906 POLAR ROLL WINTER ADVENTURE RACE REPORT

The 906 Polar Roll is the final race of the Great Lakes Fat Bike Series.  It's advertised as a 35 Mile race (Actually 41, Thanks Todd) which starts on the main street of Marquette Michigan.  This has taken the top spot for my all time favorite fat bike race. 


I was nervous about this one as I've never been on a bike for 5 hours much less in the dead of winter.  With a race this long, depending on conditions of the trail, I figured I'd be looking at anywhere from 4 - 5 hours on the bike.  Perfect preparation is imperative to surviving the cold conditions for that amount of time. 

www.ryanstephensphoto.com

The race rolled out on the main street of Marquette Michigan.  Number 553 is my Mr. Rollins lined up with all the fast guys.  I placed myself a few rows back making sure I was in line with the first set of women. My main competition was Sonia Pond and Megan Barr who were leading the Great Lake Series.  Also saw Emily Nordahl, a champion cyclocross racer in the mix. 

The roll out was pretty chill, we quickly headed to a bike path that ran along lake Superior.  I needed to make sure I was in a good position leading into the first section of single track as once we entered it, there was a climb I like to call "The Soul Crusher."  It's a category 4 Climb that took me over 8 minutes to crest.  I had to be as close to the front as possible as once you started this climb you were stuck at the pace of the single line of riders ahead.  I was able to pass a few guys as they got dropped off the back, working to put separation between me and the other women early on. 

The next major hill came shortly after a slight break.  Benson's Hill was a leg burner, my heart rate was high, I was pushing much harder then would have liked so early in the race but I was chasing a guy about 20 ft from me and I wanted to be right on his wheel once we crested the hill as there was a nice long straight away after.  I burned some matches knowing I'd get some recovery time before the next gradual climb through the Marquette South Single Track Trails.  Also, a guy upon passing me said, "There's a girl not far off."  GAME ON




Plan was to give everything I had to be first lady into the single track and start to build a gap.  I also had to prepare for an 8 mile, straight, uphill, snowmobile trail heading into the wind.  You better not be alone when you get there. 

http://www.robmeenderingphotography.com/

Flying through the single track felt so good.  The trails were in the best condition I've ever seen.  Reminding me why I ride in the winter.   Nearing the end of the single track I forced myself to get out of my cornering comfort zone as I needed to stick with the guy I was following.  I absolutely needed his wheel once we jumped out onto the snowmobile trail.  One of my own teammates went by both of us and ended up crashing out the guy I wanted to work with!  What tha!  Dude!  I needed that guy!  There was no chance of me hanging onto my teammate so I slow rolled until my crashed out friend came to rescue me.

There were times I didn't think I'd be able to hold on but I kept thinking of how much worse it would hurt if I was fighting the wind alone.  We had a solid, steady pace going until we saw another pack of guys ahead of us.  My new friend said, "What do you think?"  I said, "Let's go get them!"  We put in an effort and were with our new pack in minutes.  Relief was short lived as you know how it goes, the more guys you add, the faster the group ride.  Again I was pushing harder then I'd hoped to at this point in the race but had no choice.   Kept thinking, c'mon single track, where are you? Save me!

www.ryanstephensphoto.com

23 Miles and over 2 hours into the race we were finally in Ishpeming.  I was happy to see Tony Wagner standing at the 2nd of 3 aid stations with water bottle and gel in hand.  Tony agreed to be race support in exchange for a room for the weekend.  This relieved much of my pre race anxiety.  Frozen water and food is common during races with temps in the teens.  Not being properly hydrated and fueled can and will destroy your race.  I bought 4 insulated camelback water bottles and filled each with warm water and Heed sports drink from Hammer Nutrition.  I used rubber bands around the bottles to hold my hammer gels.  This way I would get food and water without skipping a beat.  Crucial for the win.  One of the guys I was teaming with had to stop to refill his bottle at the aid station, never caught back up to us.  Cost him 6 positions in the end.  I put some Fully Charged in my 3rd bottle for a little extra zing midway through the race and my last gel was caffeinated for one last kick to get me to the finish. 

www.ryanstephensphoto.com

I made a move on my pack on the first major hill at the start of the Ishpeming trail system.  One of the guys, Evan from the 45 North team not only responded but passed me up halfway up and took off!  What do I do, just let him get away?  He's just a guy, it's not like I'm racing him.  Then I imagined he had a pony tail.  If he had been a girl, would I have let her go?  No Way, I went after him.  Full in and out of my seat sprints to stay with him for the next mile.  We hit the open road and that slowed him down, nice burst of wind in your face will do that to you.  The majority of the final 8 miles was really tight single track with steep punchy climbs.  Evan and I rode together for a few but he gave me the go ahead as he was blowing up.  Off I went, the last 6 miles of the race, alone in the woods with my thoughts. 

