December in Glouster

We had a relatively good weather day for a Saturday in early December.  Temps started low with 30F but warmed quickly in the sunshine to hit 50 by Noon.  I threw my cross bike in the van and dashed down to New Lexington to explore some dirt and gravel in that area.  I ended up spending about 3-4 hours (3 hours of ride time, 4 hours of clock time) exploring the triangle framed by New Lex, Glouster and Murray City.  There is obviously a whole lot more to this area than I had time to touch today.  I'll need to come back another day.

It is the start of hunting season and I must have seen 50+ hunters today.  If you aren't driving a pick up truck and dressed in deer-kill orange, then you definitely stand out.  Put a guy in spandex, plop him on a bicycle and stick him out in this area ... well, I got a lot of stares today.  This is definitely rural Appalachia.  It has a certain feel or characteristic to it that differs from other part of rural Ohio.  Poverty is widespread here too and lots of folks scratching out a living just above the poverty line.  There just isn't a lot of opportunity down here.  Trailers and "less" are everywhere.

But the region is gloriously scenic.  It is laced with backroads galore and is rather hilly.  Occasionally you'll luck out with a road that follows a drainage valley, but mostly you are going up or going down.  The dirt lacks maintenance gravel and was firm in the cold, but got squishy in the warm sun.   

I didn't map out a route ahead of time.  Busy morning with walking the dog and the kidos got up at 6am today too.  So I didn't get my 30 minutes of quiet time to pour over maps and plot a route for the GPS.  Actually I decided to head down to this area at the very last minute anyway, so it wouldn't have done any good to plan ahead.  Plus, quite a few roads that show up on the map, don't appear on the GPS and even more that show up on both the map and GPS don't exist in real life.  This last picture here is a perfect example of a road that actually doesn't exist.  It starts off fair enough as a low-grade dirt road (see pic), but just around the corner it is a gated dead end with some kind of wilderness hiking path leading forth.  I might have been tempted under other circumstances, but I just didn't want to meet the wrong end of a hunting rifle today.  Must have cost me 30 minutes of backtracking and rerouting to get around this detour.  And the main problem with not mapping a route ahead of time, is that I stop too often to skootch the GPS around to see where I need to go next.  Cost me a lot of time in the beginning of the ride, so I was late with my timeline and spent the second half of the ride sticking to main paved roads to make up lost time.  

I've been down here on my motorcycle and managed to find a whole mess of dirt roads that I wasn't on today.  So I know there is a lot more to the area than I found today.  I can't wait to go back.  I felt kind of sluggish at the start.  Maybe something to do with the cold weather.  I admit to having a hard time getting started with the freezing temps outside.  This is the time of the year when that temp is a shock to the system.  But I was never too cold and probably slightly overdressed.  Oh well, it was easy to shed layers as the day heated up.  When I finally got to Glouster I realized I had only about 1:20 left on the clock (about a third of my time) and still half the distance to go.  So I dug deep and pounded out 26 miles at an average of 18 mph on mostly paved roads.  It was nice to get my legs under me for the end of the ride.  

Quiver Math

I am blessed with a lot of good bikes.  I have been collecting them for more than 20 years, but still, I know I have, what most sane folks would call, an excess of bicycles.  But the old ones just keep on working and the new ones fill niches and bring joy.  And in the grand scheme of things, collecting bicycles is much cheaper and healthier than collecting coins or cars.  

So my current quiver contains (in chronological order):

1. 1990 Cannondale Aluminum road bike.  This is mostly used for indoor trainer duty and an occasional mucky day road ride.
2. 1995 Grove Innovations Ti bike.  A titanium, no-holds barred, XTR/S-works 26" hard tail.  It was a premier bicycle in 1995 and my pride and joy while riding in Colorado during grad school.
3. 2006 Masi Team Issue 3VC.  Carbon road bike with SRAM force.  Very light and quick.  I got this used from a semi-pro who gets a new bike each year.  So it was a relative bargain for the quality of bike.  
4. 2007 Masi XC.  An aluminum cross bike with ultegra group and sweet, super light wheels.  Again a bargain scored from my semi-pro friend who road it three times. 
5. 2009 Gary Fisher Superfly 100.  An all-out carbon 29er full susp bike.  The last year GF made bikes before it was absorbed by Trek.  I owe my wife a bike thank you for digging deep in the savings account for this one, but it is a marvelous machine.
6. 2010 Surly Karate Monkey.  I have it built stock as a SS and got it at a deep discount.
7. 2011 Salsa Mukluk.  A shop in MN was closing and liquidating its inventory ... a new bike at 40% off and I couldn't pass up the deal.  

I also own a 1998 Cannondale cross bike which is out on loan to my dad and a 1985 Cannondale M500 mountain bike which was donated to a neighbor who promised to give it love.

Each bike still has its purpose and use.  I use the old C'dale road bike as my indoor trainer.  The carbon road bike is for fast group rides.  The cross bike is one of my most used -- winter training and gravel exploring.  I've hardly been off my KM SS all year: commuting, grocery shopping, century rides, exploring, you name it.  The Superfly100 is the sweetest single track carver and NUE series competitive weapon.  My Mukluk is looking forward to winter snow.  And the old Grove Innovations bike is a special rare frame and a good wet weather trainer.

