I did not realize the amount of work involved to put on a mountain bike race. Our club, the Rock Cut Trail Crew, holds an annual mountain bike race at Rock Cut State Park here in northern Illinois. It’s next weekend, Sunday, April 30.

Since before Christmas we’ve been making plans and getting things organized for the race. We have a committee of about 10 volunteers who have done most of the coordination and we have about 30 ready to go on race day. The jobs include deciding on a theme. This year it’s, “Do The Rock.” Rock Cut State Park is named for the big rock outcroppings left behind when railroad workers cut the rail beds through in the early 1800’s. So the theme is fitting.

With the theme in place and the date set it’s time for promotion. I designed fliers, posters and t-shirts, developed a mailing list and cut vinyl for directional signs we’ll use on race day. There were trophies and medals to make. Cool polished rocks with gear cogs embedded in them. That was Andy’s idea and they look sweet. We wrote letters asking for swag for the raffle from bike shops, vendors and manufacturers. Other committee members are coordinating the army of volunteers that will be course marshalls, timers and help with registration.

The hours of planning for a mountain bike race is something I’m certain goes unnoticed to the racers. Although, if we do our job well and everything goes smoothly it should.

Here is the race course from my Garmin Edge 205.

Every trail system has one. The big climb. The one that burns your lungs and makes your heart feel like it’s going to bounce out of your chest. If, that is, you can ride it all the way to the top without dismounting. It’ll be called something like Heartrace Hill, or Cardiac Climb, or something else indicating its tendancy to get your ticker ticking.

At Rock Cut, the locals call it Heartrate Hill. A heavily eroded, double track fireroad that parallels the main paved road around the west side of Pierce Lake. It’s not particularly steep, but it climbs forever. Starting with the sandpit at the bottom, it’s a long, slow spin in the granny gear to a plateau and a curve. But that’s the trick. Just when you think you’ve reached the summit and you’re ready to fall over to catch your breath, there’s the second part of the climb.

Heartrate is part of the racecourse this year, but on our early morning rides we usually avoid it. Mostly due to time constraints, but, in all honesty, partly because it’s a real beast. So we take the shortcut trail, a short bit of singletrack through the woods followed by a couple of smaller climbs, which we’ve appropriately named, “Heart Bypass.”

My Ned Overend Mountain Biking Technique book talks about climbing. Get your weight forward, over the bars, in the “attack position.” That’ll give you more power in the climb, but be sure to find the sweet spot where you can get power without your back wheel lifting and spinning out.

I’ve read that, on a full suspension bike, you should stay seated while climbing. Still get your weight over the bars, but do not stand and mash. The idea is that the suspension design should keep the back wheel grounded. I’m no engineer, but I ride a Klein Palomino with the Maverick shock and I’ve found that staying seated on long climbs is fine. But standing and mashing on short climbs keeps my momentum.

No question, I’m better on the hills coming down than going up.

Civil twilight is defined when the sun is 6 degrees below the horizon. It’s the time just before sunrise when trees and buildings are still silhouetted against a deep blue sky but it’s just light enough that maybe you don’t need your headlamp, but take it anyway. Sunrise wasn’t until 6:29am this morning. But Civil twilight was at 6am and I was at the tennis courts along the bike path in the 30 degree frost where I planned to meet some folks for an early morning ride into Rock Cut State Park. Perhaps the wiser, certainly the better rested, no one else showed. So I headed up into the park in my winter gear and headlamp to watch the sun come up over Pierce Lake.

I’m not a morning person. I started riding at dawn a couple years ago mainly because, with work and a busy family schedule, the only time I had to myself was betweek 5 and 7am. My friend, John, joind me on a couple of rides. Then last year the word got around and my wakeup ride became a regular early morning group ride. On occasion we’d have 6 to 10 people show up.

The most difficult thing about an early morning bike ride has nothing to do with bikes. It is simply getting out of bed. I have the same conversation with myself every morning and have to convince myself not to climb back under the covers. I admit I’ve given in to the temptation more than a few times, but I know if I can suck it up and do a ride I’m better for it. Here are some things I do to take the egde off the morning.

• Plan ahead. Check the weather for the next morning. Call me obsessive, but I use both AccuWeather and Weather.com because sometimes they’re a little different. I’m not sure which is more accurate, but the main thing is to look at the hourly forecast for the time you’re going to ride.
• Check the sunrise time. SunriseSunset.com lets you create a customized printable calendar showing the twilight times, sunrise, sunset and other times for your area for any month and year.
• Set out your stuff in advance. It’s dark and you’re tired. Don’t scramble around in the morning to find all your riding clothes, gear, hydration pack and bananas. Put a pot of coffee on the timer the night before so it’s ready when you wake up. The smell of fresh brewed coffee is often enough incentive to get out from under the covers.
• Go to bed early. 9pm for me. 10pm at the latest or forget about it.

The season is early and the days are still getting longer. 6am sunrise is on Saturday, April 22 (in Northern Illinois) when we’ll have full daylight for our early morning ride.