YES! totally for you and you nailed all of that. There’s so much more to racing besides the #s as you say, but also so much more to racing besides the result! Go have fun and challenge yourself, and you’ll learn a ton along the way; about racing and life!
Stoked for your 2023!
!!! there’s a good bit actually. tons of crits, which I’m kinda over, but lots of smaller road races also. where are you located?
you should do masters nats! altho not in ABQ again i don’t think. I realllly hope they have it in VA like amateur’s was. course was awesome and very easy to get around.
those long UT events are wild; altho the changing weather and cold mornings sounds a bit rough from what I’ve heard…I think Latoja is always (?) up and down. Maybe not though
Knoxville. And not interested in crits. I like big ol road loops
have you checked the TBRA calendar and also Topview? There’s a big handful around you; first one that comes to mind is Oak Ridge RR, such a fun course
Yeah I think I have my clothing more or less down for that, did some Gravel in the Area early summer and used to the swiss mountains from hiking, so have a good idea what could be waiting, just hoping for decent weather, yeah the Platinum tour is just a bit too much fo rme, the Gold will be challenging enough 
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This popped up when i was searching for info on these races. Do you have any idea what happened to them? We had a pretty good slate of ultras in Texas and now they’re seemingly all gone in the span of a year.
A couple of years ago my ambition was to go under 1h on a 25mile TT, I managed it by 3mins on my first 25miler but it kind of wrecked my mojo for the season. The next year I wanted to go under 2h for a 50miler and again managed it on the first go, by just over a minute. That had an even worse affect on my racing mojo. I am not sure if I have it back (maybe when the season starts I’ll be more enthusiastic, its usually like that) but I am definitely not targeting a sub 4h 100miler 
I’ve been lamenting the same thing. Holland Racing used to put on the Texas Ultra Cup, which included 6-8 ultra events in TX every year, and I think every single one of them might be dead now except for 24 in the Canyon.
Holland sent out an email last fall about how they were going to do NCOM, Pace Bend Ultra, and Texas Time Trials in 2023 as one big series branded as “Texas Time Trials” and then at some point over the winter, all trace of any of those races just…disappeared into thin air. I wonder if Andrew is ready to hang it up and stop running these races. I suspect trying to keep the Driveway Series alive through COVID was super stressful and maybe that was enough for him to just say “I’m out.” Can’t say I would blame him.
Sad that all the ultra distance races seem to have vaporized though. Pace Bend Ultra 2019 was my first bike race of any type ever and I looked forward to it every Jan/Feb since then. No Country For Old Men (back when Dex ran it out of Alpine, RAAM-style) was just a magical event, really unique. Really bummed that that’s gone, but maybe someone will pick it up. Heck I’d be tempted to try to do it myself if I knew the right people and whatnot.
How did it go?. I want to try my hand next year.
Yeah I raced hammerfest several times and always wanted to do NCOM but looks like I missed my chance. It seemed like he had big plans for these races, moving Glen Rose to a better time of year and everything. I was hoping things might still be in the works but it does seem like he is just done with all of it for now.
Went from 6 Texas Ultras in 2021 to 1 in 2023.
Just landed! Hoping to go up Monday!
Revisiting this. I got lucky and got Mauna Kea done! 2/27/2023.
When I arrived at the Visitor Center(46miles/9200’) the road was closed to the summit, was told it would be open as soon as they finished grading the gravel section. I waited for almost 2 hours. But it did open and it took me 2.5 hours to go those last ~9 miles. I had absurdly low gearing(30T chainring and 10-50 cassette) and the AXS app says I used the 50t for just over 8 miles of the ride. To the visitor center is manageable, its above that point that it gets serious.
After i do my tri in July, i want to focus more on open water swimming for a month (for a race) but…
Buuut, i want to do a century ride. I’ve done 130km but havent done the 160ish one yet.
Don’t know if i should do it on the roadie or the TT bike yet, im still new to my TT bike
Otherwise for my half iron i want to get as close as possible to a 3-hour bike segment (90km), i managed 3:30 on my roadie last year so let’s see what happens when i switch to the TT bike.
Another “goal” is to do as many commutes as possible by bike and to leave the motorcycle home, just for some more base miles/cat6 action. Potentially about 90-100km more per week
Wow. That’s a lot of time in MTB gear. Was the altitude bothering you. May I ask what’s your w/kg?..…I will bring my gravel bike with 34-40 as my lowest gear.
my WKG was at roughly 3.6w/kg.
the steepest parts of this route all happen above 10k feet. 180 watts felt like threshold work(by this point you’ve got 46 miles and over 11k feet of climbing in your legs, likely already 4.5-5+ hours of moving time.
a lot of it above the visitor center is 15%+. I was doing 3mph, with 180ish watts. DO NOT underestimate this portion. I had my gearing setup for this section and it paid off with a summit. a few times before the access road I would spin out, but those places it was nice to get a break from the grind. I would totally ignore any thoughts about trying to get a taller gear for any of it and focus solely on having the absolutely lowest gear you can get.
34-40 would have seen a lot of walking(albeit at the 2-3mph I was pedaling at).
Thanks a lot for the tips!. I live at altitude, and I can put normal power at 10k. At 12k, 180w feels like 200-210w to me.
To be clear, I meant 40 cassette, 34 small chainring.
@Jonathan did it a few years ago with a 26t chainring and a 11-42 cassette, he’s much stronger than me. My biggest caution is DO NOT underestimate this one bit. If you think 34-40 is low enough, I’d suggest seeing if you can get anything lower, I promise you won’t regret it on the 4.5 miles of gravel above the visitor center. This made Pikes Peak feel like hill instead of a mountain.
Those 8 miles I was in the 50t were all above the visitor center. IIRC the steepest 5 mile section is in the last 6 miles and averages over 12% with a single mile at ~18%.
I was speaking with one of the rangers when I was waiting for the road to open. He said at peak season they see about 5 people a week, with about half of them actually making it to the summit.
This is confusing. A Strava friend did it with 35t - 33. He did walk a bit tho.
That would be impressive. That would be 5mph at 60rpm and at 12% would require 225w, which would be pretty much the last 9 miles, plus the pitches over 15% would require punches above 300w. Those kind of numbers would suggest someone with a FTP of around 6w/kg at sea level.
The point I’m trying to get across is do not underestimate this one.