Now the next step.   I am a computer scientist by training and all these bikes got me thinking about how I use them and which ones I value more.   Much of my professional work involves dimensionality remapping and data compression and I wondered if I could make sense of my quiver using the same analytic tools.

1) My first step was cataloging all the reasons I ride bikes.  I came up with 18 different "uses/properties": group rides, alone rides, road rides, singletrack, gravel, explore, relax, go fast, snow, mountains, flats training, towning, nights, cold, touring, commuting, hill repeats.  It is an arbitrary list, but it accurately represents the kind of bicycling I do and the reasons I own each of these bikes.

2) My next step was to score each bike on a scale of 1 to 10 along each of these 18 properties.   A score of 10 represents a perfect use of this bike, a score of 0 indicates a non-use.  I then normalized the scores so that each property sums to 1.

3)   Then I assigned a multiplicative factor to each property (between 1 and 0) indicating how important that property was to me.  These factors summed to 11.7 (arbitrary) which means I will ultimately have 11.7 points to distribute over the seven bikes.

4) I then compute a "score" for each bike determined by how well it fit each category and how important that category was for me.  Basically a sum of normalized property scores multiplied by the category factors.  Here are my bikes ranked by score:

1. (2.95) KM Single Speed
2. (2.45) Masi Cross Bike
3. (2.02) Salsa Mukluk
4. (1.42) Masi Carbon Road Bike
5. (1.40) GF Superfly 100
6. (0.78) Grove Innovations Mtn Bike
7. (0.68) Cannondale Alum Road Bike

Though not shown here.  I also divided each price (I paid) for the bikes by the score to determine a value coefficient.  Obviously the KM and Cross bike jumped even higher because they already had a high score and came with a low price.  The SF100 dropped more due to the high price tag.

Some observations.  My intuitions were confirmed with my KM SS and Cross bike being my two favorites.  They get the most use and are highly versatile.  And they permit me to do the kind of riding I like to do best -- explore back country roads and gravel paths.  My KM gets extra points for filling commuting duty.   I was surprised how highly my mukluk scored; maybe a product of wishful thinking about snow riding this winter, because I haven't had it that long.  I was surprised by how low my SF100 scored; it brings me a lot of joy, but I mainly use it for singletrack days and I don't get enough of those.  The last two bikes are older bikes that fill a small niche now that they have newer replacements, so I expected those to be at the bottom.

That concludes our lesson in quiver math for today.

Fall Gravel

Nice ride today.  55 miles, 55 degrees, 3200 ft vertical and plenty of quiet back roads.  You need days like this, especially after the Thanksgiving orgy.   It is wonderful to spend two lovely days with family and eating yourself silly.  But it is nice to balance that with some alone time out on the hilly gravel.

I mapped out two new-to-me gravel roads: Hidden Springs Rd and Witches Hollow Rd.  With names like that, it is impossible to resist.  How cool is it to have a road named "Witches Hollow"?  You just know a road like that has to be (1) gravel, (2) hilly and (3) scenic.  And it didn't disappoint.

We were blessed with temps in the upper 50s and bright sunshine.  It has rained buckets for 3 straight days, so this nice weather day is well deserved.  Still, we don't often get sunny warm days like this on the verge of December.  At this point last year, we already had snow on the ground.  The day did have brisk winds out of the SW which made the return trip a chore, but I really can't complain.



I honestly do get the point of Thanksgiving.  I have a lot to be thankful for.  A wonderful family.  A nice quiver of bikes and beautiful places to ride.  I wish I had more time to ride, but I do treasure and enjoy the time I get.  I am thankful to have my health and a body which can carry me 55 miles through the gravelly hills of Ohio.  And a wife who stays home with kids and puppy while I am out and about.  We do trade -- she gets her time too, but she "gets it".  I don't have to explain why I need to disappear for 4 hours on a Saturday or why I need yet another bike.  Yes, a lot to be thankful for.

Mohican Sized Smiles

Every once in a while all the cycling gods come together and bless a riding day.  This was such a day.  Yeah it was a windy, mid-November day, but the temps were higher than normal and nearly perfect (45 to 55).  Plus the hills and trees made the wind a non-factor.  

I've been neglecting the GF superfly 100 since the W101 in late July, so I thought I would give the bike some love and take it to Mohican.   Even the drive went by quickly as I arrived 15 minutes ahead of schedule. In the parking lot were five guys from the Cleveland area and they looked the part of good mtn bikers.  So I asked if I could tag along with their group.  It was a good decision as their skill level was just about right for a "fun but not killer" effort.  We set out at "3-hour" pace with some frequent stops scattered in to let one or two guys catch back on.  

I admit it, I stole this pic from someone else.

Normally 3-hour pace is pretty fast for me, so I was wary about trying to hang with them.  And I feel like my fitness level is pretty low compared to earlier in the summer.  But as I was riding the pace seemed much more relaxed than what I was used to for a 3-hour loop.   My confidence was growing with each climb and fluid descent.  I was starting to get in the zone.  

We hit the bridge at Mile 11.5 in about 1:17.  It felt more like 1:50 or something, so I was surprised we were there so quickly.  When we stopped for what was likely 5-10 minutes of catch up and rest time, I thanked them for the company and pressed on alone.

