Jun 19, 2024
In this episode, Craig Dalton and Justin Bowes reflect on thelead-up to the Unbound Gravel 200 race, sharing insights into theunique training approach adopted to prepare for the challengingevent. They discuss the strategic training block, the importance ofquality over quantity, utilizing power meters for trainingeffectiveness, and the significance of recovery in a compressedtime frame. The conversation dives into the pivotal four-day minicamp, highlighting the benefits of stacking workload and thenuances of balancing intervals and endurance rides.
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Key themes include strategicallystructuring training around time constraints, leveraging priorendurance experience, the impact of power meter training,optimizing recovery for peak performance, and the mental challengesfaced leading up to a formidable gravel race like Unbound.
Key Takeaways:
Strategic training plans can betailored effectively to accommodate time constraints and previousendurance experience.
Balancing interval workouts withendurance rides is crucial for building strength and endurance forchallenging events.
Utilizing power meters can providevaluable insights into training progress and help optimizeperformance.
Adequate recovery periods areessential for the body to absorb training load effectively, leadingto improved performance.
Mental preparation and breaking downthe race into manageable segments can help athletes.
Transcript:
[00:00:00] - (): Craig Dalton: Justin, welcomeback to the show,
[00:00:02] - (): Justin Bowes: Craig. Thank youfor having me. It's good to see you again.
[00:00:05] - (): Craig Dalton: Post Unbound. Wedid it.
[00:00:07] - (): Justin Bowes: That's right.You did it. Yeah, you did it a big way.
[00:00:12] - (): Craig Dalton: I appreciate youcoming on board and being my muse to help me tell my story. I feellike you were an integral part of my life for a while thisyear.
**** - (): In our last episode, we talked about kind of what therun up to my non cycling related vacation looked like. And maybe wepick up the story post that vacation.
[00:00:33] - (): Justin Bowes: Sure. Yeah, itwas, we discussed on the, on the first pod that, we, we were havinga little bit uncharacteristic buildup, um, not only because you hadsome, prior work, obligations with, as far as travel, but we werestarting quite late, um, as well.
**** - (): So we had to, be a little creative in how we wantedto, to approach your training. So, right when you were, uh,leaving, we had really built up your training load, um, becauseobviously we knew that you were going to be leaving and you'regonna have time off the bike. You weren't gonna be.
**** - (): Completely immobile. I mean, you were, we're going tobe able to, do some running and walking and some lifting and, and,um, a few stationary bike sessions in there and things like that,but it's not the most ideal unbound training, especially whenyou're training for the 200 and. We're only a couple months into itor, a couple of months out from it, I should say.
**** - (): And so, uh, the thought behind, how I wanted tostructure your training was to take advantage of the, the, theamount of time that you did not have to train. And so where atraditional buildup would have multiple big ride days on theweekends, um, not only that, but then also, during the week, Youwould have your meat and potato interval session, but also bookendit with some big endurance rides on the front and the back end ofit, but you just didn't have that available to you.
**** - (): So, um, I needed to make sure that we were going totake advantage of not only the lack of time that you had availableto you, but also you're, you're no stranger to endurance, um,athletics. So you had a background that I could work with. And thatmakes all the difference. If you were just coming to me off thestreet and say, Hey, can you get me ready?
**** - (): And less than four months, for a 200 mile gravelrace, the hardest 200 mile gravel race in the world. It would, thatwould be a different story, but thankfully you, you had somebackground in endurance, so it wasn't. A foreign concept to yourbody.
[00:02:48] - (): Craig Dalton: It wasinteresting in my training block leading up to Cuba because wereally didn't do a lot of meaningfully long rides, but I alsounderstood like, I'd never really done meaningful intervalsbefore.
**** - (): And clearly like the workouts you were prescribing tome that were one hour in duration. Pretty tired afterwards. Like Ifelt like I really gassed myself because now that we're looking ata power meter and we're really saying it's not like perceived levelof exertion. It's like, here's the exertion you need toachieve.
**** - (): Um, and it was really, I mean, frankly, it was like,I was burying myself on a lot of those workouts, which was verydifferent than anything I'd been done doing in the, the decadebefore, to be honest.
[00:03:32] - (): Justin Bowes: Right. Right.And I mean, it's, it's the old adage, quality over quantity. Andagain, I, I keep coming back to, the time crunch.
**** - (): I mean, that's what we were up against. And so Ireally wanted to make sure that, the lead up to your trip to Cuba,but then also once you get back, we added enough low to you. toyour training so that, um, the break was needed. And so your bodywould be able to absorb all of that load while you're gone because,yes, you would still be active, but you weren't training.
**** - (): And so it allowed your body to recover from all that.And by the way, Um, Craig did an amazing job, um, of hitting all ofhis workouts. Like, I want to say there's less than a handful thatwere just kind of like, didn't nail them perfectly, but it wasn'tfor the lack of trying by any means. Um, and so, um, with that, andyou brought up the point too, it's just like, you've never trainedwith power before, and so there was just, that was just anotherelement to the training that we had to kind Yeah. implement. Itwasn't like, Oh yeah, I've been training for years with power. So Iknow what my zones are and why and all of that. So kind of helpingcoach you through, the use of the power meters and, and theimportance of that.
**** - (): I think it gave us a really good detailed picture ofwhere the training was going and you could see. Yeah. andultimately feel, yourself getting stronger, after each week, thingsjust got better and better and better. So once you got back intothe country, then it was time to start, we'll continue on theinterval workouts, but we're going to start introducing, the longersessions as well.
[00:05:21] - (): Craig Dalton: Yeah, yeah. AndI remember like I definitely felt tired when I left for that weekoff, um, and unfortunately not incredibly refreshed after my quoteunquote vacation, because there's a lot of running around with thefamily, but coming back and looking at the training calendar, wehad a couple of things up in the air, but we knew like that nextsix weeks was going to be a big build of long rides, endurancerides, and continuing on some of the interval work.
[00:05:47] - (): Justin Bowes: Right, right.And so, had, had things been different as far as scheduling of thetrip and things like that, we may have flipped the script a littlebit and did all of your big rides be, on the front end, and then doall the more structured training, the higher, shorter, sharperstuff on the back end.
**** - (): But I just felt like with your background and what wewanted to accomplish with Unbound, um, it was better for us to, tostack those. shorter, sharper workouts on the front end and thengive yourself time to relax or, absorb. And then once you came backand we figured out, some pieces as far as like, Hey, when can weget out and do back to back big rides?
**** - (): And I want to talk about that too, because I think itwas really important, um, in the buildup, um, for the race, um,those, those four days of just, some really good rides, but it, it,it, It was working and from my standpoint, I could see, the fatiguebuilding, but your recovery was also taking, it was, it was workingas well, and so it was like, we'd stack the work on you.
**** - (): But then the recovery days were structured so that,those. again, your body absorbs that work. And the cool thing withwatching you is he can, you, Craig, he can handle a lot of work, soI'd be looking at your workouts, every day. And I'm like, he's,he's doing this, like he's actually absorbing all thisworkload.
**** - (): And that's where it was really starting to fuel myconfidence. And what you were going to be able to, um, accomplishat Unbound was, not only is he nailing all these workouts, but he'salso recovering on the backside of it too. And that was just,again, it was fueling my confidence for you to egg you on to say,Craig, you can do this.
