The Count Down Has Commenced..

With the508 only a few days away, its time to talk race strategy. In the most recent email from Chris Kostman, (Chief Adventure Officer, Totemizer, and Race Director), it was announced that one of this years racers had created a google earth map of the race; I'd encourage all of you to take a look as its quite nifty. Anyway I digress, last night after getting my internet running, my crew chief and I went over the race, planning every thing, pee spots included. Obviously, most of our analysis is tartan specific but with the limited space that the blog will allow I thought I'd share a few of our findings with you all.

- Tighter Support = Victory Points

Yes, the 508 is a well, a tad long, but with 88 solo racers those who lead will succeed. With 88 solo entries support crew shoulder space will be limited. And with this it will be critical to maintain an early position in the fore front of the race? What you say? Well the answer is actually quite simple, 88 entries = 88 support crews, with the average mini van being 15.5 feet in length, then if every support crew were to park end to end the 508 support line would stretch a little over 1/4 a mile! Thus, races who lead will have tighter support then races who follow and closer support = victory points.

- Power the Climbs

We (Team Tartan) debated if we should share this "Tartan Secret", but then we decided, it was so obvious to pass over it would be ridiculous. When faced with a climb the correct tactic is to power up and over it. Why you ask? Well the logic is actually quite simple. If you assumed that the competition will ride the steep stuff at say 10 mph then if you ride up hill at 11 or 12 mph you would be riding 1 to 2 miles father per hour then the competition. While 1 to 2 miles per hour might now sound like a lot its worth calculating how much faster one must ride the flats or descending to gain the same relative distance. To put a equal time on a rider doing 20 on the flats one needs to do 24 mph, and for a rider descending at 40 mph one needs to do a whopping 48 mph. With air resistance going up by the cube of the speed it only becomes obvious he who climbs the fastest will win. But how hard should the rider go? Well, that is a personal variable for every racer but with descents of equal distance on average following most climbs, one can defiantly breath hard as following every climb is a decent and every decent offers time for recovery.

It’s Tartan Time!

RAO News From Ben..

Here's a quick note I wanted to share with all of you. I just finished tallying up a spreadsheet of exchange points, times, and temperatures for this year's race. I figure this will be great for future reference. I also was curious to see how we varied our pull lengths with respect to temperature and terrain and how it affected our riding. Kenneth and I will need to get together on that one more later. For now, though, here is the amazing piece of info: in totaling up our pull times I found we spent the same amount of time on the bike! 14.5 hrs each! There was one point where I don't have the exact times (Bakeoven) so I guessed best I could there. I also don't have ride times going up Timberline where we blew everything apart. I'm glad no one was recording there but the times have to be about even there as well. The time difference overall was perhaps a 5 minute spread. This is incredible given we had pulls as short as 7 minutes on Fossil (shorter on Timberline) and as long as 72-90 minutes around Monument. If someone can tell me how we did this, let me know. I'm pretty much floored. You guys all rock! I'm working on a race report and putting together this statistics spreadsheet. I'll send it along as soon as it's finished. Don't hold your breath though - there's a lot to write. Anyway, I was super excited about this tidbit and wanted to share it right away.

- Ben Larson

Tartan Secrets

Before the 2006 RAO, Fantabulous RAO Race Promoter Terri Gooch asked me to share a Team Tartan Training Secret. Going into RAO I was mum, as going into any A+ race its best to be humble. But with the 2006 RAO now in the record books I think I can share one, yes one of the tartan training secrets.

Commuting to Work

Many ride to work, but most don't do it glued in the aero position. Going into the 2006 RAO, Team Tartan was sweating it big time, as always the there were big guns lining up for the 2006 RAO in all categories, ours included. To do well we knew we would need to bring back some of the 2005 race mojo and race to perfection. In Tartan lingo, racing perfectly means doing everything in ones arsenal to propel the team forwards: Training, recovering perfectly, using the most optimal equipment, and recruiting the best dam crew period. We knew to have the race we wanted I would need to be able to ride to the ends of the earth and back while tucked tight in the aero position. With that goal in mind, in the weeks leading up to RAO, I began commutating the 80 miles (Keizer->Corvallis and back) glued in aero bars on my lethal weapon, a Co-Motion TT bike. Did it pay off? Well, at RAO I road the Co-Motion TT bike over 2/3 the time, including the entire climb up monument.

Now before I forget, back to my commute. Until today I could honestly say I had never hit a small fuzzy animal, but today while commuting in to school that all came to an abrupt end. As the tragedy would un-roll, I was pedaling down the bike path about to merge on to highway 20 heading out towards Corvallis; with the wind at my back I was flying. Then the bushes to my right began to move, and then this gray streak of fuzzy fluffiness came darting out. It tried to run the gauntlet between my front and rear wheel under the spinning crank arms of death. But alas, what ever it was didn't make it, my rear wheel went thump, then crunch, as my fat ass distributed over a 120 PSI rear tire bore down. Almost immediately after the crunch there was a shrill cry and then glancing back the once darting grey mass was static.

It's Tartan Time!

The Crew

So I should be writing a summary of a recent paper concerning the non-metabolic factors behind skeletal muscle fatigue, but it’s a nice day, and with a little less then two months till RAO, and 4 weeks till my muscle papers due, I should really fill you all in on whats truly important, “The Crew”..

