Well, the beer sponsor was indeed Funk Brewing<\/a> (who makes a wicked IPA I might add.)\u00a0 I'll also add that I was completely correct about the description with one notable,\u00a0important<\/em> exception, which I'll get to.<\/p>\n To get an idea of how I proceeded to tackle a beast like this, check out my previous posts about the\u00a0training theory behind a ride like this<\/a>.\u00a0 Yeah, it was lots of muscular endurance<\/a> and plenty of VO2 max work<\/a>.\u00a0 No, it wasn't glamorous at all, but it (sort of) got the job done.<\/p>\n In this edition of “Motivation Monday” I'll recap Monkey Knife Fight 9, tell you what went wrong and what went right.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The week leading up to Monkey Knife Fight was an epic one.\u00a0 We went from cold and snow to legit summer in the space of 4 days.\u00a0 FOUR DAYS!\u00a0 To say that I have previous experience with sudden warm temperatures on race day is an understatement.\u00a0 Last time that happened<\/a>, I spent a week recovering on the couch<\/a>.\u00a0 At the time,\u00a0I wished so much for the cramping to stop that I may have made a pact for my first born to go live with someone in a very warm place.<\/p>\n I was hoping against hope that this wouldn't be a repeat.\u00a0 I was also hoping that my legs would hold out for what would be a truly epic day of suffering.\u00a0 My only hope was to sit in the draft wherever I could and stick to my pacing plan<\/a>.<\/p>\n As always, one of the biggest ways to get yourself thrown into a tailspin is to be rushing on race day.\u00a0 (Before anyone gets mad at me,\u00a0yes, I know this is not a race.\u00a0 But for preparation sake, you should treat any major event as a race scenario in terms of preparation.)<\/p>\n Bike choice was simple.\u00a0 Ride what ya got.<\/p>\n My wife rode her Ridley Fenix with some Hutchinson 28s and a (revised) 34\/28 low gearing.<\/p>\n Me?\u00a0 Well, given the choice between my Look 585 and my Scott Foil 10, I opted for the Foil.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Sadly, I can only mount 25s on it, and it's stiff as hell, but it has one big advantage: electronic shifting.\u00a0 Now, this isn't one of those “it's faster or more precise” kind of arguments.\u00a0 Nope, far from it.\u00a0 The biggest factor is the Foil has bar top mounted satellite shifters and sprint shifters on it.\u00a0 That means I can shift from multiple hand positions.\u00a0 In an event with 25+ miles of dirt sectors, varying my hand position would be critical to staying comfortable throughout.<\/p>\n For gearing, I relented and swapped my regular 12-25 for a 12-27.\u00a0 But I still kept the standard 53\/39 crank gearing.\u00a0 Surprisingly, I didn't find myself overgeared or uncomfortable: I tend to like a lower climbing cadence, so I was in heaven most of the day.<\/p>\n One tradition I religiously stick to is prepping my gear the day before.\u00a0 We had bottles filled and marinating the night before.\u00a0 Scratch Mix<\/a> was packed into a musette so we could stuff the single serving packets in our pockets at the car.\u00a0 Varieties of Kind Bars<\/a> were left in the musette for the “hill church aid station.”\u00a0 Bikes were tuned up and ready to roll.\u00a0 Garmin devices were charged and prepped.\u00a0 We even had top tube sheets taped up listing the gravel sectors.\u00a0 Most of all, we had a plan for how we would get out of dodge in time to kit up, warm up and get to the start.<\/p>\n The morning of Monkey Knife Fight we split up the various prep in order to get everything set up and get out on time.\u00a0 I was tasked with packing up the team car, er, Outback and getting us there.\u00a0 We got the bikes on the roof and rolled out only a couple minutes behind schedule.<\/p>\n An hour later, we were slathering on sunscreen and chamois cream, getting psyched up for what would probably be one of the hardest rides we've ever done.<\/p>\n Holy shit\u00a0was it.<\/p>\n After a short climb up to the staging area, we grouped up under sunny skies.\u00a0 Now, remember earlier where I mentioned my description was\u00a0almost\u00a0<\/em>entirely correct?\u00a0 This is where I fucked it up: it wasn't shitty weather as generally predicted for mid-April.\u00a0 It was sunny and warm.