CycleOps Powered athlete Rocky Reifenstuhl knows a thing or two about long distance racing. He has competed in the Alaska Iditarod Trail 350-mile Mountain Bike Race 23 times. In his nearly 30 years of bike racing, he has completed multi-day mountain bike stage races, 200 mile time trials, and marathon runs. In the interview below, Rocky reveals his secrets to motivation, pacing, and nutrition.

Why did you get into long distance racing?

I always loved immersion in the great outdoors; the wilder and the longer, the better. Long distance racing in the wilderness heightened the euphoria, the challenge, the beauty, and the sensory rewards. That’s why I moved to Alaska more than 30 years ago. Multi-hundred mile, summer and winter events here in Alaska have taught me lessons impossible to learn in any other forum.

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Rocky Reifenstuhl

2008 marks my 21st year of human-powered racing on the Iditarod Trail. I finished 5th in the 350-miler, with the 1,000 mile Nome race as my main focus. The 350 miles to McGrath were nearly all ridable, and the best- and most fun mountain biking.

After my 5th in the 350-mile McGrath race, I departed 15 hours later for Nome. I rode the 43 miles to Ophir, and then pushed nearly ALL of the 250 miles from Ophir to Galena in soft, unbroken, snow-drifted trails. And those 5 days of leaning over the bike 15 to 17 hours each day was too much for my right rhomboid back muscles. Additionally, my right arm and hand did not respond to my commands due to severe tendonitis partly from desperately trying to ride impossible trails.

Rocky Reifenstuhl is an ultra distance cyclist who has competed in events such as the Iditarod Trail 350 mile bike race, the Fairbanks Cycle Club Six Stage Mountain Bike Race, and the Fireweed 400 mile bicycle Race. 2008 will be his 21st year competing in the Iditarod Trail bike race, and this year he's not stopping at 350 miles; he's going on to complete all 1,100 miles of the famed Ititarod trail. The 2008 race will begin in February, so we asked Rocky to send us some thoughts on his preparation and training. He did that - and had to ride 70 miles to the nearest internet access to send us the report.

Rohn checkpoint, mile 205, is a 15 by 20 feet log cabin and a two-holer outhouse situated among 100 feet high spruce trees, and all in the cleft of the 7,000 feet high saw tooth mountains adjacent to the mighty Kuskokwim. We’re on the north side of the Alaska Range at 3:00 pm. And it took only 11 hours! Jasper, the nicest and best cookin’ Iditarod checker on the trail invites us in to his toasty cabin.

The 2006 human-powered race on the Iditarod Trail across the Alaska Range hurled endless challenges at racers this year: making this the most difficult Iditarod Trail Invitational race yet. The first hurtle was six inches of new snow falling at race start. An icy base left the snowy trail ridable. Four hours after the 2:00 pm race start the snow storm gave way to rapidly falling temperatures: from +15 degrees F to -15 F. Even before the 4000 feet high Alaska Range pass at mile 190, thirty percent of the field dropped out. For some it was dehydration, for others it was hypothermia or frostbite or a physical-mental or equipment failure. And for a few it was the unmarked and wind blown course that stymied progress. By race end the scratch rate is more than 50%, the most ever.