Race Sim Protocol

Take what puts you on edge and make it routine.

Good advice.

Racing is very different than just going out and riding. Even hard rides don't compare to a race. The bike handles different. The trails you ride everyday turn into a very different animal with 2hrs of redline conditions under your legs.

While no simulation can be like a real race, I try to get as close as possible. These are great opportunities to try out nutrition strategies or bike setup changes w/o having to worry about messing up a result base on the experimentation. These simulations include a start and a finish line, pre-race eating, post race recovery, in race nutrition.. I even try to force a hard race-start effort for the first few minutes.

These take a lot of mental focus because you have no one infront of you to chase and no one breathing down your neck from behind.

My goal is to follow the same race sim route over the next months and time distinct sections in order to track improvement.

Route: Rowdy Dawg Race Course from 2006.

Start: Gravel road adjacent to off shoot fire road
End: Same

Track A: Gap (interstate)
Start: Single track entrace at FS Road
End: Entrance to Trillium Single track.

Track B:Gap singletrack
Start: Left turn off jeep gravel road onto Trillium
End: FS 708


Track C: Down Royale
Start: Wood sign at entrace
End: Intersection with Basin Trail

Track D: Joe Pye all the way to Top of Sidewinder
Start: After crossing creek at Joe Pye
End: Where single track pops out at top of Sidewinder

Track E: Down Sidewinder
Start: Top of Sidewinder
End: Lowest Gulley before climbing out

Track F: Down Beast
Start: Sign at start of trail
End: second or third tree at bottom

Track G: Queene Anne to Gap Trails
Start: Queene Anne and Fire Road
End: Intersection of Trillium and Jeep Road

Track H: End of Trillium to FS road
Start: Triullium and Jeep Road
End: Where Singletrack hits Fire road