Last Wednesday, the Drechsel family traveled to Manti to preview the race course that we will all be racing on August 24 (in 12 days!!!). It is a fun trail, but quite different from the trails we are used to in Corner Canyon. The race course starts with a serious 1/2-mile climb up a smooth wide dirt / gravel road. That section is immediately followed by another 1/2-mile of descending on winding single track. Then the trail changes to a series of ups-and-downs . . . three sets of small ups-and-downs (less than 1/4-mile climbs and descents) followed by three sets of larger ups-and-downs (1/2-mile or longer climbs).
For today in Little Valley, let’s focus on trying to replicate this trail structure. There are a few ways to accomplish this:
Option A — For those who want to ride a large loop today, build into the ride six sections of pushing the pace for three to five minutes, followed by several minutes of easier efforts (to simulate the descending).
Option B — For those who intend to ride smaller loops in Little Valley, select loops that climb for several minutes where sustained efforts can be made to climb at pace and keep moving even when the going gets tough. Four or five of the large Little Valley loops (where you ride up the section of Ann’s West and then descend back down into Little Valley by going right at the sign) would actually be a very good way to practice for the Manti race course.
No matter which option you choose, please focus on building rider confidence by talking about improvements everyone has made over the summer. Emphasize how much farther / faster your group can ride compared to their very first Little Valley practice two and a half months ago. Point out things that used to be hard, but now are totally ride-able. Ask your riders to point out things the riders noticed they or their teammates have improved on as well.
Also, we hope it goes without saying at this point that all of the strenuous parts of any ride should only occur after an intentional warm-up (which really does take 15+ minutes to do correctly).
A few more helpful tips to prepare for the Manti race:
- point out that momentum is your friend when going over rockier sections/climbs;
- have every rider practice a few fast passes, emphasize that you must accelerate to make a pass safely (i.e., a pass should only take a few seconds to get around the person in front of you); and
- practice drinking while riding . . . please make sure riders with water bottles on their bikes can get the water bottle out, drink, and back in the cage safely while pedaling.