Then I dialed it up.  I started working the climbs hard, not quite hammering, but definitely pushing myself in the red zone.  And I was finding loads of magic zen on the flowy single track.  Carving, flowing, climbing, catching air on the jumps.  It was lots of fun.

I killed it for the next hour and dropped back into the parking lot with 2:21 showing on the clock.  My fastest time ever and I still felt great --- like I could go on at that pace for quite a bit more.  I figure I could have made 5 or 10 minutes less time in the first loop if I had gone on my own, but I can't complain.

Then I had a tough decision.  To call it a day and end on a high note with a big smile, or go for another partial loop.  Surely I could have had more good riding but I also would have eventually hit the wall and slowed.  I decided to call it there and keep the awesome ride as a fond memory.  Besides, Laura, the kids and the puppy were all at home waiting for me.  

Did I ever mention the SF100 is just plain awesome.  

Gravel in Fall Sunshine

We were blessed with a warm, sunny late autumn day, and there is only one way to proper honor a day like this, head out on the bike for an adventure.   It was just warm enough for a long sleeve jersey, shorts, light weight full fingered gloves, and regular cycling shoes.  Laura graciously gave me five hours on this Sunday afternoon to go play, and I took advantage of it.  Jumped in the car to drive 20 miles East (save myself an hour of bikepath slogging each way) so I could get to the good stuff that much faster.  

I took the cross bike out today.  I haven't ridden this bike much in the last 9 months, preferring instead to explore all summer on the Karate Monkey single speed.  But the gravel and the climbs urged me to get reacquainted with the cross bike.  Besides, this will become my winter training tool (along with the new mukluk) so I need to get used to the flatter position again.  

After a few pavement climbs, I snuck back on to Smith Chapel which winds up a small valley between two Ohio ridges.   A right turn on to Patton keeps to the gradual valley climb instead of the ridge ascents to the left and right.  

I then endure the incessant ups and downs of Pinewood trails.  It is a real leg burner, great for hill climbing strength, but you have to be wary of burning yourself out too early in a long ride on this road.   The heart rate monitor allowed me to climb in a comfort zone and save the real gas for later in the ride.





In Perryton,  I climb out of the valley hamlet on Myrtle -- great name and a narrow, barely paved farm path.

I was intent on exploring more in the area East of Licking Valley Rd.  I don't often get out in this area and there are more remote roads to explore further.

One of my great finds of the day is a new-to-me road, Church Rd.  There are dozens of roads named after churches in this area, but all of them have some other name other than just church.  So this is a bit of a novelty.  This road ran relatively flat North along a creek valley and I had to ignore delicious climbs to the ridge running along the right side of the road.

A great road that is usually just out of range is McCament Rd.   By starting my ride 20 miles east of home, I was able to put this route on my agenda.  I discovered this road on a motorcycle romp about five years ago, and now, have finally gotten to ride a bike out here.  It is a lovely road, scampering through gaps between the ridges until the flat realestate is corralled by valley walls all around.  It gives up the ghost and has to climb straight out of a valley over the ridge line.  Gravel goodness for several, uninterrupted miles and beautiful, quiet scenery.














More McCament images.
















I came back south along Aspen and would have enjoyed it more if not for the legs starting to go ... mostly on low energy.  Aspen is one of those roads that looks flatter than it really is.  It does roll up and down, but those are bigger and steeper rollers than what seems at first glance.









But as the road enters Licking County, and switches names from Aspen to Rock Run Rd, it becomes one of the most beautiful spots in all of central Ohio.  The way the narrow lane cuts through the old growth forest, the light beams stream through gaps in the trees and filters across the road,  the road falls down a gulch line toward the large stream at the bottom, it almost seems like hallowed cycling ground!

 And there is the stately covered bridge at the base of the descent ... for gravel dessert!
 

With low energy threatening to sap the enjoyment from my ride, I detoured to Fallsburg Pizza for a quick snack stop.  Then a couple of more climbs and another of my favorite gravely ways ... Priest Hollow.   What a cool name for a road.

All told, 55 miles, 4600ft vertical, and 14.6 mph.  I also got a nice treat on Saturday as Laura agreed to join me on her cross bike for a brief 90 minute spin through the northern countryside.   Thanks Laura!

John had just gotten back in town from a trip to Austin, TX.  He told tales of awesome, high desert single track.  I'll have to check it out sometime.

PA Explorations on the Mukluk

I took my new Mukluk to State College on a family visit trip and managed to sneak in a four hour ride on Sunday morning.  It is hard to decide which bike(s) to take as there is so much good riding in the area.  I feel like I could take them all and ride for a month and still have the hankering for more.   But the Mukluk is new and I was eager to learn more about its character, so I brought that.

Sunday morning started very chilly with 30F temps and frost on the car windows.  Brrr, winter is coming.  I brought some colder gear but not for 30F.  So I waited for a little bit and then dressed as much as possible to head out in to the cold.   I went to the Shingletown gap to start.  This is one of the rockiest, most technical 3-mile rock garden excuse for a trail.  The mukluk did ok, but there was lots of bouncing off the plentiful angular rocks, no match for a full susp bike that I rode here earlier in the summer.  