**** - (): Like we're in a really good position. And I didn'twant to get down into all the weeds with you as far as like what Iwas seeing, right? Right. Because ultimately it's just like, I justwant Craig, you to understand you can do this. So it was reallycool from my standpoint to see.
[00:08:03] - (): Craig Dalton: Yeah. It'sinteresting. As you talk about, like, if, if we had given more timethat you might've done the longer rides earlier and then that kindof high performance stuff later, right.
**** - (): I kind of feel like I might've struggled withconfidence With that approach, even though like, obviously Iwould've had massive workouts six weeks back.
[00:08:24] - (): Justin Bowes: Yeah, yeah. .But I
[00:08:25] - (): Craig Dalton: kind of, I kindof like the, the idea that we were progressively testing me Yes. Onthese harder and harder weekends towards the end.
**** - (): Right?
[00:08:34] - (): Justin Bowes: Yeah. And I, anddefinitely by design , but at the same time it, it, it worked out,I think, better than I even. had hoped for because, again, intheory and on paper, I'm looking at what I want you to do, butultimately it's what can your body and, now that we're gettingdeeper into it, what can your mind and your body do?
**** - (): Handle. And so that's where, that's where, thecoaching science and the coaching art kind of, blur the linestogether of like, okay, this is what I expect him to be able to do,but this is what I'm seeing him, doing. And it's just, it's areally cool kind of blend of, the science and the art comingtogether.
**** - (): And again, it just stokes my confidence. Andhopefully that comes across in my communication with you is like,I'm really excited. I can see this happening. And this is why Ibelieve that you're going to be able to, perform this, um, crazy,crazy event. So
[00:09:39] - (): Craig Dalton: yeah, I thinkwhat was good for both of us was knowing that, and I'd said to youearly on, knowing that I kind of put myself and you behind theeight ball starting late.
**** - (): Yes. But that, I had this, I could make a four day.Kind of mini camp whenever we needed it in May as like this optionto really kind of do some big volume.
[00:10:01] - (): Justin Bowes: Right, right.And that was, that kind of gave me, that was kind of one of thosemoments of like, okay, good, at least. We, we, we've got it towhere, it's in our back pocket.
**** - (): I've got that card to play. Um, it's going to lenditself really well. And, fortunately it was, you were reallyflexible on, when that could actually happen. And that, thatdefinitely makes a, a big impact because, within the month of anevent like, the 200.
**** - (): Like, we can't miss days. We can't, there's like nomakeup days or anything. And each day is just that much moreimportant for the next and the next and the next, and. Um, yeah,having you be able to go out and just knock out these four days of,big rides and, when we were talking about how we were going to dothat, when a lot of, I don't want to say a lot, when, when mostpeople have that kind of that opening of like, Hey, I'm going to doa, a mini camp, whether it's a long, four day weekend or in themiddle of the week, however it works out, they're so excited to goand put in the big miles, they're, they've got free time.
**** - (): They've got the, the hall pass to go and just train.That's awesome. That's great. But the biggest mistake made by mostpeople that do that is. They go out and do a seven or eight hourride, on day one, and they're not used to that. And on day two, daythree, they're just like, yeah, two hours here, three hours there,whatever.
**** - (): And if that, because they just completely blewthemselves to the moon on day one and weren't ready for that. Andso, so I prescribed to you that we'll just stair step ourself intothe, into that block so that. We get the most bang for our buck outof that, that mini block of training. And. It worked.
**** - (): It worked well.
[00:12:03] - (): Craig Dalton: Yeah, I thinkthat was definitely a critical weekend for me. I think I rode fourhours kind of mixed terrain with a buddy of mine on Thursday, four,maybe five hours on Friday and then eight and a half or nine onSaturday and followed up by two or three on Sunday.
[00:12:21] - (): Justin Bowes: Yeah, that was,again, it was, it was a big, um, big chunk of time in thesaddle.
**** - (): Um, and it was a big, um, bite on your end. I mean,to take, to, to put in that much time, but again, it just, it, itjust speaks to the training that we did leading into it helped.your body absorb those big days. And once you, once you came out ofthat, to me, like I didn't want to, I didn't want to like pile onjust like the raw, raw cheerleader, like, Oh my God, he's going todo this sort of thing.
**** - (): I, I was, I was, I internally, like on this side ofthe screen, I was like, hell yeah. Like this is, this is going towork. Like he, he's going to He's going to do okay at this.
[00:13:12] - (): Craig Dalton: I think I got ahell yeah. In the comments and training peaks,
[00:13:15] - (): Justin Bowes: you probablydid. Yeah,
[00:13:17] - (): Craig Dalton: that's sad. Ithink that for me, that Saturday ride was the one that I reflectedon, on game day, because it was 10, 000 feet plus of climbingin.
**** - (): Very, very challenging terrain. Like in fact, like Iforgot, cause I don't go so far north as much like coming acrosspine mountain and up San Geronimo Ridge, things that the localsaround here might understand, like it was just super rocky and thiswas like six, seven hours into the day that I hit just these trailsthat I just forgot how steep they are and how rocky they are.
**** - (): So when I came home from that. And was able to get onthe bike the next day. I was like, okay, like it was only 77 milesand I'm doing a 200 mile race, but I did the elevation and I canguarantee some of those miles were a lot harder to come by thanwhat I'd experienced in Kansas.
[00:14:13] - (): Justin Bowes: Yeah. Um, Imean, just quickly for the listeners, just kind of given, give themsome numbers behind the, uh, that particular ride.
**** - (): I'll, I'll preface this by saying, even theprofessionals in the 200, they're not going to be able to go outand mimic. an exact 200 mile, day. And so it's just, it's just,that's a big day for anybody. And so if you can get in, for you,we're, we're targeting, like, we had the kind of the, um, beat thesun, uh, goal.
**** - (): Hey, I'd like to get in, under 15 hours, just acouple, just high level. This is kind of what I want to do. So whenyou were able to clock in at over eight and a half hours in thesaddle with, over 10, 000 feet of climbing. And coming in with aTSS of over 400 in under 80 miles, that's a big day.
**** - (): And you're right. It's it's it, of course it's not, ahundred miles or even 125 miles or anything like that. Like, mostpeople will, who do the 200 who have serious training behind them.They're going to be pushing that 150 mile, training day on one of,on their last big.
**** - (): Uh, training block, but you being able to get outthere and produce the power that you did, the load that you wereable to accumulate and the efficiency. I should note, theefficiency factor that you were able to, um, uh, complete this ridein again, it was just like, it's just pure gold in the bank, like,not even cash, like gold, like, it's solid, it's, it's, it'stangible, like, he's going to be able to reflect on this ride whenthings maybe get a little dark in Kansas and be able to say, I,Look what I did.
**** - (): Like, I can do that. And so when you have a ride likethat, Craig, it's, it's, it's really good. Um, and it's, it's hardto quantify from a coaching perspective to an athlete until theyactually do it of like what that truly means, um, to the endgoal.
