Ten months ago I had ACL reconstruction surgery on my left knee. We will call that my “new knee”. The surgery consisted of harvesting one of my hamstring tendons and anchoring that to my femur and tibia. Voila…new ACL. The rehab was long and much of the time was spent strengthening the hamstring and other knee stability muscles. Lucky for me, cycling was a large part of the recovery.
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| Busted up knee |
Recovery
was going well and the doctor said after nine months, I should be good to start
getting back to normal activity. The Alberta Rockies 700 (AR700) is normal activity,
right? The AR700 bikepack race is typically 700km long. This year was reduced
to 500km due to COVID-19 and interprovincial camping restrictions, so it was
called Alberta Rockies 500 Special Edition. It is a mixed surface race with a
combination of gravel roads, pavement, doubletrack, and singletrack.
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| Alberta Rockies 500 SE Route |
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| Lake Louise to Jasper roadie machine |
I rode the
Lake Louise to Jasper ride and everything went really well. I managed to hammer
hard and finish in 8:13 total elapsed time (12 minutes stopped time). The new
knee felt great! But the next day riding with Kristin around Jasper, my new
knee started screaming. There was a sharp pain at the top of the kneecap. Uh
oh, did I overdo it with that long hard ride?
I had two
weeks before the AR700 and I did a couple of hill training rides on the single
speed. The kneecap started to flare up again, so with my past experience and 20
minutes of intensive Google research, I diagnosed myself with quadriceps
tendonitis. So, I decided to rest as much as I possibly could before the AR700.
The quadriceps tendonitis is an overuse injury, and since my rehab for the new
knee includes a lot of cycling, I’ve been increasing volume gradually over the
past 7 months, but since I decided to do the AR700, I decided to increase my
volume a lot really fast. I think that’s what flared up the tendonitis.
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| Weekly hill climbing machine |
The week and a half before the race I tried to
ride as little as possible, but I still had to ride everyday because of the
Ride 366 2020 Challenge. Aside: I started a challenge where you need to ride every
day of 2020 for at least 15 minutes. My last day off was December 8, 2019. It’s
Ride 366 2020 because it’s a leap year. I also iced it as much as I could and
took ibuprofen to reduce the inflammation. I thought I’d let it heal as much as
possible, but I expected it to hurt during the race. I figured the most amount
of time I rested would reduce the amount of discomfort during the race.
Race Strategy:
My primary purpose for the race was to test the new knee. I hoped to ride the whole distance in one go while stopping as little as possible. I brought just enough gear for emergencies: puffy coat, long sleeve base layer, base layer leggings, raincoat, chemical toe warmers, and an emergency bivy. I didn’t plan on stopping to sleep so I only wanted to bring enough in case I got into trouble and had to hole up somewhere. I could put on all my clothes and huddle up in my bivy. I had some basic tools, bear spray, and other essential items too. The rest of my space was filled up with food. I did not want to buy food anywhere along the route since that takes time. I wanted to keep pedaling as much as possible at a gentle pace to save the knee and eat on the bike as I rode. I wanted to ignore the other racers, keep a slow steady pace with no stopping, and see how the new knee felt at the end! Whatever my finish time was, was what it was.
Bike Setup:
I was
riding my RollingDale Cycles titanium single speed bike with a gear ratio of
32x18 and Maxxis Ikon 2.35” 29” tires. That ratio on paved, easy portions I
spin comfortably at 20-22 km/hr. If I spin like a madman, I can spin up to 26 km/hr,
but I can also climb a decent grade of hill comfortably. I thought that would
be a good mix for this race.
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| Bike is short for Bichael |
Race day
came and we drove out to Canmore the night before, had a big pile of pasta from
Boston Pizza and drove out to the start in the morning.
When we got
to the start, there were a few cars scattered around with cyclists. I knew Tim
and Trish and Joanne. Monika showed up a little bit later. I packed up the
bike, got ready and took off. Kristin was the official photographer for the
start and Joanne was the announcer for the start of the race. Kristin took a
socially distanced group picture and Joanne yelled us off and we were off down
the dusty road.
It seemed
like everybody was riding at a reasonable pace. I chatted with Tim a little bit
and met Shaun from South Africa who now lives in Calgary. We just kept a nice,
gentle pace on the roads. It was a gradual uphill for the first bit. As I
expected, the guys on the gravel bikes, cross bikes, drop bars, and gears all
started to gradually pull away. And over the next two to three hours I would only
see them on hills in the distance.