This area had received a lot of rain recently and a small part of the gap trail was concurrent with a stream bed.  There was one section with about 6" of muddy muck and the big tires on the fat bike went right through without too much drama.   Once I hit the fire road, I encountered a big 50 mile trail race in progress.  It was a relay and there were about 100 people standing up at the saddle, very strange.  So I dove off course down the Shingletown Rd, a grassy, fast descent.  There aren't any large rocks in this trail, but lots of small, high frequency bumps to jiggle you loose on the way down.  Again, this bike is NOT a full susp bike.   

I then turned up Pine Swamp Rd, across on 26, and started to explore more forest service roads I had not been on before.   I found a snowmobile trail, Pump Station Rd, that was a grassy, rocky climb for 1.5 miles on 10% to 20% steady grades.   I put the bike in its lower gears and went in to rock-crawler mode. I made it up the long ascent without too much effort, but it was slow going.   Once over the top of Tussey Ridge, I went down a switch-backy fire road down to PA Furnace on Rte 45.  Parts of the road are nicely graded forest road, then without warning, it turns in to a rocky jeep trail, again with an impromptu stream running down it.  I've never seen anything like this before, it is almost as if the nice road disappears in to someones 4x4 play course.   

Not wanting to ride back to town on 10 miles of road, I went back up the gap and hooked up with a long, straight, amazingly flat forest service road that ran the length of the ridge.  I dumped out on Pine Grove Mountain and made my way back to town.

Overall the bike did great.  It is a great choice for this kind of adventuring.  Probably my full susp GF SF100 would have been a better bike, I had plenty of fun on the mukluk.   It was also nice to discover new dirt roads and trails I had not been on before.   I can't wait to go back to explore more of this area.

AEP Adventure Ride

This Saturday I took my new fatbike out for an adventure.  Two years ago, I had visited the AEP Recreation Land on my motorcycle and have always wanted to go back.  The area is a reclaimed strip mine .  It is amazing to think what happened in this area not too long ago.

 

The "Big Muskie", a single ginormous shovel, moved more than twice the material in this part of Ohio than was moved in the entire Panama Canal.  I believe the bucket, which is large enough to hold a two-story house, is still on display.  It is hard to imagine what this area was like during the heyday of mining.  It must have been an abomination and the world truly looked like it was coming to an end.  

Now it seems beautiful, but also not quite real.  It definitely does not feel like Ohio, something just seems out of place.  But if definitely is beautiful and an enjoyable area to ride through.

The area looks more like a savannah with wide open areas of grasslands.  I can't quite figure it out.  Maybe they mow it?  The grass wasn't that high.  Or maybe the soil is so mineral-poor that things just don't grow well?  I had a few moments of cutting across the prairie and the soil underneath was often very gravelly.


Lots of the area is typical gravel and dirt roads.  When it is dry, like it was yesterday, the going is quite pleasant.  I can imagine it gets pretty messy when it is wet.  Some of the area had double-track from old roads that are growing back into the prairie.  There were some areas where "bushwacking" was necessary.


My new fatbike was a real joy.  It is definitely a different frame of mind.  This is not a fast bike, and if you need to go fast, get something else.  It can go if you pedal it - I did maintain 15-20 mph on the pavement.  But going uphill it is slow.  It is a 34lbs bike afterall with very wide tires.  They worked great on the dirt and gravel.  And were perfect for the few cross-prarie moments.  There we just a few wet spots with a marshy feel; the Mukluk went right on through without problem.


But at the end of the day, there is no denying that a cross bike or a fast (rigid) mountain bike would be the perfect tool for the job here.  Fatbike was ok, but if I went with a group, I'd have to be in better shape or they'd have to be patient.

On this beautiful fall day, the area was full of outdoors people.  Hunters, campers, fishermen, and 4x4 types.  I'm glad lots of folks are out using the area.  I wonder what it is like in winter.




Here is a movie of the whole adventure:

Going Fat

I got fat this week.  My friend JG found a Mukluk at a very low price in MN.  A couple of phone calls later, and I had a 2011 Mukluk coming my way in the mail.  It arrived on Monday and I put it together that night.  The wheels are just ginormous, almost comical.  

It rides surprisingly normal.  Yes it is heavy, but if you are willing to dial the speed back just a little, there isn't much this bike can go through.  What I didn't anticipate is the level of notoriety it commands.  Everyone turns their heads and stares at you and the bike in disbelief.   I had become accustomed to being a bit more anonymous on my bike, not so with this one.  Everyone notices you.

Mount Vernon Adventure Ride

After losing another Saturday to work, I was eager to recharge my spiritual batteries in the saddle on Sunday.  I decided to take the SS Karate Monkey out -- I just can't seem to get enough of that bike.  Commuting, grocery store runs, road rides with the more sedate crowd, and adventure rides.  This bike seems happy to do it all.

This was definitely a stop-and-smell-the-roses kind of ride.  I wasn't in a hurry and had no real agenda.  I had a 104 mile route mapped out, but then decided to do more putzin and explorin rather than making time on a long century.  I took a handful of photos and quite a bit of video footage.  I forgot my Go Pro so I had to use the cell phone.