**** - (): Yeah, yeah, I think it's so important
[00:16:24] - (): Craig Dalton: to have thosejust tough tough days to reflect back on and put in the bank and Ifeel like when I, when I got to Kansas, I had sort of maybe a 90percent confidence interval on my ability to complete the event. Iknew, as you said before, I knew that I had Done everything thatwas asked of me pretty put a pretty solid effort in, but there wasalways that little bit in my mind saying, like, I've never riddenin Kansas.
**** - (): I don't know what the terrain's like, and I'vecertainly never ridden more than 130 miles. Right?
[00:17:00] - (): Justin Bowes: Right. And thatbrings up an interesting, question that I don't know. I've, I don'tthink I've posed to you since to to unbound, but like, mentally.That week leading into it, where was your head at? Like you, you'vetouched on like, Hey, I've never ridden in Kansas.
**** - (): I've never ridden the 200 miles, kind of speak to,mentally where, where you were at leading into the race that likethat week of.
[00:17:27] - (): Craig Dalton: Yeah. I think itwas a little bit all over the place. Like I started seeing footageof the actual terrain and I started actually, let me step back fora second.
**** - (): They talked about the North course being chunky. Andwhen I think about chunky, I think about where I ride at home, butI realized in retrospect, it's chunky at home, but 15 percentgrades
[00:17:50] - (): Justin Bowes: and
[00:17:50] - (): Craig Dalton: Kansas chunky ischunky, but 6 percent grade, so it felt a lot different. Um, sothat's a point on the chunkiness.
**** - (): And then second, I started to see some of the more,um, minimum a maintenance roads and they had these great dualtracks that. We're pretty hard pack. Yeah. And I was, I wasdefinitely conscious that conditions could change and good God, ifyou were in the Facebook group, the, the amount of meteorologiststhat came out of the woodwork was pretty insane that week leadingin, but there's definitely some rain on the calendar.
**** - (): Right. Yeah.
[00:18:23] - (): Justin Bowes: No, I just feltlike I may have oversold, um, the northbound course as being aschunky and technical, um, but I think, I'd rather you go in. With ahigher level of like, Oh, okay.
**** - (): This could be pretty rough. Um, as opposed to, Ohyeah, the North course is fine. Yeah, it gets chunky in sections,overall it's fine. But then you get there and you're like, Whoa, Iwas, you did not warn me about this. You did not, my expectationwas down here. And now it's like, what is happening?
**** - (): I
[00:18:55] - (): Craig Dalton: think what itleft you with, Justin was just an awareness of. This could go wrongfor my equipment if I'm not careful. And I'll get into a little bitonce we start talking about the ride itself, like how I rode therace.
[00:19:10] - (): Justin Bowes: Yeah. Um,
[00:19:11] - (): Craig Dalton: but once I gotto, I, I got out to Kansas on Wednesday night, got to Emporia onThursday, did my first group shakeout ride for 15 miles onThursday, actually in the rain.
**** - (): Um, Start, it was nice to just get the bike on thedirt out there and start to get a sense for it. You start tounderstand, in any grid shaped race or race course, the 90 degreecorners are what you have to be aware of because Right, while youmay have good dual tracks when you're coming around a corner, it,it can be very much marbley, kind of gravel in the middle.
**** - (): So it was good to sort of just. Test the cornering alittle bit, so to speak.
[00:19:53] - (): Justin Bowes: Yeah, it's,yeah, a lot of gravel races. You just have that natural, flow ofthe course and, and everything, but yeah, out in Emporia, it trulyis. a hard right, a hard left, and, and, if you get out of thatline, um, or, you, you find yourself, drifting out of that corneror out of the race line and into the, the, the sides of thecourse.
**** - (): Yeah. It can get, it can get pretty chunky and it's,and not only that or loose too, but not only that is just theamount of. Shrapnel being thrown up at you, with that, that manycyclists, on a course, um, yeah, it's, it's tough.
[00:20:40] - (): Craig Dalton: Yeah, exactly.So then Friday I hooked up with the, my, my crew in the house.
**** - (): I was staying with shout out to Doug Bucko and Phil.Uh, we did a little ride in the town we were staying in and then Iwent into the, um, the meat, mandatory media event. Yeah. Thatlifetime was holding, and it was interesting because I did gleansome perspective there as well, because they talked about how theyfelt like the first 28 miles of this race was going to beincredibly fast and actually that turned out to be a usefultidbit.
**** - (): Um, After the race started, so we can talk about thatin a little bit, but I sort of, I did a little ride on Friday, feltgood. The equipment felt dialed in retrospect. I sort of had tiresize envy a little bit because it was weird because I normally ridelike a 47 at home. And, um, we talked about this early on.
**** - (): You're a big fan of the IRC Boken and the biggestthey come in is a 42. And I was like, well, I'm riding my titaniumunicorn. I've got a front suspension fork. Like I don't need allthat volume. And it, it seemed interesting to me to kind of go tosomething a little bit faster rolling potentially. But the big tireguy in me, when all the pros were talking about running 50 startedto get a little bit jealous.
[00:21:55] - (): Justin Bowes: Right. Yeah,it's, it's, it's so personal. Like, um, yeah, I can give you myrecommendations and, what I've seen work, for myself and otherathletes and competitors and things like that, but it's, it's,yeah, it really comes down to your comfort level of, You know whatyou, what you, what you can ride and what feels good underneath youand, and things like that.
**** - (): And I, yeah, I'm, I'm all about my IRC tires, but atthe same time, yeah, I couldn't help but be a little like,
[00:22:28] - (): Craig Dalton: Hmm,
[00:22:28] - (): Justin Bowes: 50 would bepretty nice, and I did
[00:22:30] - (): Craig Dalton: talk to the IRCguys and they said, Hey, the guys are from Japan are here. Yeah.And I'm making them listen to all these pros who are talking aboutfifties.
[00:22:39] - (): Justin Bowes: Yeah.
[00:22:42] - (): Craig Dalton: So I feel like,like Thursday, Friday was all going swimmingly. And then throughlike being part of a larger group, my dinner on Friday night, wedidn't end up sitting down to like maybe seven 30 or eight. Yeah,which is later than we had all intended by a few hours, right? Ihad been drinking a bunch of electrolyte stuff that I had picked upin the the expo area and For whatever reason and I don't reallythink I wasn't really in my head about the race because I was verykind of just at peace with Where I was at and what was going tounfold was going to unfold Friday night.
**** - (): I had a horrible night's sleep. I had a headache. Ijust kind of couldn't go down, which definitely rattled me, gettingup at 4 30 AM to start eating on Saturday morning.
[00:23:30] - (): Justin Bowes: Right, right.Yeah. It's, it's tough. Um, yeah, it's, especially when you're witha group of people at a big race like that and, Emporia, I mean,they do an amazing job trying to absorb.
**** - (): Influx of what, uh, 12, 000 plus people with supportstaff and racers. And, but yeah, with dining options being aslimited as they are, um, and then trying to, get a group to dinneror prepare dinner, whatever that case may be. Yeah. It's, it's,it's tough. And. I'm, I'm of the belief, I've always had this, inthe school of thought of, it's not the night before, it's twonights before, um, as far as like your most important rest, um,and, recovery time and things like that, because even if, Craig,even if everything went perfect on Friday night, The enormity ofwhat you're about to do on Saturday morning will keep you fromhaving a restful night's sleep, it's just, yeah, maybe, maybe youfell asleep a little bit quicker, but, just knowing that, oh, mygosh, I got to get up at 430.