I didn’t
want to overstress my new knee in the beginning, so I kept a nice gentle pace
without pushing super hard to see how it felt. Over the next few hours, both
knees had aches and pains that would come and go, which is actually quite
normal for this kind of event. I was nervous that the new knee would hurt on
top of the kneecap, which is where I felt the most pain recently, but it never
seemed to hurt very much there. Great news so far, but I was still feeling
cautious.
I happened
to see Tim again and we talked a bit more. He mentioned this was the Ghost of
the Gravel route. We chatted a bit more and he pulled away into the distance
again.
Whole lotta this for the first 130 km
I kept
riding and saw one guy stopped on the side of the road and asked if he was
okay. He said he had a puncture, so I kept on going. I almost took a wrong turn
because the route loops around and comes back on the same trail. I almost took
the wrong right, so I corrected myself and kept on riding.
On the start
of this first loop the road surface was pretty good and the temperature was
nice. It was around 12 to 15 degrees and there were not very many vehicles on
the road.
As the
morning passed into afternoon, it started to get a little warmer. I started to
see more RVs and campsites. I reminded myself to stay at my pace and started eating
on my schedule. Now I seemed to be all by myself, as these races go. Later in the
afternoon, I actually saw a rider ahead of me! I was catching up with somebody!
I crept up and it was Shaun. We talked a bit and the temperature was starting
to get hot, around 25 degrees. We just talked about how hot it was and how he
didn’t train very much for the race, just his daily commute. Good for him for
testing himself with this race! Eventually I started creeping away from him.
I took a
last sip out of my CamelBak and realized I was almost out of water, so I
started looking for water sources. I saw one creek, but it was slow moving and brown,
so I decided to wait. I found one that wasn’t too bad a little bit later. I filled
up there and I had to wait 30 minutes for the Aquatabs to work before I could
drink it. But I was happy because I didn’t have to stop until Cochrane to get
water.
I rode past
the staging area again at the start and I was happy to have the Ghost section
behind me. Later in the afternoon there was more traffic and more dust on the
gravel roads. I felt like I ate a pound of that white gravel dust! I passed the
start point after the first loop and I was wondering if I was passing a bunch
of people who were going back to their vehicles for resupply.
That's not fog, it's dust. Blech!
I kept
riding and was now in the paved section which was nice due to less vibration. Eventually
I saw Tim’s smiling face beside me. We chatted a bit, then he kept riding ahead
of me. I expected everybody to pass me again because now we’re on pavement and
maximum comfortable speed I could go was 22 km/hr. Tim passed me then a couple
of other guys passed me too.
It was
starting to get pretty hot, about 28-30 degrees and I had this bad tasting
creek water. I decided to either go to the Ghost convenience store which was
off route or go to a gas station in Cochrane. I couldn’t remember how far the
Ghost store was so I decided to go to Cochrane. I stopped at the edge of
Cochrane to check my phone and see where the gas station was. There was one a
kilometer down the road so I went to that one. Since I was super thirsty, I
ended up buying too many liquids. I filled up the CamelBak and my water bottle,
drank a Tim Horton’s drink and a cranberry juice, and I put a small 750 ml
bottle of water in my frame bag. I rolled away with my overstuffed Buddha belly
full of water and I got back on route. The route followed bike paths through
Cochrane. It was nice being away from traffic.
At one
point on the bike paths I felt humiliated because I had to walk up a paved hill.
Hey, it was really steep! The route went up a steep road out of Cochrane on the
other side of the riverbank and I was back on gravel roads.
These gravel roads were on farmer’s fields so the traffic was a lot lighter than in the Ghost area. I did a quick Facebook Live video to update people including Kristin. Was wondering what Powderface Trail was going to be like. The gravel roads turned onto a paved road as I crossed under Highway 1. I was riding up a hill, looked up and saw Niels at the top of the hill! It was great to see the support! He was on a ride in the area and saw I was nearby on Trackleaders. He walked alongside me as I rode my bike up the hill.
Photo by Niels Van Ommeren
We chatted a bit about the route and he mentioned I’d be walking a lot of Powderface Trail because of a lot of steep pitches. Once I got onto Powderface Trail, I saw Niels was telling
the truth! I walked quite a few hills.
Beginning of Powderface
The surface
was nice and the hills were steep as the sun went down. It was amazing the
temperature change! Within an hour the temperature went from 27C to 10C as the
sun went behind the hills. I rode up quite a long, steep hill, and took a short
break at the top. I heard some gravel crunching nearby and saw another racer!
