truth is I think I am better than I am, not the other way around. I also am better at math than I am at riding. Lets see - 5 miles in 16 minutes should be just about 18 mph - uphill. hmmm - not happening. I'm also an electronic geek & have GPS splits of Leadville in 06 & 07. I know the "Dirty Boulevard", an ugly 3 mile gradual uphill to the finish takes me 20 minutes on a good day. I let my friend go & kept up my pathetic pace still just wishing to be left alone. I was content.

Next a motorcycle pulls up beside me. They have a camera - not a home video type but a big ass real movie camera. Great. This is the film crew for "Race Across the Sky". Ah - just what I need now. I have to pedal a bit harder as this is very embarrassing. Maybe they will leave soon.  A couple minutes pass & they are not gone. The cameraman says "You have 14 minute to make the cut off. Can you do it?".  My answer - "that will be hard". They still don't leave. He then says "That's not what I asked. Can you do it?". Ok, I think - what is the right answer to this question & when will they leave. "Yes - I can do it". Still they stay. They plan on following me thinking I am going to be the last rider to make the 9 hour cut off. Unfortunately for them, my math is better than theirs. There is no way I am making that cut off. They should be up the road 5 minutes. After 10 minutes they finally figure I am lost & zip away in a cloud of dust. I finish in 9:05 - not unhappy with this. All the footage will not make the movie as I did not make the cut off. My friend also did not make it despite his effort: 9:02. My teammate Kelly McGrew rolled in just behind me, also suffering. Legs - some days they just are not there.