For those of you in the know, last year, Team Tartan fielded what has to have been the most outstanding rookie crew's of all time. The dynamo crew motivated, fuled, and logistically planned each pedal stroke, and the results at both RAO and Fireweed said it all. Well, looking forward, what to expect, last year the fitness was good this year I’m not so sure.. Between my fatass, 16%, and increassing body fat, and Ben’s new gig, the bikes haven’t been getting the loving that they did in the past and the race results well sortof speak for themselves.

But the Crew is BACK and this time they aren’t ROOKIES, they know the course, and they want the BIG BEEF STICK; I know they won't let me eat it.

So with out further ado, its time for the roll call..


Team Tartan Crew Member, 10 Time STP Veteran, David Philbrick (Dad)
Ultra Crew Credits: 2005 Race Across Oregon, 2005 Fireweed 400



Team Tartan Crew Member, two time LA Marathoner, Cathey Philbrick (Mom)
Ultra Crew Credits: 2005 Race Across Oregon, 2005 Fireweed 400


Team Tartan Crew member and Nationally ranked masters swimmer, Larry Philbrick (Uncle Larry)!
Ultra Crew Credits: 2005 Race Across Oregon

New Teammates!

Not only is the whole of Team Tartan returning to RAO but I’m ecstatic to announce that two new crew memebers who will be joining us for this years adventure.

Tim Larson (Ben's Dad) & Russ from Wisconsin!

Tim and Russ are from Wisconsin, Lon Haldeman, is from Wisconsin, basically I think that says enough right there. A few years ago I had the honor of accompanying Tim & Russ on one of there world famous Ultra Marthon Cannoe Expeditions, and what I learned in the process is these guys are a hell of a lot tougher then me..

So I guess what sort of wraps it up for now cause as you know

“It’s Tartan Time All the Time”!

Putting the Crew Together for RAO 2006

Just got word from Ben that a good friend of his Russ will be traveling out from Wisconsin to join the crew for RAO 2006.

Russ is in! I just sent him a message suggesting minimum travel dates and briefly sketched what the race weekend is like.

-Ben

Race Strategy

Today, as Ben and I pounded out another training ride, we discussed our thoughts on RAO. We are both really excited about RAO, more for the huge adventure that RAO represents and the elevation that RAO is in our cycling then for anything else. I feel so fortunate to have the knowledge that my crew chief has ridden thousands of training miles with me and the RAO course. There are many aspects of Ultra’s I find appealing, I like the competition, but I also like the friendly nature of the competition. For me, just finishing RAO will be huge.

A number of us have had the wonderful opportunity to preview the RAO course either as part of one of the race camps or on our own. Unfortunately, not everyone will have the opportunity to do this. So, in the eye’s of fairness, Ben and I thought it would be only just for us to share some of our thoughts on the RAO course. As Lon Haldeman said in the Quotable Cyclist, "Machine's don't break records. Muscles do."

The early miles are where it counts...
Yes. RAO is a long race - 538 miles. When those wimps at Fireweed have fallen off their bikes and started to quiver, we will still have another 138 miles left to travel. By the time the desert riders down at Furnace Creek are well off their bikes in the shower, we still have another 30 miles to go - mostly uphill. When it comes to climbing, only RAAM has more. But we all knew all this, that’s why where here. You’re not going to RAO because it’s easy. You do it because it's HARD!

So back to the strategy. If you have ridden the RAO course, or even looked at the course profile online, you will see that RAO is a very front loaded competition when it comes to the climbing. The first 200 miles or so of RAO has more then half of the total climbing. Like any bike race, the mountains are what will separate the field. If you want to open a gap, a big gap, it must be done in these early miles. Climbing Hood, at 12.5 MPH instead of 10 MPH, equates to going 25% faster, where on a flat doing 20 MPH going 25% faster equates to going 25 MPH.

Last year while helping officiate RAO I timed splits of the racers at Service Creek, just shy of the half way point. At this point, the lead riders had opened up well over hour gaps. Think about it. The larger your gap, the more time you have to do whatever you want before there is any chance you will see your competition. Just remember, the rules do forbid dancing naked, so no matter how much time you have you must keep your shorts on. After Service Creek, the course in general will flatten out which greatly reduces the opportunity to open/close large gaps.

The other advantage of riding hard in the early hills is the bonus recovery time which is offered in this portion of the course. It's not uncommon for some riders to do better on hilly time trails, then on flat ones. On a flat TT your position and muscle groups never change, where hilly TT’s introduce more opportunities to change positions and recover. On the flats there is never any chance change muscle groups and recover.

Good luck to everyone,

Its Tartan Time!

Team Tartan shows a little leg! (Cathey, Ben, Kenneth, Larry, David) 

Team Tartan "Master" Crew Chief, Fireweed 400 Two Man Team Member, Ben Larson! 

Team Tartan Crew Member, 10 Time STP Veteran, David Philbrick (Dad)
 

Team Tartan Crew Member, two time LA Marathoner, Cathey Philbrick (Mom) 

Team Tartan Crew member and Nationally ranked masters swimmer, Larry Philbrick (Uncle Larry)!