It was a guy with a Fox t-shirt, who I thought was in front of me. We talked a
bit and he mentioned he was going to stop and camp pretty soon. We started
riding down the hill, leapfrogged a little bit, and eventually he wasn’t behind
me anymore. I guess he stopped.
I rode up
to the campsite where the aid station was and realized I didn’t know which camping
spot to go to. I looked at my phone to see if I could text Jonathan, but there
was no service. I remembered there was something in the email, so I looked at
the email and found the aid station. Upon arriving, I said hi to Jonathan and
his family. I was looking forward to getting some water since I was pretty much
out. I was surprised to find out that I was the second one there! How did that
happen? Dave was the first one there and was still there. I started filling up with
water and bananas and got rid of my garbage. I think my arrival and reluctance
to sit down spurred Dave to leave more quickly, so he was off right after I got
there. I left probably maybe 10 minutes after Dave did and was wondering if I
would see him again.
It was a
slow climb up to Mount Romulus. This was the beginning of the summit of the
route at 2236 meters. This was a transition from gravel roads up to this point
into trail. Now it started to become more of a mountain bike trail. The trail
surface from the aid station to Mount Romulus was fun and not very steep. At
one point I saw Dave again who was off to the side of the trail. He came up
riding behind me and said he went off route for a little bit and started
climbing strongly ahead of me on his cross bike. I was walking up the steep
section that he could ride and eventually he started walking too, but then got
back on his bike and rode away. I didn’t see him again for a long time.
The trail
kept going up and up and past Mount Romulus and started getting more rocky, rough,
and steep so I was walking quite a bit. Eventually I got to the summit at
Tombstone Lake. The stars were amazing so I took a minute to look at the stars
and was looking forward to a smooth, fun descent that never came…
It started
with a short descent and then turned into a very rocky trail that slowly
climbed. The trail consisted mostly of babyheaded rocks that were difficult to maneuver,
so I walked a decent amount of it and it seemed to stretch on for a very long
time. I started to think of the Arizona Trail where there’s a constant question
of if I should try to ride it or just walk it. Many times I tried riding and I
would have to stop after 10 meters so I would have to get off again. This repeated
for a while as time passed into the middle of the night.
The trail
started to trend down towards Highway 40. It was a descent, but it was a
technical, rocky descent where you had to be careful not to crash. I wondered
how Dave was doing on his cross bike. Lo and behold, Highway 40 appeared and it
was on a fast, paved descent in the dark. The trail turned off onto an easy
pathway through the trees toward Boulton campsite. I was looking forward to
riding this part because I was familiar with the paths from riding them before.
The paved paths wound through the campsite and saw headlights in the distance.
It was Dave! He mentioned the trail ahead was closed and we talked about what
to do. I wanted to see for myself so I rode up and there was tape across and
the area was closed due to bear activity. We spent some time trying to find a
reroute. There was no cell service so I had to use my Etrex to try to find a
new route. Etrex works for this, but it’s very slow and clumsy so it took a while
to find a good route.
Can't go this way!
We rode
together on a road that bypassed the closure area and met up with the route
again. We kept riding for a while until we got to the High Rockies Trail (HRT)
and I knew Dave would be faster so he went first. He took off like a shot down
the trails.
The HRT is
a singletrack mountain bike trail that is well built and had good flow. I did
however expect it to be easier. Leading up to the start of this section, I imagined
something quite different. I imagined a singletrack trail that gently climbed
hills, flowed through the woods, as I expended very little effort riding
carefree through the trees with a smile on my face. Maybe there were even birds
chirping and butterflies floating around me in my delusion. It was not that way
at all.
It was
about 4 in the morning when I started the HRT and it began with a climb. The
trail was smooth at first, but it was like a little roller coaster so it would
be going up and down, up and down, with the ups being a lot higher than the downs.
So I could ride some of the trail, but I would have to get off and push the
bike…a lot. I had flashbacks of the Arizona Trail again. Again, I had to decide
if I wanted to try to ride something or just walk it. When I tried to ride,
often I could only ride for 10 meters and I would hit a steep hill and I had to
walk.