**** - (): I've got to have, double check this triple checkthat. I've got to start eating like immediately. I got to, makesure, everything's functioning. And so it's even with the best laidplans, it's always going to be, um, um, a rough night. So, but,again, objectively looking at it.
**** - (): And I think I shared with you on our call the otherday was, if somebody just tossed this file in front of me. Um, andjust said, Hey, tell me what you think, without any context orknowing who it was or anything like that. It's like, this guy had agreat race and it was indicative of, um, again, I think just yourconfidence of, being prepared and knowing it is what it is at thispoint and yeah, you, strapped in and got to work.
**** - (): So.
[00:25:31] - (): Craig Dalton: Yeah, yeah, Ithink, I mean, I felt great about my equipment going in. I spentway more time thinking about hydration and nutrition than I everhad before, and I was, I was really jazzed with the way the FirstEndurance EPO Pro High Carb Drink worked for me. So to give someperspective, I used two 12 ounce bottles of the high carb drink,and then I had a use way backpack with water in it.
**** - (): And my plan was at every opportunity to refill thosebottles. I would refill with the. The first endurance high carb mixthat kind of annoyed maybe my, my compatriots a little bit. Cause Iwas like, Oh, I got to dump this powder in. And by the way, for anyproduct designers out there, I need a product that will encapsulatea serving of first endurance.
**** - (): That's better than a plastic bag and faster to pourinto
[00:26:24] - (): Justin Bowes: a bottle.
**** - (): So you felt like
**** - (): the,
**** - (): the first endurance high carb. That was. That wasgood for you.
[00:26:31] - (): Craig Dalton: Yeah. Yeah. So Iwas using that, uh, trying to goal was to drink a bottle an hourand do Right. A goo or something in addition to it. So Right.Aiming around, I think 85 to 90 carbs an hour. Mm-Hmm. . And I had,I had trained on that on every one of my long rides.
**** - (): Exactly.
[00:26:48] - (): Justin Bowes: Yeah. And somepeople will say, well that's on the low side now, but, um, and, andit. It is, but at the same time, if that's what you're trainingwith and that's what your body's used to, and again, being able toget through all the training sessions the way you did, why, whychange that, and, and try to like go all pro and be like, I'mgetting 120, 130 grams, of carbs per hour.
**** - (): And then all of a sudden, you're two hours in andyour body's like, I. Don't know what this means, and just let'sjust shut down on you. Um, you were, you were talking about, um,you touched on it really quick on, um, your bike and everything.Talk a little bit more about like the equipment that you did, endup using, for the race.
[00:27:33] - (): Craig Dalton: Yeah. So I wasusing, it's basically my standard setup at home with the exceptionof, I was running 700 by 42 tires as IRC Bokens. Uh, as wementioned before, I did have the RockShox suspension fork on thereas well as a dropper post. I considered taking the dropper postoff, um, because I didn't think it was going to be warranted, butI'm glad I did not.
**** - (): I'm glad I left it on.
[00:27:58] - (): Justin Bowes: Interesting.
[00:27:58] - (): Craig Dalton: Okay. Part ofthat rationale was nothing new on game day philosophy. Um, but I, Ican go on and on and on about dropper posts and in the context ofunbound. It certainly enabled a heightened level of comfort duringany of the technical sections. So little Egypt and right.
**** - (): Call reservation. And then oddly, like on the more,on the longer kind of just gentler downhills, it just allowed me toreally get in sort of a chilled out yet arrow position.
[00:28:33] - (): Justin Bowes: Okay.
[00:28:34] - (): Craig Dalton: So it, it, itturned out really well. And. Obviously there's like a slight weightpenalty, uh, with it, but it just provides me so much comfort whenI go downhill and so much confidence that, I was like, I'm justgoing to leave it on.
**** - (): And I'm totally glad I did.
[00:28:51] - (): Justin Bowes: Nice. No, I, Idon't think we talk much about droppers when it comes to, tounbound. I don't think that's like any, in any of the, like the hottopics it's, it's, it's all tires and and now that they've banned,arrow bars, from the pros and stuff. I mean, it's just like all thefocuses, your, your number.
**** - (): Uh, holder now, so you can keep it flat and arrow andall of that. Um, and then your tires and, and wheel choice. Um, butyeah, dropper, like I think it makes a lot of sense, especially,just from a positioning standpoint. of just giving you your body adifferent position for that long of a period, because if you thinkabout how being in a static cycling position for, 13, 14, 15 hours,being able to mix it up and know that you can, like you said, justhave a little confidence boost and just like a different positionfor those descents.
**** - (): Taking some pressure off your lower back, off yourhamstrings, the glutes, all of that. I mean, the little things likethat really do add up, especially over that course of, that type ofdistance.
[00:30:01] - (): Craig Dalton: Yeah. Yeah,exactly. I do feel like at this moment I should, I should make oneadmission to my, my training progress.
**** - (): I will say like the one area, Justin, where I feltlike I failed down and fell down when fortunately it didn't bite mein the ass is while I did do a ton of foam rolling, I wasn't ascommitted as I should have been to my foundation back exercises.Truth comes
[00:30:27] - (): Justin Bowes: out. Um, it'sfunny because I, like I doubled down on my foundation, uh, backexercises, the, the month leading into unbound, um, I've, I'vealways had a really strong back, um, partly from, swim backgroundand everything.
**** - (): But, um, as we've gotten older, um, things are just alittle bit, they make themselves a little bit more aware and a daylike, unbound granted, I did the hundred, not the 200. Um, it'sstill, It adds up. And so I was just like, I'm doubling down on my,my foundation work. So instead of, a minimum of twice a week, I wasdoing it four plus times a week.
**** - (): And, um, I, I, I definitely felt a difference. Um,Just finishing and standing in the finish corral with everybody.And it was like, wow, I can actually like stand straight up,normally, normally you have that pre or post race kind of likeslouch and slump and you're like, and have to like come back up to,um, vertical, uh, slowly.
**** - (): Um, but yeah, big time. So interesting that youmentioned that. Um,
[00:31:42] - (): Craig Dalton: So yeah, ahundred percent. It was not a recommendation to not do those thingsto anybody listening to what
[00:31:46] - (): Justin Bowes: Craig didon.
[00:31:47] - (): Craig Dalton: Yeah, exactly.So talking about race day, I mean, so, we got, it was surprised,like it was very hassle free to kind of get to the start line.
**** - (): Yeah. Probably got there maybe a few minutes laterthan probably could have gotten further up in the Peloton if you,if you will.
[00:32:03] - (): Justin Bowes: Okay.
[00:32:04] - (): Craig Dalton: If I got there afew minutes early, but we were there maybe 20 minutes early and wegot right to the basically to the 14 hour flag, which is where wedecided we were going to start.
**** - (): Cause it was important to me. I know from, from pastexperience, it's important for me to kind of get swept up and makemiles when miles are easy. And so I was pretty adamant with thecareer that I was with that, like, for me, this was like animperative. Like I, I definitely wanted to start there and ride ina big pack for a while.