• Don't let up now
• Ride smooth, no crashing
• Muscles are on fire, so are everyone else's
• It Burns!
• I want that Buckle, I'm gonna get that buckle!
• That all you got Todd?  Goofy looking little thing weren't you
• I could actually win this thing

• 

  www.ryanstephensphoto.com

  I'd love to rip this trail with fresh legs, steal some QOM's
• Hello Ice patch
• I want to build a cabin up here
• Easy on the corners blast it on the straightaways, when is this straightaway going to end!?
• Wonder if Tony will have that Hot Coffee and Whiskey waiting for me at the finish
• There's the finish, there it is, I Won, I Won, I just won the Polar Roll!



 I came in at 3hrs and 44 minutes.  Much faster then I had anticipated.  The immaculate course conditions played a big part in that.  It was a perfect race for me, the kind you dream about.  Felt strong and prepared going in.  A feeling I haven't felt at this level since the Birkie last year.  Everything went my way, rode smooth, hard, and had help when I needed it.  Rode on the sweet spot of pleasure and pain.  If you haven't made the trip to Marquette Michigan, make it a mandatory addition to your plans next year.  Marquette truly is a winter wonderland. 

Megan Barr - Leia Schneeberger - Emily Nordahl

Shout outs go to:

My Team Broken Spoke Racing

Mark Barrette from Hammer Nutrition

Race Support Tony Wagner

Scott Robinson from Integration Bodywork

My my Ryan Rollins

All the race directors and volunteers



Next up on the Agenda:
Sweaty Yeti - Neillsville, WI
Hugh Jass - Waterloo, WI
Birkie - Cable, WI
28 Below - Spearfish, South Dakota

 

2018 Polar Roll Buckle Winners

 

GRRRRRR

Blow to the Ego or Rite of Passage

I went back and forth on if I should share this story. I was embarrassed I had crashed so badly once again and didn't want anyone to know.  Then I got to reading all the forums and articles of others that have done the same.  Their stories helped me in my recovery, gave me hope and reason not to feel like a big loser.

One week before the first Wisconsin Off Road Series Race of the season I crashed hard.  Misread a slippery rock drop, forgot to open up my suspension, when I hit the bottom the bike didn't give and kicked me right over the handlebars.  I landed on my right shoulder.  The pain was excruciating.  My first thought was, "there goes my collar bone."  This was not one of those crashes where you jump right up and check the status of your bike.  I was down for a few minutes and slowly limped up, got dizzy and nauseous and had to lie back down because I thought I would faint.  Luckily I was with my buddy Ben Schreiber.  He was able to bike back to the car while I waited near the crash site. 

 Not again, not another season stripped from me due to a shoulder injury.  Devastation set in and it was all I could do to keep it together.  I immediately got on my phone and started google searching shoulder injuries, symptoms and causes in effort to self diagnose.  After doing some range of motion / pain tests I knew it couldn't be broken.  I called my chiropractor and set up an appointment to get an x-ray.  I sent a screen shot of the x-ray to a friend that works at UW Sports Med in effort to bypass a general practitioner and speed the discovery of the issue.  She took one look and knew, told me I had a Grade 3 AC Separation then set me up with the shoulder specialist the next day to confirm.  Sure enough it was, I tore all the ligaments holding my collar bone to my sternum.  My advice is to get an x-ray immediately, sooner you figure out what's wrong, sooner you can begin treatment.  The specialist said they would rather not go the surgery route to connect the bones back together as they were finding many people were getting severe arthritis later in life.  Said I'd just have a floating collar bone and a bump but that I'd be stable without the ligaments as long as I stay strong. 

Back to the google search.  Forums, recovery time, treatments, personal stories, I read everything I could find.  I was able to heal like the wolverine thanks to all the suggestions from others that have done the same.  I am a very disciplined person in training and was the same in recovery.  I am sharing this in hopes that it could help speed up the recovery process for others that like to fly over their handlebars.  Feel free to reach out for more suggestions / explanation should something like this happen to you.