I had to stop early and take this picture.  I think the color and texture both caught my eye.  Maybe it was this picture which set the tone for a leisurely ride.  

I discovered a great series of dirt backroads near Mount Vernon.  I had a great time exploring.  The dampness from the last few days helped keep the road firm and dust free.   Just on the outskirts of town, I  encountered the "Heart of Ohio" Trail.  I didn't know that it extended West of Mount Vernon.  This is part of the larger Rails to Trails effort to connect Cleveland with Cincinnati.  This particular part exists as an overgrown foot path.  Turns out the Karate Monkey was right at home.   Apparently the trail goes all the way to Centerberg.  I'll go back later to scope the whole thing, maybe on a snow day!

After a lunch stop in Mount Vernon, I hit the Kokosing Gap Trail for a short ways.  Got bored and split off for the hills.  And hills they were, lots  of them.  Gave me a good workout on the 34x17 stock gearing.  I made a vimeo video of the day's excursions.  Check it out here.


Mt Vernon Adventure Ride from Matt Kretchmar on Vimeo.

Evening Ride

Its been a rough last two weeks.  I logged 84 hours in the office for orientation week, then got sick and spent the next few days (glorious weather) confined to bed.   Finally a weekend rolls around (20 straight days of work without a day off) and Saturday is 97 degrees with disgusting humidity (110 heat index) and then Sunday rains all day.   I pretty much give up trying to ride in the extreme heat of Saturday and wait to fit in a long ride on Sunday, except that it is raining all the time.  Finally, I head out between storms and ... get rained on.

Saturday night I spent in the shop, so not entirely wasted.  I put the new Salsa Bell Lap bars on the cross bike along with the gore ride-on cables I ordered two months ago.  Everything went on smoothly in about 3 hours ... about 2 hours less than I expected.  

Sunday, during rain, I drove down to Paradise Garage on high street, in the Short North district of Columbus.  Everyone was 20-something and totally hip or trying to look totally hip.  I can't tell the difference and frankly I don't care.  The shop is pretty cool and specializes in commuter and alternative bikes rather than the latest and greatest carbon clones that everyone else has.  They carry both Surly and Salsa, so they must be all right.   Not a lot in stock.  An El Mariachi caught my eye; boy is that a nice frame.  The Vaya they had on the floor looked pretty nice too.  Shop guys (and gals) say they expect a fleet of the new Mukluks in about two weeks from now, including a demo unit.  I hope to be first in line to test one out.  I'd really like to have $2k to blow on that bike ... some mental wrangling over how cool it is and how utterly unpractical it is.

Of course on Monday, I have to work, unlike 99% of USA.  And it is a gorgeous fall day to boot.   Blustery, cloudy, 60 degrees ... perfect fall weather.   I'm not sure I'd want every single day to be like this, but I'll take 90% of them this way.   I logged a full day and took Eli to piano lessons.  Then I headed out the door at 6:30pm on the SS KM for an evening ride.  Lights, bottle, GPS, and a very rural route NW to Sunbury and back.  Logged 55 very relaxing miles in just under 4 hours.   Riding west into the sunset was totally beautiful.  Lovely hues of orange and then deep, blood red before the darkness finally came.  I rode home on very narrow farm lanes so I had 10 foot walls of corn on either side of me forming a dark tunnel.  I just love that KM, it is the perfect bike.  Sorry no pics, it just seemed to lovely to stop and take a picture.

Welcome back

Ok, its been a very long time that I've been away from the blog.  And I have a lot of stories to tell and race news to catch up on.  But I have to start somewhere.  So I'll post today with my weekend ride and then look for opportunities to catch up on future posts.

Saturday, John and Adele were looking for a short ride and I wanted to go long.  So I rode solo.  It would be my last long ride opportunity for two weeks since orientation craziness will have me working every day between now and early September.

John had been talking up the scenic beauty of the valley in, and around, Fultonham OH.  So I mapped out a route of 85 miles and lots of back roads.  I knew the area would be hilly, but I made a strategic decision to take out the Karate Monkey single speed.  Sure the carbon road bike, or cross bike would have been more practical choices, but the KM just cries out "Simply Adventure" and it seemed to fit my attitude.

I left the house at 6:30am which is just about the time it is light enough to see the bike path heading through the woods.  I mentally divided the ride into 8 sectors so that I could manage the long day.  The first two would be relatively flat and made easy going on the SS 34x17.  But sections 5, 6, and 7 would be hideously hilly and really hit me hard.  The field above was taken at 8am.  It was still quite foggy out with shrouds of mysterious white enveloping the hilly landscape.   

At one point I popped out on a gravel farm road and met up with the famous Ohio circle barn.  This landmark is really off the beaten track and I only happened upon it by chance.  It really is very beautiful.

This was probably the most scenic spot on my ride.  A nice smooth gravel road way removed from civ.  Ironically, there wasn't very much gravel on the ride, but what there was, was very nice.  

A winding Ohio farm road that characterized much of my ride, as much as I could manage.  I had a bite to eat at a small grocery mart in East Fultonham and then headed north to Zanesville.  The heat was out and we had a typical steamy, hot day.  From Fultonham up to Toboso I encountered an endless barrage of steep hills.  Up one ridge and down the next.  The SS was really hurting after a while as my legs started to lose steam.  I managed to scale all of them and finished the ride with 20 miles of flat bike path.  A very nice day to purge all the stressful thoughts in my head.