[00:32:35] - (): Justin Bowes: Yeah. And, we,we, we did touch on this, um, a little bit that, while you, youdefinitely need to be with your people, and be with those peoplethat are going to, you. get you through those first, couple hours.Um, but be cautious of not getting swept up in the moment, of, ofwhat Unbound is.
**** - (): And for, for anybody who's never been to Emporia onrace day, um, I mean, it's a, it's a big deal and you, it's veryeasy to get caught up, even the days leading into the race of, Oh,we can go do another shakeout, right. Or let's spend five hours atthe expo on our feet, because we're having so much fun and we'retalking with everybody and things like that with, without muchthought of like, Oh, by the way, the biggest race of your life is,two days away and you need to like, Chill and relax, but, um, I, Itotally agree.
**** - (): Like, you, when. You have to take advantage of thoseeasy miles. Um, with, with, with the caveat that, Hey, I don't wantto get swept up and do too much too soon. But I also want to, asyou say, make, make hay while the sun is shining. Right. Um, and,and put it away. So when things start to turn south a little bit,no pun intended, um, it's.
**** - (): It's you're further up and you're further along andyou're feeling better than, had you been too conservative and heldback.
[00:34:07] - (): Craig Dalton: And maybe, Imean, maybe because we couldn't get farther up, it was actuallykind of a, the pace felt very pedestrian. The first 28 miles to me,like, I never, I never had to really, put in any meaningful effortto cruise.
**** - (): And I, I was watching some videos this last weekendabout it. And a guy who had done it in 12 hours. And I saw thedifference of what the 12 hour pace looked like in the 14 hour. AndI was like, maybe if I'm like totally nitpicking my day out there,maybe I should have been up a little bit further, but there'ssomething to be said for like, I definitely had a chill first 28miles.
**** - (): And then. We hit, we hit the first technical sectionand it was interesting. I was definitely conscious of my equipmentbecause I had weirdly, like I'd seen flats like barely out oftown.
[00:34:59] - (): Justin Bowes: I was like,
[00:35:00] - (): Craig Dalton: God, I don't, Idon't want to have a flat, there, people are flatting all over theplace.
**** - (): We would hit these, the, uh, the technical descentsand you'd sort of, You have to ride in one of the dual tracks.We're kind of the safest way there. And there was a little rockykind of drop offs. Nothing too technical if you had a clean look atit, but as you were riding in a group, sometimes you're inevitablyforced into a line that you wouldn't have opted into.
**** - (): I think that's where you risk, flatting orcrashing.
[00:35:28] - (): Justin Bowes: Yeah. And Ithink that's where most people get in to the big trouble is, theytry to, they try to switch those lanes. When they really shouldn't.Um, and that's, a couple of things, a lot of those dual track MMRs,we'll have like a, a big grass section down the center of it.
**** - (): Yeah. And the grass looks inviting, but it hides alot of stuff in there, whether it's, a rut or a. Bigger, nastierrock that's been kicked out of the track into, it's just layingthere. And so that's where I think people really make the mistakeof like, Oh, this line's going faster on the left.
**** - (): So I'm going to hop from the right side to the leftside or vice versa. And that's where the cuts happen. And the, evencrashes just because they hit something that they weren't expectingand things like that.
[00:36:18] - (): Craig Dalton: Yeah, that 100percent started to be a necessity to do those cross lane jumps forme.
**** - (): Like, as we came out of the other side of the, thefirst technical section, like, you would just see one group movingup and another. Kind of fading back on a climb. And I wasdefinitely conscious of that middle section. Like this is when itcould go all wrong, you feel the need to kind of keep joininggroups with forward momentum.
**** - (): And yes, I was very pleased that, um, my, my buddyDoug, Was right there with me. I had kind of no sense because I wasjust sort of focused on saying, with that group in the first 28miles. And when we came through the technical section, it was greatto see his enthusiastic face pull through. And I was like, this isawesome.
**** - (): Like, cause I, we hadn't written together, but onceor twice. So it was great to see that. We could potentially spend abunch of time together. So from mile 30 to mile a hundred, we wereriding together and riding with groups. Um, it's interesting andunbound cause the amateurs can use arrow bars.
**** - (): So you would see these guys and girls who would kindof maybe go slower on the hills, but once you got on the downhillor a flat, they were happy to have a train of people behind them.And I was, I'm not ashamed to say I was taking advantage of that asmuch as possible.
[00:37:35] - (): Justin Bowes: Heck yeah. Yeah,yeah, yeah. No. Real quick, before I forget, um, I think on thefirst pod that we did, um, you were asking me about the climbs.
**** - (): Um, and, cause I had given you some description oflike, punchy, um, death by a thousand cut because of just the, howmany there were, succession and things like that now that you'vedone it, like what, what was your overall, um, Observation as faras like the climbing was concerned.
[00:38:07] - (): Craig Dalton: Yeah. I mean,everything's so short relative to what I'm used to. And I knew thatwas going to be the case going in, but on the plus side, you canalways, you can generally always see the top of them. So you kindof knew, and you could measure your, you could gauge your efforts.When I, I think about sort of towards mile a hundred, it started,we started to get to some that required a little bit moreeffort.
**** - (): And actually this was, One of the, probably thedarkest mental moment I had was I kind of, I lost Doug's wheel. Hecaught some good wheels. I was behind someone, uh, who was notmoving as efficiently and we kind of separated. And I, I thought tomyself, I don't feel like I want to make this effort over the topof the hill to bridge this gap.
**** - (): But I was also staring down the barrel of like theone guy I know in this race is now riding away from me. Right. Um,there's a little bit of a dark moment there, but to your questionabout the hills, like, I was comforted that I could always see thetop. I knew they were quite short relative to what I'm used toriding, and it was really a matter of, for me, there was maybe, Ithink, three times.
**** - (): I ended up getting off on the last 25 percent of aclimb or last 15%. Okay. Because I gauged that I could do it, but Ifelt like I was going to go into the red too much. And it feltprudent to just hop off real quick and walk.
[00:39:32] - (): Justin Bowes: And that was,that was pretty late on though, right?
[00:39:35] - (): Craig Dalton: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:39:36] - (): Justin Bowes: Yeah. It wasn'tlike mile 30 and you're like, okay, I'm going to start saving.
**** - (): Yeah.
[00:39:41] - (): Craig Dalton: Not at
[00:39:41] - (): Justin Bowes: all. Not
[00:39:42] - (): Craig Dalton: at
[00:39:42] - (): Justin Bowes: all. Yeah.
[00:39:43] - (): Craig Dalton: Yeah. So it wasinteresting. I was, I, there was a lot of mental gymnastics betweenmile 100 and one 48, which was the, the second checkpoint for us.Cause I had lost Doug. Um, it was starting to get hot. It was just.I talked to a few people and you probably mentioned the same thingto me.
**** - (): Like you can't think of the totality of the 200 milesyou have to do. You really just need to break it down into chunks.Yep. Right. So I started really thinking about, um, our crew chief,Phil, who was a godsend out there. He had such great. Support forus at the aid station. We had an easy up. He had everythingimaginable.
**** - (): I knew he had bottles on ice for me. So I jokinglyreferred to miles 100 to 1 48 as project Phil.
[00:40:30] - (): Justin Bowes: Okay.