Here is the report on my weekly treatments and recovery:

Week 1 - Focus on Pain reduction and healing:  Rest, Ice every couple hours for 20 minutes, Walk or light spin on the trainer every morning to get the blood pumping, 1 Tylenol and 1 Ibprophen every 4 hours, Lidocaine patch over the injury, very very light range of motion exercises, extra sleep, nap. 

Week 2 - Everything in week 1 plus started to incorporate more range of motion exercises and a few strengthening exercises, wall pushups, arm raises.  Was back on the trainer full boar this week.  Really tight in my neck and back pains surrounding the shoulder.  Got a massage from Megan, my therapist from Integration Bodywork, really helped in cleaning up the "junk."

Week 3 - Backed off the icing and pain killers.  Still on Lidocaine patch.  Purchased a basic shoulder brace off of Amazon and wore it for road biking.  Back to full training on the road, no trails. Range of motion, stretching and added strength, push ups, arm raises w/ light weights.  Tested it out during race pre ride, felt strong and secure, ended up racing the Iola Bump and Jump and was fine.

Iola Bump and Jump Pre Ride w/ Shoulder Brace

Week 4 - Done w/ Lidocaine patches.  1 hour massage focuses solely on neck and shoulder area.   Started trail riding w/ brace on, taking it easy, cautious, felt stable.


Week 5 - Still a dull pain during certain movements. Able to sleep on that side.  No brace, no pain killers, no ice.  Physical therapy and strengthening 3-5 days a week. Raced Battle of Camrock, felt more sore tying my shoes and cleaning my bike then racing.


Week 6 - Still some minor agitation every now and again.  1 hour massage makes it so much better. Feel like I'm back to full strength on the bike.   Was timid first couple rides but just about back to normal. 


Week 7 - Diligent with physical therapy and strength training.  Raced Mt. Morris Challenge, no pain.

Week 8 - I'll put in 3 - 5 days of PT for the rest of my biking career.  Staying strong and mobile is the key.



Mt. Morris Challenge

I asked Scott Robinson, owner of Integration Bodywork to provide the more scientific reason why massage can help speed up injury recovery.

Happy Healing! 

Four ways massage aids injury recovery

Calm the nervous system

Traumatic injuries, like separating your shoulder in a bike crash, is a powerful sympathetic (fight-or-flight) stimulus. This keyed up, high stress state can persist for hours, days, or even weeks after the injury, depending on severity. It is well established that massage and bodywork of nearly any kind is a parasympathetic (rest, digest, heal) stimulus. This makes massage a great tool for bringing your body back to normal so it can start focusing on healing itself.

Improved blood and lymphatic flow

Blood travels through blood vessels to brings nutrients, healing factors, and other beneficial elements to the injury site, as well as take waste products away to be processed by the appropriate system (DO NOT CALL THEM TOXINS, that’s not a real thing). Lymph also part of the circulatory system, and plays a major role in clearing waste and debris from the injury site. Massage has been shown to mechanically stimulate vasodilation, which means it improves circulation by making the vessels bigger. Traditionally, massage was thought to actually move blood around, but that has been shown not to be the case.

Stimulate mitochondrial activity

Mitochondria are the organelles that turn carbohydrate and fat into ATP, which is the actual fuel used by the body (carbs and fat are to ATP what coal and natural gas are to electricity). Any process that requires an energy input will happen faster when there is more ATP available. Massage has been shown to stimulate the production of ATP by the mitochondria, so it can improve recovery for any stress, injury, race, or otherwise, by speeding up healing processes.

Restore normal movement patterns

Most of the time, injuries boil down to tearing or otherwise destroying some tissue; bones break, ligaments and tendons sprain, muscles strain, etc. All painful movement creates compensatory patterns, but acute and traumatic injuries often create splinting patterns that protect the injury by severely limiting movement of the injured structure. This is a good thing, especially for the first 24-48 hours because it improves the ability of the injured structures to knit themselves back together. However, after those first 24-28 hours, or even sooner, it’s critical to start moving in the most normal, pain-free way possible. Movement helps lay down scar tissue in a useful way, and movement is required for venous blood and lymph to move through the circulatory system. Massage, or at least the kind of work Megan and I do, helps restore these normal movement patterns.

www.integrationbodywork.net

 

Road to the Birkie & Back

Today is the first day since the Birkie I've had any energy.  Easily could have slept through the past 2 weeks.  The race took everything I had and then some.  Sometimes your body is smarter then yourself, it shut me down.  Going to do my best here to extrapolate and deliver as much of this 3 month ride.


