This is athlete Dennis Staley's report from his trip to Alaska for the Iditarod Trail Invitational 130 Fat Bike Race. I've broken the report up in to 4 parts for easier reading. 2018 Iditarod Trail Invitational: A Race Report by Dennis Staley WARNING: This report is long-winded, contains typos, and is likely to be quite uninteresting to anyone other than my Mom. And even she might get bored   Dénouement: Winter Lake to Anchorage Upon reaching the finish line I checked my Garmin InReach Satellite Messenger, to find a message from Tracy Thelen, my MTB coach, congratulating me for finishing and informing me that I was the first 130 mile racer to reach Winter Lake Lodge. That was a pretty sweet message to receive, and in all my eloquence all I could come up with for a response was “holy shit."   The racer accommodations at Winter Lake Lodge consisted of a crowded, wall-tent with a small woodstove as the sleeping space, with a makeshift port-a-potty behind i...

In racing, the goals are usually black and white - finish or bust; finish in such a time; finish in such a place. The success of racing - and the emotions that are tied to that success are measured against these concrete goals. So what happens if you come up short? So much time and energy invested in that one day, that one race and the ability to go faster or further. It's easy to view the entire event and the build up leading to the race as a failure based on the final outcome. I didn't reach my goal, therefore I failed. It's the most common reaction. And most of the time, the wrong one. Yes, the goals weren't met or the race wasn't finished. You fell short of the objective and did not succeed. But not succeeding is different from failure. Any time a race doesn't go as planned, it's important to review the training and preparation for the race as well as performance in the  race. A race becomes a failure if you don't learn from the process building up...

One underestimated area of importance in endurance racing - from 24 hour mountain biking to ultra distance gravel grinding to ultra running - is the crew support. The amount and quality of crew support can make or break a race. If the pit crew is efficient and smooth, the athlete is in and out with minimal time spent not making forward progress. If there is a lack of communication or the crew doesn't know what is going on, then time will be lost. Watching a well practiced pit crew is just like watching NASCAR - it doesn't matter how many people are helping, each person has a task and knows the most efficient way to achieve the goal without getting in the way. But those well oiled, efficient pit crews don't just happen. It takes a lot of work - preparation, communication and practice from both the athlete and the crew. Preparation - one of the tenants of Thelen Coaching. It goes beyond simply training for an event, but into gear, nutrition and course knowledge. The athlete...

After another successful outing at the 25 Hours of Frog Hollow, I took some time to look over the results and the lap times teams were riding. One thing struck me - and it's something I've noticed before in these lap style endurance races. The teams who finished on the podium, especially those on the top step, were not just the fastest. Speed helps, but it was the consistency of the riders as the race progressed that really sealed the deal. Granted, the lap times don't always tell the whole story. Someone who was riding 1:05 laps and all of a sudden has a 1:45 lap might have had a mechanical or such happen out on course. But the trends are still there. If a mechanical was the reason, the next lap usually drops back down. Looking just at the Coed Duo, which is the class Nick and I race, the combo of speed and consistency was what won the race for us. It's easy to be fast for a few laps, but at what cost? For the top three teams, the men's first lap was all within 3 m...

After a race, regardless of the outcome, it is time to sit down a look at the training - what went right, what didn't work and what needs adjusting moving forward. It's not the race report from the athlete - it's looking at the performance and how the training affected the ability to execute the plan. I've posted my race report for the Super Half on my blog like any athlete would. This is the coaching analysis - a good hard look, removed from the emotion of the race performance. For running, there are a few key things that I like looking at when reviewing a training plan - volume, intensity and frequency. Overall, the training was spot on for my goals as an athlete, but there are a few issues that will be addressed for the next running event. Volume - volume or weekly mileage is often considered key when it comes to endurance running. As a coach, building the volume is also one of the trickier aspects. Too fast and the risk of injury greatly increases. Too slow a...