Sufferfest at the Hollow

I've never been a big fan of the Soldier Hollow race, mostly because it's hot and dusty. Friday night He-who-doesn't-race and I met up for an easy 1 hour ride with some hard 30 second intervals thrown in. Saturday I lined up feeling pretty good about my training that week. My goal this week was to try and not get tossed off the back at the start. I managed to hold on during the first couple of climbs but has we approached the short steep climb at the north-end of the course I knew I was expending way too much energy and needed to slow down. I suffered through the long switchbacks with everyone else and managed to pass a couple of people. As I started on my second lap I noticed two guys in front of me in my category. I manged to pick the first guy off pretty easily and then the second guy and I started to yo-yo as he was a little stronger in the steeper climbs (the heat really bothered me when I pushed things hard) and I was able to catch him on the flatter sections. He did manage to get a bit of a gap on me into one of the DH sections and I was getting nervous about the long switchback single track climb up the backside. I made and effort to get up to him as we approached the single track and managed to time things perfect to get a rider between us. I pushed hard and was able to get a couple more riders between us. At this point I was suffering pretty hard on the last couple of climbs before starting the long decent. I kept the intensity up to make sure neither rider caught me and managed to hang on for a 7th place finish. I was pretty happy about having some consistent lap times as well. I think my first lap was just over 50 minutes and my second lap 51.

Sunday consisted of a ride from K-town to Mill Hollow. Still a lot of snow in the mountains so it is going to be quite a while before Bench Creek is ridable. This week is supposed to be the week I found out about LOTOJA. I'm confident I'll get in. I'm also thinking about doing the Tour de Park City as a test for LOTOJA, reasonable price and looks like good support with a feed zone every 25 miles.