[00:40:31] - (): Craig Dalton: And. EverythingI did either was a positive effect towards Project Phil or anegative effect. So if I was, if I found a good wheel or I wasriding well, I was like, okay, we're making progress, we're goingto get to Phil.
**** - (): And if I, fell off the pace or something, I was like,this is a serious blow to Project Phil. And I, it's funny. Istarted sort of naming a few of the characters that I would ridebehind and, There is a guy, a guy I was calling the orange crushbecause he had an orange jersey.
[00:40:59] - (): Justin Bowes: Okay.
[00:41:00] - (): Craig Dalton: And every, hewas like one of those arrow bar guys.
**** - (): Right, right. Which was quite helpful. And then, atone point, um, at one point I got a really nice, um, Uh, I'vestarted following a guy with a, with a beat the sun patch on hiship pack.
[00:41:16] - (): Justin Bowes: Okay.
[00:41:17] - (): Craig Dalton: And I was like,that's a good sign, actually. Like if this guy is, has clearly beatthe sun in the past, this is probably a good sign.
**** - (): So, got into a rhythm that mile 110. Or 112 waterstop I'd forgotten about. And that was absolutely a godsendbecause, um, I need it. I just needed some relief and thevolunteers there and everywhere were just phenomenal. So theypoured a bunch of water over my head and just kind of cooled medown and filled me up and set me on my way.
**** - (): And so I got to mile one 48 and my buddy Doug wassitting in the chair. With Phil and I was like, this is great.Like, I wasn't expecting to catch Doug again. Right. So it was,that was a nice sort of mental jump. And, he, he had run outtawater, so he wasn't feeling that great, but he's like, I'm gonna,I'm gonna head, he'd been there a little bit, I don't know howlong, but Phil had taken care of him, got his bike all tuned up,and um, he's like, I'm gonna head out, but I suspect you'll catchme.
**** - (): And in my head, I didn't know whether that would bethe case, but yeah, I ended up heading out of town and catching upwith Doug, um, which was great to just know that I had someone toride with. And he rebounded quite well for that last, um, the last50 miles of the race. So we were very simpatico.
[00:42:37] - (): Justin Bowes: Nice. Did, um, Ididn't, I didn't ask you this, but, um, just talking about the aidstations. Did you have, did you give yourself like any treats, likesomething to look forward to in the aid stations or did you justkeep it strictly business? I had a vision
[00:42:51] - (): Craig Dalton: of a lot oftreats. I asked, I asked, uh, Phil to get me some gummy bears.
**** - (): Okay. Unfortunately, all the gummy bears melted inthe sun and he, he did have everything. Like we had likesandwiches, he got a pizza from Casey's and I, I just, I felt likemy nutrition was working. And so I was kind of like, besides some,um, Lay's potato chips, it's like, I'm just going to stick with theprogram.
**** - (): I never rolled in feeling like super hungry oranything. So I was like, I'm doing something right. So why don't Ijust keep doing it?
[00:43:28] - (): Justin Bowes: No, that'sgreat. Yeah. I know, from other athletes that I've coached for the200, they always, we'll have. I mean, yeah, the Casey's pizza isclutch. Like I think everybody knows, like if you're coming to theMidwest, um, you got to get a Casey's pizza in your aid station,um, or, a cheeseburger or, potato chips seem to be like, high onthe list as well.
**** - (): Yeah. That's, that tends to, uh, be a really fit,good favorite, just because, I mean, it's like the salt you want,the starch and the carbs and all of that goes down really easy. Andthen usually like a Mexican Coke to, to, to wash it down with. Sohow were your, um, timing wise, how long did you stop?
[00:44:12] - (): Craig Dalton: Very littleamount of time. I think my, my ride time was just under 13 hours,30 and my total elapsed time was 14.
[00:44:22] - (): Justin Bowes: Yeah. So two,two dedicated aid stations and two water. Yeah. And I stopped
[00:44:28] - (): Craig Dalton: at both, Istopped at both aid stations. I honestly think at mile one 12 atthat neutral aid station, when they were pouring water on me, thatmight've been longer than my checkpoint to stop
[00:44:40] - (): Justin Bowes: looking at yourfile.
**** - (): I think you're right. Yeah. Yeah.
[00:44:44] - (): Craig Dalton: Yeah. So, yeah,it was a bit crazy. Like, I just didn't, I, like, I know myself,like I know I just need to keep going. So I didn't, I sat down fora minute and, Phil was great. He was like there with lots of stuff,but I was like, let's just swap the bottles out. He put some icedown my back, he put my pack in the cooler, like, to get ice wateron it.
**** - (): And, uh, after a few things, lubing up the chain, etcetera, making sure the bike was all right. Yeah. It just felt likeit's time to go.
[00:45:12] - (): Justin Bowes: Yeah, no, that'sgood. I, that's, definitely, um, a word of caution to, athletes,especially new to the 200 of like, unless you're in a bad state, ina bad way, uh, you want to minimize the amount of time you hangaround in the aid station, just because your legs start to.
**** - (): revolt a little bit and they don't want to cooperate,and so the, the shorter time you can, uh, the quicker you can getin and get out, um, with giving yourself enough time to resupplyand not forget anything is always going to be better than just,standing around for, 10 plus minutes, John, John with everybody andthings like that.
**** - (): Cause if you don't need to, man, Yeah. A hundredpercent. Get back after it. So.
[00:46:01] - (): Craig Dalton: Yeah. Yeah. AndI think, at that second aid station mile one 48, I think Doug was alot more conscious of the idea that we could beat the sun than Iwas. I think the last, the last 50 miles had been a little bitmentally hard on me.
**** - (): I was not in a dark place by any means, but I'd kindof was like, this is what it is. Like I gotta, I'll pedal as far asI can pedal and as fast as I can pedal and it is what it is. But.He, he had never beat the sun before. And I think he saw it as areally great opportunity. And as we had talked about as my kind of,my number one goal was to finish.
**** - (): Second goal was to finish healthy. And third goal wasto beat the sun. Right. It was great to know it was out there. Andthe funny thing was my, my Wahoo was, it had 54 climbs as thelisted number of climbs. And I believe by aid station two, bycheckpoint two, we've done 52 of 54 climbs.
[00:47:00] - (): Justin Bowes: Right, right.Yeah.
[00:47:02] - (): Craig Dalton: Which is pretty,it's pretty crazy. So we've done like, close to 10, 000 feet ofclimbing already. And I think they maybe have listed it as 11.Anyway, negligible amount of climbing over the next 50 miles. So Iwas like, well, that's, that, that feels good to know that most ofit's behind me. And, and, and everybody had said this, like gettingto checkpoint two Was really the hardest part, right?
**** - (): And you just need to ride back to Emporia.
[00:47:25] - (): Justin Bowes: Yeah, exactly. Imean, there's always there's always going to be, a Joker stationor, segment. Um, generally, it's like the Kohola, uh, Lake climb.Yeah. Um, and, For those who don't know, um, or didn't follow theweather or anything like that, we had pretty optimal conditions allday.
**** - (): I mean, we started, um, cloud cover, cool, nice,favorable breeze, um, all of that. And, for us in the 100, itwasn't until we really got closer to Kohola Lake, I mean, it waslike. After the aid station, which, we shared, um, there in councilgroves, um, the, the clouds were starting to thin out and youcould, you see a little bit more of a shadow underneath you andeverything like that.