\u00a0 No, it wasn't.\u00a0 It was sunny and HOT as hell.\u00a0 Like, 85 degrees hot as hell…in the shade.\u00a0 So we prepared to sweat for the first time in 6 months before we rolled off with 300 other knuckleheads.<\/p>\n After a fast rollout, we hit some of the “uncategorized” sections that would later prove to be deadly.\u00a0 These bumps in the road suck the life out of your legs and leave you gasping for air, which is decidedly poor when you have 7 categorized segments coming up.\u00a0 On the plus side, the terrain around Emmaus is some of the prettiest I've ridden anywhere in the northeast.<\/p>\n And did I mention dirt?\u00a0 The dirt came thick and fast right out of the gate:<\/p>\n There was more than one occasion where the dirt roads were merely the icing on a climbing cake:<\/p>\n Because it was billed as a “hard ride” the segments were also unpaved, at least partially anyway:<\/p>\n But even though it was incredibly hard, it was also incredibly rewarding:<\/p>\n HAH!\u00a0 How could it?<\/p>\n Nobody can plan for 85 degrees when the highest temperature all year has been around the mid-60s.\u00a0 I stuck to the pacing plan<\/a> by spending as little energy as possible in the first third of the ride.\u00a0 I actually felt pretty good going through the first sector and into the second one.\u00a0 Shortly after the second sector, I started to feel the twinges a bit.\u00a0 It didn't help that the folks I was riding with were having major issues with the heat and the pace dropped considerably.<\/p>\n We made the choice around mile 34 to skip the middle 4 sectors for the sake of time.\u00a0 It's a good thing too.\u00a0 My legs gave out on some of the fast, flat and rolling terrain after sector 7 and they cramped up pretty hard.\u00a0 Asking them to handle another 2000 feet of elevation in 15 miles would have been a death sentence.\u00a0 As it was, we spent 4 hours on the bike, tallied 55 miles and 5000 feet of elevation.\u00a0 It was a solid day even if we only hit 3 of the 7 sectors on the route.<\/p>\n Well, next time I hopefully won't deal with a winter as prolonged as this one.\u00a0 Getting outside in some warmer weather and getting used to longer miles with more elevation will go a long way towards improving my time.\u00a0 As for the heat, there's no way to combat that except for acclimatizing to it, which can be tricky in the winter.\u00a0 There are a few strategies, but they don't work nearly as well as actually riding in the heat.<\/p>\n Now, considering Monkey Knife Fight is truly a fundraiser event, I'm going to put this out there.\u00a0 You.\u00a0 Should.\u00a0 Do.\u00a0 IT!\u00a0 Two days post knife fight and I'm beaten up and sore, but so utterly happy that I did it.\u00a0 What a great group of people and a great organization.\u00a0 If you have any inkling that gravel riding<\/a> is cool, this one will confirm your feelings.<\/p>\n I'll be back next year.\u00a0 Will you?<\/p>\nHere Comes The Sun…<\/h2>\n
Pre-ride (bike) prep<\/h3>\n
Pack your bags son, it's time for a Monkey Knife Fight!<\/h3>\n
![\"Monkey](\"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/IMG_1619-1024x1024.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/IMG_9123-e1523890396374-768x1024.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nThey gonna catch me ridin' dirty!<\/h3>\n
![\"3](\"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/IMG_1622-1024x768.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Monkey](\"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/IMG_5345-e1523893935508-1024x768.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Monkey](\"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/IMG_1580-1024x768.jpg\")
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<\/a><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/image1.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/IMG_2555-1024x768.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/image2-e1523898077958.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/IMG_1640-1024x1024.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nDid it all go according to plan?<\/h2>\n
What about next time?<\/h3>\n
![\"Post](\"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/IMG_1641-769x1024.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"