Famous HRT suspension bridge
The trail
trended uphill at times and I walked a lot of that. But then it would trend
downhill and it would be fun because it would be a fast, flowy singletrack
trail. I knew the HRT was about 50 km and as the first hour went by, I realized
it was going to be a long night and possibly morning. The process of walking
steep sections and riding the fun sections down repeated all night. When dawn
arrived, I was about halfway done.
The HRT
caused conflicting emotions. First, despair. I was very tired and my legs were
pretty worn out. I didn’t have much punch left to power up the short, steep
sections. At these times, I couldn’t wait for the HRT to be over. Second, glee.
This trail was a blast to ride! As long as it was flowing downhill. It was such
a nice trail that was so well done and so much fun, I wish I had more energy to
enjoy it.
Glee and despair
At one
point I saw a little sheep on the trail. He was walking along the trail too and
we walked together for a while with him staying just ahead. It was a surreal
experience! It was nice having someone to talk too… even if they were not
talking back.
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| My buddy the sheep |
As the sun
rose and the trail got further north, it got rockier, so it was a little more
challenging technically. Due to my sleep deprivation, I started to realize I
could trust my hearing and vision less and less. I’ve had experience with this
before. In other races that I’ve had in the past, I’d get auditory and visual
hallucinations after about 30 hours of exertion, and from what I’ve heard this
is common in ultra-endurance events. Since I have experienced this before, I
know how to deal with them and they don’t concern me too much. I knew hearing voices
in the woods and seeing things moving out of the corner of my eye were not real
and to just ignore them. I started to realize that the things I was seeing in
front of me also couldn’t be trusted. There was one time I thought I saw a
large whale on the trail and I pondered, “Why would I think a whale is more
plausible to be on the trail than a large rock because obviously it’s a large
rock and not a whale.” At one point during a fast descent, it appeared there
was a bear in the tree out of the corner of my eye, but I couldn’t look at it
because I had to focus on the descent and I thought it probably wasn’t real
anyway.
I'm pretty sure he's real!
As I got
closer to Banff, the trail started to get busier. There were a few hikers, a
few bikers and I thought, “Please let the end be here soon.” Much to my relief,
the trail crossed Smith-Dorrien Road and went down to the bank of the Spray
Lakes Reservoir. I knew from that point on the nastiness was over. The trail
might be a bit rocky here and there and there might be some steep climbs, but
nothing would be sustained for a long period of time. Everything would be short-lived.
I reveled
in riding the trail along the Spray Lakes bank. I crossed the dam and went back
onto the HRT for the portion that connected to Goat Creek Trail. I had ridden
this a couple of times in the past and I knew it was fairly easy. Spirits were
high! As my speed increased because the trail was easier, it was still rocky
and my feet were feeling the pain the most. The impact of riding on the
technical trails made my toes really sore, so I was doing my best to sit in the
saddle to take pressure of my feet. But with the fast descent still on portions
of rocky and rooty sections, I still had to stand on the pedals and endure the
foot pain.
I knew once
Goat Creek was over, my challenge would no longer be riding difficult trails,
it would be to ride safely while being very tired. After Goat Creek the route is
about 100 km of fairly easy pavement to the finish. I knew that in my sleep
deprived state, riding the technical trails kept me engaged, but riding on the
pavement in the heat would make me relax and would make sleepiness a major
factor. When riding the single speed on the easy pavement, I can’t push a pace.
I just coast a lot, so it lowers my heart rate, I get comfortable, then tend to
feel sleepy. I knew this would probably happen and it made me nervous for the
finish.
Once I got
to the end of Goat Creek, I stopped at the garbage can to empty my garbage. I
checked my phone to see where I could fill up with some water. By this time it
was midday and about 30 degrees. I found the Shell on Banff Avenue and stopped
there. I was feeling the heat so I had a popsicle. I got some water, some
juice, and some chocolate milk. For some strange reason, the juice was lukewarm
so I ate the popsicle, drank the juice, filled up my CamelBak and water bottle.
I started to drink the chocolate milk, realized I was too full. Didn’t want to
overfill my belly like after Cochrane so I only drank a quarter of the
chocolate milk. Plus, milk products and the heat can sometimes go very wrong…
Oh yeah, my
new knee! About in the middle of the night, I forgot that I was worried about
it and realized it wasn’t hurting at all. It was totally fine! Aches and pains
would come and go as they do in this type of racing, but no major issues. I
brought a lot of ibuprofen and pain killers anticipating that I would be taking
a steady diet as the race progressed, but I never took any. As mentioned
before, my feet really hurt and I was debating taking some ibuprofen for my
feet, but I knew with the long, easy pavement ahead, I would be drowsy and I
didn’t want to take anymore ibuprofen to make me more drowsy. I’m not sure if
that’s a side effect, but I didn’t want to risk it. Plus, I thought a little
bit of pain would keep me awake.