The decision to train for the win was made on New Years Day.  Considering the competition I'd be facing, it was a long shot but not entirely out of reach.  Why not go for it?  I dreamt about it nightly and woke up every morning thinking what do I need to do today that nobody else is doing?  It was a long 10 weeks of hours and hours of training in freezing temperatures, slush, snow, and wind. 


The week leading up to the race I was feeling strong, fit and rested.  I was confident that I had trained more then anyone.  If I was going to loose, it would be from someone having more talent, not from being outworked.  And I was happy with that.  Day prior to the race I checked out the list of girls who would be starting in wave 1, google searched their names and quickly thought WraWro.   3rd isn't so bad, even 5th, I'm cool with a top 5 finish. 


Because of the lack of snow, warmer then average temperatures, rain and then freezing temperatures this winter the course director had to completely change the course.  Racing 28 miles on rolling hills of sheet ice was out of the question.  They modified the course to a 6 mile loop and we were to complete 5 laps giving us 30 miles and over 3,500 feet of elevation.   They did the best they could chopping up ice with heavy machinery and I give them kudos for making the most of what they had to work with.  The pre ride was hellacious.  The course was treacherous, ultra bumpy frozen ground with patches of snow and ice.  This race was going to be more about survival of the bikes and bodies more then anything else. 


Broken Spoke Racing Team



4 Degrees is all mother nature would give us morning of the race.  Brutal.  I went with only 5psi and studded tires.  Most had higher psi as it's faster on hard surfaces but I decided to forgo just a bit of speed to stay on the no crash program.  Lower pressure and studs allowed me to use the icy sections for speed and maneuver quickly without sliding out.  Mass starts are crowded and everyone sprints out like their getting chased by rabid dogs but don't give much thought to staying upright.  I knew people would be slipping out so I played it safe. 



I kept the leader in sight but focused more on keeping a decent distance from those I was following.  Hadn't gotten through the prolog when a guy wiped out right in front of me, fortunately my plan worked and I had enough space and traction to maneuver around him.  Not even 5 minutes later, same thing, guy goes down and I creep past unscathed.  As the race went on there were dozens of people at the side of the course picking up the pieces, racers not only walking up the hills but walking down them!  First 2 laps I was following the leader at a pace that was manageable.  On the 3rd lap a guy from another wave passed and she grabbed his wheel, I followed suit in 3 position.  Until we came up to a nice icy decent with a curve at the bottom.  I didn't trust it so I tapped the breaks to let them have their space.  Seconds later they both went down, it looked bad.  I made it around and turned on the jets.  It was go time.  Couple minutes later on a flat icy section, took focus off the course for 1 damn second and down I went.  Stupid.  Ice doesn't give, my soul had been knocked out of me and I could see it floating away.  Did a quick assessment of the damage, I'm good, check, bike good, check, ok gotta go! 

My legs were strong throughout the race, climbing with ease.  I had trained rolling hill courses all winter and it was paying off.  My lungs though, they were struggling.  Inhaling that cold air at such a rate was getting to me.  My breathing was to shallow and I had to slow up a few times to prevent hyperventilating.  I wonder if there are any studies about getting less oxygen in colder temperatures.  There were several times I had to hold back tears and push though the pain.  I had a chance to win, I couldn't give it up now!  I crested the last extended climb, only had a mile to go and it was time to make it really hurt.  I sprinted with everything I had left and it burned.  Years ago I had passed a friend early on in a race and thought I "had her."  She crossed the finish line only seconds behind me and with a look of surprise I told her I thought I had her.  She said to me, "you never have anybody."  That statement played over and over in my head until I crossed the line. 

Check out www.fat-bike.com for a live version of the story.  I come in at 31 minutes in.

https://fat-bike.com/2017/03/weekly-dose-of-fat-show-125-surlys-paul-zeigle-and-2017-fat-bike-birkie-womens-champ-leia-schneeberger/

 

Thanks to everyone who's supported me throughout this journey.  Thanks to the race directors for putting on an incredible even.  And thanks to my sponsors, www.brokenspokebikes.com www.funkierbike.com www.integratedbodywork.net for believing in me!

After 2 weeks off the bike, I'm ready to get back at it.  Leaving for Texas to train in the sun and dirt for a week with Ryan.  We'll be testing out our new, matching Niner RKTs.  Looking forward to all the summer fun with all my buddies during the Wisconsin Off Road Series.  It's like adult summer camp.

Left: Kaitlin Anntoneau Middle: Leia Right: Ami Stuart