I think I am entering a different place in my biking.  I am loving the adventure more than the speed.  I switched from running to biking because I was burnt out on the competitive, high intensity, elite-level training schedule of a fast runner.  But it has taken me a while to transition my mind as well.  I think I am getting there now.  A summer of unsuccessful attempts at "being the fast guy" on the racing scene this summer and a greater enjoyment of engaging the landscape on its own terms is making it clearer to me.  Maybe the fact that I took out the KM SS this weekend tells me my transition on going well.  Some food for thought.

Some Fun Riding

I had been so busy prepping for Cohutta, that I wanted to make sure I have some fun cycling time now.  This weekend, my son and I did a big ride.  He just turned 6 but has been riding for over 2 years now.  We rode 17 miles round trip to Target and back.  It took us almost 3 hours counting stops at Target, Walmart and McDonald's for lunch.   He was a real trooper, though the distance did wear on him near the end.   It was fun teaching him that big shopping trips can be done by bicycle with a little planning --- you don't need to jump in the car to head across town.   It built his confidence knowing he can ride a long ways too.

Later that day I went out with Laura for our first ride together since last fall.  The weather's been so lousy that she just hasn't wanted to ride much this year.  I took my SS mountain bike and she took her cross bike; we headed out for rolling/hilly gravel.   I was surprisingly quick on that bike.  I could easily hold 16mph on the flats, I could tuck in behind her and draft at 20-22, and I found that I was climbing a whole lot faster -- she just didn't have her climbing legs after having been off the bike all winter.   We finished our ride with a spin on the bike path.  All was well until I picked up a mondo thorn and flatted.  I had no change kit and so I walked for a while until Laura finished the ride and came back to pick me up in the car.  Bummer.

Cohutta 100 Race Report

Executive Summary

The 2011 Cohutta 100 Race was last Saturday, April 30.  It was a beautiful day starting out with temps about 45 and warming up to the low/mid 80s.  Though there had been winds and tornados in the area less than a week before, the two days prior to the race and race day itself were all beautiful and sunny with a light breeze.   I followed my prerace strategy of starting a little faster but not pushing it too hard in the first third which was mostly rolling single track.  The "big climb" turned out to pass uneventfully but I was not prepared for the severity of the ridge top climbs.  They were both steeper and especially longer than I had thought and they were lots of work.  The middle 65 miles of the course was all fire road and almost all of it was up and down.  I stopped regularly but the heat made it difficult to want to eat enough.  I started to suffer from leg cramps around mile 80 and it stuck with me throughout the remainder of the race, especially in the last 10 miles which was very tough.  I felt like I could have pushed the pace more, but the cramps came on as soon as I started to raise the effort level.   I finished in 9:21 which was about 50 minutes faster than W101 last year.   But I know I had sub-9 hours in me and left a little disappointed that cramps kept me from reaching that milestone.  I came in 68th place in the Men's Open.  Maybe about 80th place overall (300 riders?).

The Course

The course is very lovely.  After a brief and gentle road climb, there is a 15 mile section of single track.  It is well built and lots of fun but there are very few legitimate passing opportunities.  Only towards the end of this single track section does the road begin to climb substantially and then you can scoot by a few guys.  For the most part, you can't really pass anyone but that was ok with me as I wasn't interested in pushing hard at this point and the stream I was in was moving fast enough.  

The long climb up to aid station 2 went by much faster than I had thought.  I was definitely thinking there was a lot more to the climb when we crested the top and rolled down in to aid #2.  It wasn't nearly as steep or long as I was expecting.  Maybe a little anti-climatic even!?!  

After aid #2 began a series of ridge top climbs.  From the profile I was expecting about 5 of them each in the range of 200-300 feet vertical.  No way.  These were monster climbs that each took 15 minutes or more and they were very steep.  One after the other, relentless.   The "big descent" didn't seem quite so big either, but I can't complain as the "big climb" matched its unimpressiveness.  I will note that the descents were rather tricky.  These were not let-er-loose fire roads.  They had many turns and there was loads of loose gravel.  There was always an issue of skittering off wide on a turn or losing your front wheel in a bad lowside maneuver.  Lots of braking and lots of intense concentrating, downhills were more work than they should have been.  Someone dumped lots of new gravel on many of the descents which only made them that much squirlier.  There was a fair deal of car traffic on the course and you never knew what was on the other side of one of those blind turns on the descent, so you had to keep it tame.  Still, I didn't get dropped or passed on the descents so I guess my ability was adequate for my skill level.  

The course ends with about 10 miles of single track.  The profile shows a big climb here but I didn't sense it.  Yes climbing, but nothing like the fire roads before.   I wished I had fresher legs because I felt like ripping it but my cramps kept me at bay (and on the side of the trail in several places).   The "Thunder Express" was very nice, but not the magical experience that everyone billed it up to be.   