**** - (): Um, but it, you guys were in it a little longer, theheat, the sun and everything like that, but it still wasn't like in2021 where it was just essentially a hairdryer. on your face, theentire day. Um, and so with the Kohola climb, that can always be aspoiler. Um, and I think I mentioned this to you on our call theother day.
**** - (): It was like a lot of people, as soon as they get overthat climb, you're roughly, inside the last 25 miles basically to,to the finish and. Yeah, your climbing's essentially done too andpeople like, oh, this is great and just like get on the gas and ina 10 mile span They're completely shattered and on the side of theroad because they just completely underestimated You know, whetherit be the previous 70 miles or the previous, 180 that you just didare in your legs and Any extra efforts can really put a Put you inthe box really quickly.
**** - (): And a lot of people's wheels fall off after thatCahola climb. Um, because they're like, Oh, we're done. Yeah. Yeah.But you're not done. You still got some mileage ahead of you.Yeah,
[00:49:27] - (): Craig Dalton: exactly. I thinkwe were, we were looking over our right shoulders at the sun andlooking at it kind of starting to go down and we're like, we doneed to keep going pretty efficiently
[00:49:41] - (): Justin Bowes: to
[00:49:41] - (): Craig Dalton: make it.
**** - (): And, you go, you continue riding the dirt roads andthen you go under the highway. And then you're at the universityand you've got that final paved climb before the finish line. Yep.Um, and we're like, we've, we're like, we're going to do this.We're going to do this.
[00:49:57] - (): Justin Bowes: Yeah.
[00:49:58] - (): Craig Dalton: And I think weended up finishing like 15 minutes to spare before the sunset.
[00:50:03] - (): Justin Bowes: No, it's, it's,it's awesome. And I think, uh, to, to put it in context, um, thisis the first year. That a lot of people were nervous about itbecause The start time had been pushed back, uh, to accommodate thenew, uh, starting protocol with the, the pro men. Then 15 minuteslater, the pro women, and then essentially a half an hour behindthem, you all started.
**** - (): So I mean, taking away 30 minutes doesn't sound likea lot, but when you're up against the sun actually setting on you,it, it, it comes quickly. Like you said, I mean, you had 15 ishminutes to, in your pocket, um, that could have easily gone one wayor the other, um, quickly. So, yeah,
[00:50:53] - (): Craig Dalton: yeah, you, youcould, you could see to your point earlier about the aid stations,like you could have very easily burned 15 minutes sitting around onyour ass, having a pizza,
[00:51:03] - (): Justin Bowes: totally.
**** - (): And I mean, and not 15 minutes at one, you could do,Seven here, eight there. And in, in the grand scheme of things in a14 hour raise, what's seven minutes. Right. Well, add that up andall of a sudden you're, you're finishing in the dark.
[00:51:21] - (): Craig Dalton: Yeah. Yeah. So ahundred percent. So, yeah, I mean, I haven't finished.
**** - (): Crossing the finish line was, was great. I mean,riding down commercial street with, um, with Doug was justfantastic. That's so cool. Have us, yeah, have us both meet ourgoals and the crowd were great. And we've got our names announcedand, uh, Yeah. It just like, it wasn't lost on me the entirety ofthe experience.
**** - (): The town was wonderful. It's it's, it's obviously agrand spectacle of the gravel cycling community. Right. So I thinkcoming down that I was, I was generally genuinely emotional, justfelt very fulfilled with my day and effort to have it concludebefore sunset and, come down that finishing line shoot.
**** - (): It just. It felt great.
[00:52:10] - (): Justin Bowes: Oh, I bet. Imean, I, I did share this with you, uh, the other day. Um, not onlydid I have you, have you, uh, competing, but I had, uh, one otherin the 200 and another one in the a hundred and as a coach, eventhough I was racing, I still have like, you know, The best I couldcompare it to is, being a father of three, it's just like, it'slike you're looking after your kids, right?
**** - (): You're nervous for them. Yeah. And, um, and so afterI got done and cleaned up and went about the rest of my day on, on,on Saturday and everything like that, now I turn my I turned mybrowser to the race results to see, how everybody's faring outthere and projected times and, and things like that.
**** - (): And when I, when I popped open my laptop and, andpulled up the results and you were still on a course, obviously,but, uh, just seeing your splits come in and everything, I was justlike. Damn right, like, look at this guy go, like, he's, he'sactually doing this and, um, we can talk about it all the time, ascoaches of like, I know that I was giving you the proper training,and you were executing the training and things like that.
**** - (): But you never, I mean, there's so many variables thatcan show up on race day and, Mechanically, uh, correct me if I'mwrong, you had a clean race mechanically, right? Yeah,
[00:53:30] - (): Craig Dalton: totally clean.Yeah.
[00:53:31] - (): Justin Bowes: And for that tohappen just by itself is amazing. And then on top of that, you hityour nutrition and hydration and everything just, it worked, andso, um, with, with a race like unbound, You know that something'sgoing to go wrong, somewhere, some way, something's going tohappen. And it's, it's, it's such a rarity to have a clean run,especially on your first time, not knowing what to expect and, andall of that. Um, but for you to be so successful with that, um, Andit was just, yeah, as your coach and now as your friend, um, I'mjust super excited for you.
**** - (): I was just, I was over the moon, um, excited to seeyour finishing time and, and, uh, to, to just hear, hear it in yourvoice and, and at first it was, it was just in text messages backand forth, but just, getting the tone of like, Your satisfactionwith everything was just, it's, it's huge. And yeah, it was awesometo, to be a small part of that.
[00:54:37] - (): Craig Dalton: Yeah, no, itmeans a lot. It's been, it's been a great journey working together.It's been very fun. I, I haven't had proper coaching in ages. Um,and I recommend it. I recommend you, I recommend fast cat. It wasjust, it was enjoyable to just Go through a process, seeimprovement, uh, along the way, build confidence to do somethingthat I'd never done before.
**** - (): And frankly, that I was, a bit scared of this wholejourney started because I wanted to do something that scared me.Um, and, and to come out the other side of it, just, I'm verygrateful for the entire experience, the last six months
[00:55:18] - (): Justin Bowes: Oh man, Craig,it's, it, again, it's been a privilege and Just exciting to, to, tosee how you developed and just your professionalism with, withregards to your training and, accepting some new guy that you'venever met before, be like in charge of this craziness.
**** - (): Um, and, um, yeah, it just, you, you didn't flinch.Um, I, I appreciate you being cautiously. Questioning about hate,why are we doing it this way? Why, where are we going? Um, whywould you have me do this instead of that? Um, I mean that, itwasn't like I ever thought, Oh, he's questioning my ability oranything like that.
**** - (): He just generally wants to know why we're doing thetraining that we're doing. And, um, and I appreciate that. Like Ilove, when, when, when my athletes are like engaged. To the pointthat they want to know, I mean, it's, it's nice to when you justblindly follow the plan, but, when, when you're so engaged andyou're so invested in the outcome of this goal that you've set foryourself and you're like, Hey, I just want to know what's going onand.
