Taining Outdoor Quest
High Performance in China (Part Two)
Scott Cole / 25.09.2014
We knew we’d be a strong two-man team, but we didn’t know what to expect. Teams were made up of a bunch of top 10 Coast to Coast athletes, many of them young and promising.
Day #1 went well. After 30 minutes of a “bike and run” we were in 2nd and soon chased down the Chinese team in first place during the mountain bike section. We’re both good technical riders and we found our flow over the terrain. We didn’t need verbal communication, we both had confidence in the other person’s ability and took turns pushing the pace in the front and making sure the other person had short breaks to drink and eat (every 10 minutes at least!).
We rode through rice paddies on narrow cement trails, over narrow foot-paths, and on top of old brick walls that had consequences if you lost your balance (which I did once when crossing a bridge — I fell straight down into a cool and refreshing river and Martin had to help drag me and bike out!).
On the descents we flew. While there were some technical sections, we managed to pedal a lot of the trails (but not those slippery wet stairs!). Most of our “hike-a-bike” sections became “run-with-bike” instead, which surely helped us earn time.
Every now and then we’d pop-out on to a road (closed to traffic of course) and we’d take turns hammering out 45 second “pulls” where the guy in front would max out his heart rate, then drop behind the other person’s wheel to have a quick drink and rest. Then we’d repeat several times.
When we started the paddle we realized our lead was at least 4 minutes. We held it steady to the finish, where I had to climb out of the kayak and climb up a rope ladder to the bridge overhead. My arms were dangerously near cramping and the thought of splashing down into the water and having to start all over again drove me upward, slowly but surely. We crossed the finish line first and it felt great.
Day 2 started with one teammate (Martin) rappelling from a bridge, then swimming to the kayak where I was waiting for him. The next section featured a classic “cat and mouse” tactic among the leading teams. Since we had the yellow jersey we had no incentive to “do any extra work in the front” (we were already leading!). That meant we didn’t want to paddle first and let others free-ride on our wake. So we took it easy, but the others didn’t like that and tried to sprint away a couple of times. In the end we had an uneasy truce and decided this stage would be decided on the bike and run instead.
During the ensuring bike the other teams opened up hard. My legs were heavy and I was concerned I might not keep up. But I tucked myself in behind Martin’s wheel and soon my “diesel motor” got rolling. Before long, we turned off on a trail and I was in the front, leading out the group of 6 and increasing the tempo to match the gradient.
My tactic was simple (and probably known to the other two teams). Keep the pace high enough so that nobody tried to pass Martin and me on the steep uphill trail. That would allow us to be the first to attack the ensuing downhill section, where we could exploit our superior descending skills. It worked to perfection: Martin and I crested the hill and create a gap on the downhill.
We kept that gap the rest of the day and increased it to over 5 minutes before the final 7 km run to the finish. Here we made a critical mistake, following the wrong course markers (some of the red markers from last year were still up on the course — they looked similar, but up close you could see that some said 2013 and others said 2014). We got side-tracked and followed the wrong markings, losing our first place to Marcel Hagner and Sam Mansson. Some of the other teams made a similar mistake so the race director went out to visit the course afterwards and agreed that it was confusing. He gave us a partial time credit of 2 minutes. It meant we kept the overall race lead after two days of racing, but the stage win went to Marcel and Sam (who were alert enough to follow the correct markers!).
Exhaustion from 4 hard races in 5 days allowed me to sleep well that night, despite the nervousness about whether we could maintain our 90 second lead on Day #3 over Marcel and Sam.
The final day started with a bike, with teams being release every 30 seconds. We went first but Marcel and Sam caught us quickly on the road, which meant our lead was now down to 60 seconds! No panic, but we had to be careful to keep them close the rest of the day …
Like a re-run from Day #2, my bike legs were heavy at the start, but warmed up on the first climb. I passed Martin at the front of our 6 man group and told him (in Swedish) that I was going to increase the pace now. “Hang on” …
The last month of racing had been painful and difficult for my body, but now it paid off by delivering a lean biking machine. My legs answered like they did in my younger days when I used to bike away from people on long steep hills. As the trail snaked up through the rice fields, getting steeper on many of the 180 degree turns, I could hear the other teams breathing heavy. The heat was rising (in some places it was 40 C/105 F), but my body responded. I felt better and better and found a rhythm in my pedalling. Soon the trail ended and we had to carry our bikes up a long set of stairs. The sweat was pouring now and my energy levels were high. Martin had no trouble hanging on. At the top, we dared to look back and saw we had created a minute gap on the others.
This is when positive results reinforce a feeling of strength. We pulled away and fed on each others’ enthusiasm and power. We hopped over logs, descended slippery stairs, and carried our bikes through streams. We never had to wait for each other, we were a well-oiled and perpetually-moving machine.
We came in to the paddle section — a back and forth route through some fantastic gorges and steep canyon walls. As we passed our competition going the other way, we could do our own time-checks. It indicated that we were holding a steady 3.30 minute lead (plus the 60 seconds we had built up over the previous 2 days). That felt good, but a flat tire could wipe that out in a hurry …
On the second bike section we increased it even more and we transitioned to the final 7 km run to the finish. We were hurting, but we had the mental edge to fight the pain and hold a steady “winners” pace rather than a stressful “catch up with the others” tempo, which usually results in disaster at the end of a long hot day.
We crossed the finish with another decisive win and clinched the overall classification.
Thanks to our competitors for pushing us hard and making us work for it — Marcel H, Sam M, Alex H, and Klayten S, among others. Thanks to Wei Jun for handling the time dispute on Day 2 professionally and objectively without giving any team an unfair advantage. Finally, thanks to Martin. It was an honour racing with a 41-year old veteran who was always strong and full of good tips. He never had a low moment, was always pushing me to go a little faster, but also smart enough to know that it was a 12 hour and three-day race.
Congrats to all the teams that won at Wu Long, Sequian, Zunyi, and Taining, including Team Raw Foods who won 3 of the races.
Lessons Learned
What can I attribute to my big success? How did I reach my high performance in China? Several things I think …
1. China Fatigue? Despite the star-studded starting field, many of the other athletes were less than fresh. Many were at the end of a 30 day tour of China and probably didn’t have the same kick in their legs as they did 29 days ago.
2. ‘Super Adapted?’ I might have become “super adapted” for Taining’s heat. A few weeks ago I was reading some sports science research that suggested that purposely dehydrating your body (by not drinking enough during/after a hot training session) can create a “super adaptation” to heat and improve subsequent race performance (assuming you recover well from such sessions). Perhaps the stress from the Wu Long race, plus 10 days recovery back in Sweden, was exactly what I needed.
3. Luck doesn’t hurt. I’ve had my fair share of flat tires but almost everything went our way in this race. Endurance athletes like me dream of these types of races and as long you get enough of them once in a while, it’s enough to keep you going … and going … and going …
There is another race in November in Wuhan … But I haven’t decided yet mom :)
[Scott Cole is an endurance athlete, speaker and coach and you can follow his activities on his website and on Facebook.]
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