I’d say one good, one less good. Here’s a brief weekend recap:
Epic Bike Fest 2024 - Singletrack Full
Parcours: 38+ miles of nearly 100% WI singletrack. The trail was just about perfect, very tacky
Conditions: mid-50s at the start, somewhat high humidity
Report:
I started in the 3-3.5 hr corral. The first 2 miles are straight up some of the largest hills in the race, so of course I went way too hard, setting all-time 2- and 3-minute power records. It’s partially a testament to my current fitness, but also my poor pacing strategy. Since the course is singletrack, though, getting out in front of less skilled riders is important, so in that respect, my start was a success. We started catching the tail of the elite women and I was able to recover somewhat until there were passing opportunities. I normalized 115% for the first 10 minutes, and in hindsight, that was an obvious mistake.
I felt strong through about halfway, normalizing 88% and avg HR 86% of max for the first half. Shortly after halfway, though, I felt twinges of legs cramps which would only continue to get worse and worse until they were some of the worst cramps I’ve had in my racing life. I ended up limping along for much of the last 8 miles, dropping 20+ places as a result. I’m sure much of it was overexertion/pacing, but I also struggle in humidity and I definitely screwed up my nutrition. My gut soured with 40 minutes left, so I was happy just to finish without injury. There was also a huge hill near the end that was definitely not on the website’s race profile, so that was tough.
Finish: P56 overall, P12 in 30-39, 3:30
Epic Bike Fest 2024 - Gravel Full
Parcours: 50 miles of rolling WI gravel, including 3-4 miles of rougher logging road in the middle
Conditions: low-50s at the start, lower humidity
Report:
Once again, the course goes up a mile long climb in the first 10 minutes. I normalized 98% for the first 20 minutes in order to make a selection into a group that included Jenna Rinehart of the LTGP. I knew I’d pushed some to stay up there, but I was rewarded because we were flying down the backside of the early climb. I stayed with the group for the next 33 miles before the cramps again showed up and I got popped on the rolling hills just before the 2nd aid. I normalized 90% for the first 2 hours, so I felt pretty good about that. My pace dropped on my own, unsurprisingly, but I was able to recover somewhat and keep pushing MUCH more than on the singletrack. I ended up in a group of 4 by the end and I used the CX skills in the final descent to finish ahead of that group.
Finish: P17 overall, P4 in 30-39, 2:38
Since so few people do both long races, I did end up as P2 on the combined E2 30-39 podium. I was fastest on the gravel by a few minutes but I was ~18 minutes behind the eventual E2 30-39 winner in the singletrack, so I was 15 min down from first place in combined times.
The second day went far better for me, though it is still disappointing I managed to cramp both days. I’m sure pacing is the main part of it since my nutrition strategy seemed to go smoothly on the gravel and conditions were also pleasantly cool for the gravel. The different nature of gravel racing also allowed me to better manage the cramping on day 2 by moderating my effort more - it’s hard to do that as much on singletrack.
Looking ahead, I’ll probably look into sweat testing and see if any changes to nutrition are needed which could help mitigate cramping in the future. I’m not sure I’ll do the double full again, or even the full singletrack again, but I say that now… From a race organization perspective, I would rate these both very highly - the Birkie runs a very efficient race these days!
I was just going off what the 
I guess maybe I should plug my own event that’s on July 27th here, which is MN, and hopefully most folks consider that the midwest…
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. Doing the Coast to Coast 100 with my wife this weekend as well and playing domestique. Good luck in your race and you can look for the tall couple in the Rock n Road kit coming in around 7 hrs