**** - (): It, it just, it tells me again, it's just anotherlittle, box to check, with, with my coaching hat on of like this,this athlete is he, he's invested, like he cares and he wants to dowhat needs to be done to, to, to succeed at this goal. And thatmakes a big difference on my end, um, because then I know, yeah,these are going to be hard workouts and they're going to put themin the box a couple times.
**** - (): But because he wants it and he's, he's, he's wantingto follow the plan, um, and be consistent with it, he's going to doreally well. And, um, yeah, it showed. So, um, one, one finalquestion. If I can, um, and I, I touched on it on our call theother day is like on a scale one to 10, how would you rate thisoverall experience from training to the event to your, your overallexperience with, with Unbound here?
[00:57:34] - (): Craig Dalton: Yeah, I said itlast week and I think I'll stick to it. It's a 10 out of 10 for me.Okay. And. Yeah, the only, I hesitated a second there, Justin,because I might've knocked it down to a 9. 5 because I, again, likeI watched someone else's video and I was like, Maybe I could havepushed a little harder early on, but it's in the grand scheme ofthings, neither here nor there.
**** - (): Like, I think again, like the, I learned a lot alongthe way. It was fascinating, working with a power meter, thanks toSRM, uh, using their power meter pedals. It was interesting to megoing carb journey and trying to figure out, would that work forme? Along the way, everything was, great on the training.
**** - (): Like we had to cram a little bit, but that was allgood. The family was super supportive of it. And then, getting toEmporia and having that bluebird of a day, um, was something, thatit couldn't have counted on at all in terms of the weather. The,the mileage came easy and fast. The technical elements of it wereno issue for me whatsoever.
**** - (): And I felt like I had the right bike to take a fewhits harder than I might have wanted to, to keep the pace going,but never had any issues there. And then to, to ride with my buddyDoug and have the experience with the, the whole crew. We had anumber of guys doing the hundred and one guy doing the three50.
**** - (): Great to make some new friends out there within thehouses we were staying at. And the overall experience, yeah. 10 outof 10.
[00:59:06] - (): Justin Bowes: Nice. Okay,good. Yeah, it's, it's, it's, yeah. When, when you shared that withme the other day, um, yeah, I got off our call and I was just like,Um, I was just like, all right, I, I, it just, it's, it's, it's sorewarding, um, to see an athlete just like check all those boxesand, feel good about, what they accomplished.
**** - (): Um, because yeah, I can put together the plan foryou. Um, but it's ultimately all on your shoulders to execute.Yeah. Take care of all this, the variables outside of the trainingplan that is, you know, recovering responsibly, being, diligent to,the consistency of, following the plan and all those little thingsthat I can't, I can't even like begin to.
**** - (): Yeah. Help you with, that's just your wife, and so,um, again, Greg. Congratulations. It's, it's so cool to, to seeand, and have a time like that. Um, I'll, I'll give the listeners,a little, uh, number crunch here real quick. You're right. I mean,you were just in under, um, 1330 at 1327 for 203 miles.
**** - (): Um, TSS, obviously off the charts with 645, um,that's, to be expected for sure. Um, average speed, I mean, justover 15 miles an hour for the 200 miles over that type of terrainis fantastic. Um, your normalized power, um, was so good. Um, Yeah,it was just the only thing that we didn't capture was heartrate.
**** - (): Um,
[01:00:48] - (): Craig Dalton: yeah, I failedto talk about that. I was so mad for so long that my strap wasn'tworking.
[01:00:54] - (): Justin Bowes: It's the worstwhen it's on and there's just nothing you can do about it. Ikept
[01:00:59] - (): Craig Dalton: thinking like bythe first aid station, I would take everything off and recover it,which I did. And then it still didn't work. Yeah.
**** - (): And like halfway through. The next segment, I justlike ripped it off my body and shoved it in my pocket.
[01:01:12] - (): Justin Bowes: Yeah. I mean,just, I mean, that's, that's one like little nitpick on my end andsense of like, it would just been really interesting to see, um,the correlation between your power and the heart rate and where, Imean, it ultimately, it was always going to drop off and start todecouple, but you know where that was for you.
**** - (): Um, because then, for me, I can go back to thetraining and say, okay, yeah, this is, this is white. We went asfar as we did and, and all of that. So, oh yeah, yeah. I mean, sothere's, there was one less than ideal thing, pop up out of hereand it was stupid heart rate monitor. So.
[01:01:51] - (): Craig Dalton: Yeah.
**** - (): In the grand scheme of things.
[01:01:53] - (): Justin Bowes: Yeah.
[01:01:54] - (): Craig Dalton: Justin, thanksso much for coming back on board and helping me recount this, uh,this event or this experience that's going to be in my memory for along time.
[01:02:02] - (): Justin Bowes: With that, isthere an Unbound in your future again or too soon?
[01:02:07] - (): Craig Dalton: It's a littletoo soon. And I think I mentioned to you that last week, it's hardto imagine having a better day out there.
**** - (): Then, then I had all things considered and with somany great events out there that I would love to do in time awayfrom the family. I don't, I don't know if unbound would be itagain.
[01:02:26] - (): Justin Bowes: Yeah, no, that'sfair. That's fair.
[01:02:27] - (): Craig Dalton: Yeah,
[01:02:28] - (): Justin Bowes: no, I mean, it'shard to go out. And, as, as good as you did. And like you said, Imean, uh, another experience would it, taint this one, and in thesense of like, next year is like, flats on flats on flats or, bodyshuts down or, whatever the case may be, or the worst weatherever.
**** - (): I mean, so yeah, go, go out on top.
[01:02:50] - (): Craig Dalton: Yeah. Yeah. I'mgoing out on top, I think on the 200. For me, it's either like. Goshorter and actually like, see what it's like to race an event.Cause I don't, the 200 miler, like it's hard to consider it a racefor me. It was really about managing my way across the finish lineas efficiently as possible.
**** - (): Or going the other way, which has always attractedme, which is like the bike packing. route and, trying some of thereal long distance stuff longer than 200 miles. Sure.
[01:03:18] - (): Justin Bowes: Yeah. The, the350, the XL crew, that is, that's next level, man. Yeah. I, I, Ialways, I always like tease myself, like, that would be so cooljust like to push your limits.
**** - (): Um, And, and, and see what that's like, um, for thatdistance and everything. But then reality kind of sets in on me andlike, you, you're not going to do that. So I'll stick with myhundred. I love my hundred distance.
[01:03:44] - (): Craig Dalton: Yeah. Yeah. Ifeel like there is like an overnight riding experience that I needto have as that next unchecked box. I've sure I've done like theteam racing 24 hours, but I've never done. Sort of a self supportedovernight.
[01:03:59] - (): Justin Bowes: Yeah. Yeah.
[01:03:59] - (): Craig Dalton: Straightthrough. So I am, I am curious about that. Why don't we leave it atthat?
**** - (): That'll be a mystery. And if, if, and when I decideto do something crazy like that, we'll chat more about it.
[01:04:09] - (): Justin Bowes: Heck yeah. Lovethat.
[01:04:12] - (): Craig Dalton: Good to talk toyou, Justin.
[01:04:13] - (): Justin Bowes: Craig, it wasgreat seeing you and congrats again, man. It's awesome.
[01:04:17] - (): Craig Dalton: Thank you.