My Strategy and Fitness

Generally I love gravel fire road climbs, but I must admit that this was getting old fast.   Speaking of getting old, I wasn't catching loads of people on these climbs like I have in the past.  Yes, I was going by people, but not hoards of them.  I imagine it was in part due to my strategy of just starting out much faster.  So all those people I was catching last year were already well back and I was in the mix of athletes who could all climb like me anyway.  That and I can could probably stand to lose a few pounds.  

I did feel stronger overall.  On grades of 3% - 7% I was rocking it.  Passing lots of people.   Grades of 12% or more (and there were lots of them) I seemed to be grinding away at the same rate as everyone else.  I think the SS climbing workouts I've been doing have helped build strength, but maybe cost a little in tempo.   

Cramps

Last year in W101 I suffered from severe leg cramps in the last hour or so of racing.  I had a similar fate this year, but perhaps just slightly earlier in the race.   And these were more frequent and more severe.  On at least 4 different occasions I had to stop completely and scream in pain as I tried to get my legs to release.  Once was in sight of the finish line (literally).  It was majorly frustrating watching people go by me that I had worked hard to pass and put time into, only to have them go floating by while I convulsed helplessly on the side of the trail.   I really think it is nutrition related.  I think I need to eat and drink more earlier in the race especially.   It was so hot that my stomach was a bit upset and I really didn't feel like eating anything.  Also the drop bags were filled the night before instead of the morning of, so I couldn't put my big sandwich in there like I did last year.  So I never really had a big calorie intake during the race.  And warm PB&J just didn't sound good.  

I was also reluctant to stop to eat.   I mean I was working hard to pass people and put time on them, last thing I wanted to do was pull over and stop to eat for a few minutes.   I need to attach a feed bag to my front handle bar and stuff it with food so that I can graze during the race.

Summary

Last year in W101 I finished with a clock time of 10:07 and a ride time of 9:07.  I had exactly an hour of stop time (food at rest stops, a broken cleat which cost 20 minutes, and cramps which cost 5 minutes).  My goal this year was to cut my rest time by 40 minutes and my ride time by 30 minutes.   That would get me in just under 9 hours.   My clock time this year was 9:21 while my ride time was 8:48.   I lost about 10 actual minutes of being stopped on the road while waiting for cramps to abate, but I lost much more than that by dialing the pace back over the last 25 miles.  I really felt like I had extra go in my legs but I couldn't elevate my effort without cramping.   I could have easily managed sub 9 hours had I not cramped.  

I've got Breckenridge 100 next in mid July.  To be honest, the elevation is so brutal that I just want to finish this event rather than race it.  It will likely take me 11 hours or more.  I'll have to eat and drink more carefully too.   Two weeks later I've got the W101 and will be looking to race that one and come in well under 9 hours.   Later in September is SM100.  I've got about 2.5 months before my next event.  Busy work comes at just the wrong time to be building up for mid July, but I'll have to manage.

Cohutta Prep, Two Days Out

I feel like a giddy 7 year-old with xmas two days away.  Cohutta is on Saturday.  Today is packing day.  I am a list maker by nature so I have about a half dozen packing lists (things on the bike, things in the pack, things in the car, things in the toolbox, things in the drop bag ... you get the idea).   I ***think*** that I have it all packed in the car or in my last remaining suitcase; famous last words.   And at the end of the day, I really just need to get on the bike and go.

The weather looks perfect.  Sunny today, tomorrow and Saturday.  So the course should dry out nicely.  That area was in the swath of tornados that swept through there yesterday.  I have visions of some guy spending the better part of a day toting a chainsaw through the single track to clear fallen trees.

JG converted my bike to tubeless 10 days ago.  I've had to fiddle with things a little (an extra ounce of sealant, replace a bent presta core) but things are dialed in now and the tires are hardly leaking any air.  I did a shakedown ride on Monday night ... dropping down stairs, launching off a wall, smacking up a big wall, etc.  I couldn't get the tires to unseat so I am pretty sure they'll stick during the race.  I'll be packing extra tubes as a backup.

Tuesday I did 10x hill repeats on Mt. Parnasus (did I mention how much I like my KM SS).  Last night I did a light lifting session and then spun for 30 minutes on the trainer.  Today I did a little commuting, just to keep the legs fresh but warmed up.  I haven't managed to lose quite as much winter heft as I planned, but otherwise my training has been smooth and on target.   Mostly I just want to have fun kicking butt on the big mountain climbs.

Two Weeks Out

Very windy today.  Sustained winds of 31mph with gusts well above 40.  I am two weeks out from Cohutta and needed badly to get a longer ride in.   So I set off this morning about 8:15am on my cross bike to get a day of LSD.  I was planning on meeting T.F. and his crew for their 55 mile ride at 9am.  So I did 40 min of hills to get warmed up.   I noticed my rear wheel had a minor shimmy so I slipped back home to tighten a spoke or two.  But I found that one spoke was completely loose and another had fallen out altogether.   That was it, no go on the cross bike.  So I switched shoes quickly and put air in the road bike and went out a minute late to meet up with the crew.  

