From Couch to Competitor: Titans Stage 1

View from Caesar's Head

Finally the Road Titans 300 Challenge had come! It was time for the rubber to meet the road and see if Anthony's preparations were sufficient. In my last post I mentioned how Anthony carbed up and was ready to go. Hurricane Matthew happened to be pelting the South Carolina coast. We still felt the hurricane's effects 200 miles inland and took off in overcast skies and howling winds. The 94 mile stage tackled Caesar's Head, traced along the plateau at the top of Caesar's Head, and descended Sassafras back to Lake Keowee. This alone would have been challenging enough in warm and calm conditions!

Chris Mojock, the current Master's 35-39 national time trial champ, set a blistering pace right from the start. Our group only contained 10-15 riders, so there was not much shelter from the wind. Shortly into the ride I told Anthony the pace could not continue like this all day and for him to hang in there. The pace literally seemed like some fast races I have done as a pro. Chris continued this vicious pace until we hit Caesar's Head, the main climb of the day. Chris is an animal! I knew Anthony would have easily been able to finish Titans in the A group of previous years, but the fast pace threw a wrench in my plan and presented a new challenge. For Anthony the pace was low to mid-tempo all the way out to Caesar's Head. This meant he had to tackle the climb with around 35 miles of fatigue in his legs. Anthony and I rode Caesar's Head three days before the challenge, so he was acquainted with the climb. He rode within himself, did the climb at mid-tempo, and easily conquered it. The rain worsened as we climbed, and the temperature cooled as we gained elevation up to around 3500 feet. It was relatively cold at the top, so Anthony's tough training days in 50 degrees and rain in the Pacific Northwest paid dividends. After the Sassafras descent the rain subsided, and it was a nice cruise back to Lake Keowee. The pace was a little easier after the climb, so Anthony comfortably finished the stage with Chris and a few other riders. I was pleased Anthony was able to finish out the first day so strongly.

Stage one was in the books and Anthony performed superbly. He conquered the stage at a faster pace and in worse conditions than I had predicted. I couldn't have asked more of him. We fueled up immediately after the stage and drove back to my house. After we arrived to my house we cooked up a nice dinner and slept well heading into stage two. Be sure to stay tuned to read Anthony's thoughts on stage one.

From Couch to Competitor: Anthony's Experience

This post was written by Anthony. This is how he felt heading into the Road Titans 300 challenge.

The text message from Winston came in at around 4 AM PST before I was about to start a training session for my third and final TT we had targeted in early April: "You want to do Road Titans this year?" What a challenge just to finish something like that I thought to myself. I had read up on how the ride was organized after Winston had mentioned earlier in the year, and thought I could comfortably tackle it in the C or B group with some work. The finishing times in those groups seemed reasonable and were well within reach, plus the event was in sunny South Carolina, a perfect setting to evade the start of an impending grey Pacific Northwest winter, "Sure" I replied "I will register for it tonight which group do you think is best for me, C or B?". Turns out Winston had a different idea, "Sign up for the A group you will ride the three days with me in that group." After some thought and hesitation I replied back "Are you sure that's a good idea?" Winston's reply "You can do it, I will have you ready"  That night after a couple of rounds of mental volleyball, I registered for the event in the A group, and a nagging doubt lingered, had I overstepped my bounds, and naively wandered into something way beyond my ability?

In retrospect I realize I had, and although it wasn't apparent to me yet, it was precisely what I needed to gain a deeper understanding into what it means to confront doubt, channel adversity into strength, and a belief that I could finish a challenging event amongst a group of talented athletes. Winston's simple, positive, albeit powerful reply marked the beginning of a transformative journey through wind and rain swept training days in the Pacific Northwest, a ride from Vancouver BC to Whistler, and three epic days of riding in South Carolina.  In our conversations over the years I have come to realize that elite pros like Winston take every opportunity, whether its training or racing to constantly reinforce and solidify an unwavering belief in their abilities. Every training ride and piece of encouragement from Winston, presented me the opportunity to embrace a challenging training schedule and make his instinctive belief in my ability to complete the challenge my own. Without that belief no amount of physical training would prepare me to clip in for the final 104 miles and 10000 feet of climbing on the third day of the RT300. 

Read on about our first day in the RT300. Bruce Lee's idea that "What you habitually think largely determines what you will ultimately

become"  took on new significance for me. My days of training in the rain in the Pacific Northwest also came in handy, since my visions of a sun swept southern landscape would not exactly materialize as I thought they would. That's bike racing in a nutshell, things rarely play out they way we think they will. It would be my first test in the belief I had honed in the months leading up to the event. 

From Couch to Competitor: Pre-Ride Fueling

Like I mentioned in my previous post, each stage at Titans took roughly 6 hours to complete in previous years, and Anthony had to complete back to back 5 hour training rides in order to be ready for the event. Whenever you ride this much your body becomes a furnace. You burn somewhere between 3000-4000 calories during these epic rides. This does not even account for the calories you burn off the bike with your ramped up metabolism running at the speed of hummingbird wings.

If you do not fuel your body properly, you will not be able to complete the insanity. I suggest eating low glycemic carbohydrates (like oats, muesli, wheat bread, or sweet potatoes) along with some fat and some protein (eggs or nut butters work well here). The low glycemic carbs burn slowly, and the fat and protein help them metabolize even slower. This means you should have energy throughout the ride, provided you fuel adequately throughout. The stages at Titans started relatively early at 8 a.m., so we needed to eat something quick or wake up at 4 a.m. to make something extravagant. We were lazy and wanted to "sleep in" until 5 a.m., so we decided to take the fast route. That didn't mean McDonalds drive-through though! For breakfast on the mornings of Titans we would eat 1 cup of Bob's Red Mill Muesli soaked in Califia Farms unsweetened coconut almond milk overnight. In the morning we would add some cinnamon and slice up a banana to mix into the muesli. You could add other fruit here like apples or berries. I sometimes add in a pinch of coffee to my muesli for a nice flavor. You could also add maple syrup, brown sugar, or honey, but I do not add any sweeteners other than the extra fruit myself. Anthony would eat a couple eggs, and I would eat some almond butter on a few slices of toast. We would also drink a cup of coffee for the caffeine.

This breakfast helped us to feel great throughout Titans. The portions may seem a little large, but when you are burning 4,000 calories a day you don't want to skimp. In my next post I will discuss how Stage 1 was even more challenging than I had initially planned. Check it out to see if Anthony rose to the challenge!