Iceman Cometh Challenge!

My off-season is well underway.  Like all of my other Ironman seasons, the post-race high and excitement to quickly find something to put on the calendar has struck again.  It really is the most bizarre thing, 6+ months of consistent training to build up for an Ironman and right about went taper begins, the biggest thing I look forward to is a break from the structure, a break from the training regimen, a break from the constant strain of trying to squeeze it all in.  And then, after about two weeks from this break , without fail, it happens.  I get tired of eating like garbage and sitting on the couch all night and just generally feeling slothish.  So this year, to keep a little motivation in to the off-season, I decided to sign up for The Iceman Cometh.

The real Iceman!

The Iceman is a 30 mile point to point mountain bike race from Kalkaska, MI to Traverse City.  In the mounting biking scene the Iceman signifies the end of the mountain bike season in Michigan, the final chance to test all the fitness that has been built throughout the summer.  The race is a decent combination of dirt two track and fire road with, I’d guess, a half of dozen of miles of single track.   I categorize the race as primarily a cross country race that rewards endurance rather than a true technical mtb race that is all single track and switchbacks.

The course is known for the scenic northern Michigan beauty as it traverses old sandy logging road and forces you up and down some pretty nasty climbs (many of which have been named).  Total elevation gain is about 2200 feet, which over such a short distance is quite telling of the nature of the course.

Iceman Race Elevation Profile

I got into triathlon about 8 years ago racing Xterra off-road tris and I even raced the Iceman back in 2008.  I raced the Sport division and won my age group.  This year they’ve changed things up a bit and instead of Beginner/Sport/Expert/Pro division, they combined all of them, so you’re either a Pro or you’re not.  I love this idea and it will force me to race for a top spot against the Experts.  Which by the way I’ve always found that to be a silly designation.  The only thing I’ll claim to be an expert at is plowing through rows of Oreo cookies.  None the less, the competition should be great!

While I usually hate the self-seeding categories typically found in mtb racing the one place they typically get it right is larger age groups, for example M30-39 is a pretty wide range that further enhances competition.  Unfortunately, because the Iceman is a huge race and the nature of the course will only fairly and safely accommodate so many riders at a given time, the race organizers were forced to do something ridiculous.  There are so many middle aged men doing this race that they’ve really had to break up the age groups.  Seriously, really break it up, like M35 all start at the same time.  So while it is nice that there are no categories (beginner/sport/expert), they’ve had to slice the AG so thin it’s comical.  Blah, blah, blah…so while normally I’d get my ass handed to me by the 30-39 Experts, with this format I think I have a chance of being in the top 10 of the fastest 35 year old experts.  Wow, talk about watering down the podium spots.  Oh well, we’ll see.  I’m hoping to win some cash and help pay for post-race party celebration!

Training-wise, I had good intentions going in.  If I wasn’t motivated to race, I wouldn’t have signed up….but since then I’ve kinda gotten in to a bit of a lazy/busy rut.  I’ve done about ½ of what I had planned to do but since my volume has been so low (4-6 training hrs/wk), but when I am working out I’ve been hitting it really, really hard.  Lots of short insanely intense interval sessions.  Troy Jacobson is the closest thing that I’ve had to coach and the Spinerval bike workouts have been leaving me begging coach Troy to “Have Mercy”!  The intervals will be good for the sprint start and climbs.  I’ve been a bit light on the endurance rides and I’m hoping that I have enough base fitness to allow me to hold on for 2hrs.  One of the things that’s very exciting about a bike race….no running afterward so you better believe I’ll be on the rivet and if the race lives up to it’s name, I’ll most likely have snot and spit frozen all over my face.

After my Fall mountain biking challenge is over, it’ll be back to the regular scheduled program.  Me blabbing on and on about myself and triathlon, including more off-season training notes and a tentative schedule for 2013.

Train safe, train smart.