So with my liquid tanks (belly included) all filled up, I headed down the Legacy Trail. Almost immediately I started feeling drowsy. I was debating whether to stop and take a nap. My personal rule is if I start to feel like I’m going to nod off, I stop and lie down and usually that gets me out of the drowsy state. It’s better to stop than to ride unsafely. As I was riding down the trail thinking of the best place I could stop and take a nap because I felt so drowsy, I saw Tim Johnson’s smiling face riding towards me. I said hi and he turned around and started riding with me and rode with me all the way to Canmore. The conversation we had while we were riding woke me up, totally removed the drowsy feeling and really saved my bacon. Thanks, Tim!
Photo by Tim Johnson
Tim and I parted ways in
Canmore. I started following some bike trails toward Highway 1A and to my
surprise I saw Guy Stuart! It was another encouraging moment to see his smiling
face.
Photo by Guy Stuart
I continued
riding on Highway 1A knowing this would be a particularly stressful stretch
because it’s a busy road with virtually no shoulder. I did another Facebook
Live video while there was still a shoulder to give people an update and began
the stretch that never seemed to end until the turnoff to go north to the
finish line.
It was
about 57 km of a stretch with no shoulder and it helped with the drowsiness
because I had to focus so hard on riding in a straight line so the cars could
pass safely by. About every 20 to 30 minutes I would stop on a pullout and
check my phone only just to break the cycle and stay alert. The kilometers
seemed to pass by incredibly slowly. At one point someone drove by with
Saskatchewan plates yelling indistinctly, jerking their hand up in a sharp,
upward manner and I chose to believe they were cheering me on saying, “Great
job!” There was one other time somebody was honking at me and it felt like an
angry honk. I chose not to let it bother me. Another time I heard some honking
from way behind and I felt like it was an encouraging honk and it was my lovely
wife driving by cheering me on through the open passenger window.
The
kilometers went by very, very slowly while taking breaks trying to stay alert
on the edge of drowsiness, trying to stay safe and just waiting for the
shoulder to come which I knew came at the Ghost Campground. I was about to stop
at what I thought was another pullout and then realized that was the shoulder!
I was elated!
I took a
drink off my CamelBak, realized it was dry so I decided I had to stop at the
convenience store at the Ghost campsite. I pulled in knowing exactly what to
get after overbuying at the last two stops and bought 1.5 liters of water to
fill up my CamelBak and a Starbucks Frappuccino. It was a long wait in line at
the convenience store, but the air conditioning was nice. I saw an angry camper
buying liquor who didn’t seem to be appreciating the air conditioning during
the long wait in line. He was very rude to the cashier and I thought that was
sad. I bought my water and Frappuccino, said thank you and stepped outside back
in the heat. I drank the Frappuccino, filled up the CamelBak and was happy to
see the last 30 km ahead of me.
There’s a
strange phenomenon that when you’re going back along a route that you’ve
previously travelled, it seems to go faster. I rode out this way the day
previous in the afternoon and now I was riding back so I knew some familiar
landmarks that were coming up and I was looking for those. I knew there was the
Ghost Fire Hall. There was the Waiparous Creek gully. There was one or two
steep but short climbs to do. I had my mind focused on those, so this section
went by much faster than the Highway 1A portion. I have a feeling the
Frappuccino helped with my alertness because I didn’t feel drowsiness at all. I
tried to keep a solid pace and the kilometers seemed to go by quickly.
I reached
the final steep climb that I expected and with my broken legs, I couldn’t make
it up, so I started to walk. I walked up to the top of the steepest section,
got back on the bike, and started pedaling again. Just after I got back on my
bike, some blond-looking man in a small car yelled, “Go Dean!” I wondered if
that was Dave.
As I was
riding to the end, I was not looking forward to the short gravel section
because my feet and hands were sore and I knew it was very washboardy. I was
happy to see the parking lot in the distance once I got on the gravel and then
tried to ride strong to the finish. I rounded the corner, saw my lovely wife
and was happy to be done.
The race was
complete and I was happy with the result. I rode according to my plan and
actually came in second! My knee felt good so I’m confident it’s healing well. I
wonder what will be next…
Race done!