Funny how I have so many bikes but was scrambling to find one in operational condition.  My old mtn bike has no brakes since I pulled those off to put them on Eli's bike.  I now have replacements but haven't put them on yet.  My new mtn bike had a flat front tire from last week's race.  I tried to replace them last night but struggled to get the bead over the rim.  J.G. used this as an opportunity to talk me in to going tubeless (a decision I hope I don't regret).  We couldn't get the bead to seat without a compressor so J. G. took the tire with him.   My cross bike rear wheel is kaput.  So that leaves only my road bike and my SS Surley.   I need to get to work to get the fleet operational again.

So I now set off on the road bike with T. F. and two others.  We did bike path miles at first since it was the most sheltered from the wind.  But the other two guys bowed out only a few miles in.  I guess the wind was scaring them.   Then T.F. decided to turn back worried about making the distance in the wind.  Certainly it was blowing hard, but I guess I was determined to get the miles in so I pressed onward into the teeth of the wind.  I caught up with another crew about 10 miles later and was glad to be in their wind-breaking paceline.  They were a little slow, even with my conservative LSD pace so I broke off a few miles later.   I circled back eventually to the East and started enjoying the stiff tailwind.  After a small meal at Wendy's I ramped up the effort and hammered the last 25 miles averaging about 20-25 with bursts up to 35.   I caught up to another group heading toward Granville and they upped the pace to stay with me for the last 12 miles.   Ended up with 17.2 mph average over 77 miles and I had plenty left at the end.   A good training day -- bring on Cohutta.  

Simonton Challenge at Mountwood

Last weekend I drove down to WV for a tune-up race at Mountwood Park outside of Parkersburg.  It was a lovely course of about 23 miles with almost all of it flowing single track.  There were a few significant climbs and the rest of it was appropriately rolling.  The most unusual thing was the 85 degree temps -- it was a hot, sticky day that stands out remarkably against one of the coldest and snowiest winters/springs we've ever had.


About 200 or so riders showed up for the event.  There were a number of different categories, but you had to register with the big boys to access the 23 mile distance.  So I signed up with the pro/expert category instead of the sport riders doing only 16 miles.   I had to stand in line for the better part of an hour, so my prerace routine was a bit rushed even though I arrived two hours before the gun.  I also suffered from a slow leaking front tire and noticed it only about 25 minutes before the start.  It was one of those dilemmas about whether to just go with it or to quickly change it.  I decided to change it even though it ate up my warm up time.

So I toed the start line with about 30-40 other much faster guys.  I was not warmed up and was thinking mostly about that incredible heat.  At the start, I immediately floated to the very back, and I mean DFL, on the first gravel road climb.   I cannot believe how fast people shot off at the start.  I do know there were faster riders there but I refused to believe that these guys could really hold on to this pace for 2 hrs or more.  I decided to play it conservatively.   Even with that strategy I knew they were launching the sport riders 2 minutes later and I could here them coming fast.  So I still went out faster than my liking and put myself into my lactic acid zone.  This would have been suicidal for a 100miler but I figure I could hang on for a 2 hour race.



I got passed by the fast sport riders, about five of them, only 16 minutes into the race.   I maybe picked off about 2 or 3 guys in the first hour, but mostly I settled in to a good rhythm and kept an even keel.   Then in the last 90 minutes people started to come back to me in droves.  I was riding decently on the climbs and making big ground up in a hurry.  People were nicely spaced so I could chase another rider down every 10 minutes or so.   I think I picked up about 12-15 guys in total and finished right in the middle of the field.   If maybe I hadn't gone out quite so quickly I could have placed higher as my full leg strength never quite came back to me after burning them out quickly on the start.

But for someone who has done LSD all winter and spring, this was a good speed workout.  And I needed bike handling practice.   Mission accomplished.

A Contrast in Purposes

This week has been an interesting contrast in the many ways I cycle.

I used the Surly SS to commute to and from work and to haul some groceries home.  Then I went out later that night to do hill repeats on the same steel steed.

Tonight I went in to New Albany to hammer with the Thursday night crew.  24 miles at a high rate of speed, my second real outing on my road bike.

Coming up Sunday is a B-race aboard the full-boinger mtn bike in WV.

A few days ago I got my son, Eli, to ride up the hill.  We did a fun set of stairs, see video:



Eli Taking the Stairs from Matt Kretchmar on Vimeo.

Another Tough One

Did 88 miles today heading NE out of town. Lots of it was flat bike path miles, but I also did a nice foray into dirt roads that criss cross the hills and frame the valleys. The temps were a bit nicer today (45ish) but the forecasters got the wind speed very wrong. They called for 7mph winds all afternoon but instead I suffered through 2.5 hours of pushing into 20mph steady headwinds.  It was miserable. I must admit that I don't have any desire to get back on a bike any time soon. Everyone long ride I've had this year has been super windy, freezing cold and/or raining. I know, I know, this adds to "mental strength". But I also have to balance this with my desire to keep things fun, and fun this wasn't.

When you are pedaling your own two wheels, it forces you to engage in the landscape in ways very different than in a car or even on a motorcycle. You become so much more attuned to the geographical shape and layout of the landscape. Obviously, because you are acutely aware every time the road aims upward. I've noticed that the big state routes generally follow valleys. The little roads generally criss cross hills ... big uns. And you can usually do a good job of guessing ahead of time which ones are paved and which ones are gravel.  

First Century of the Season

Winter will just not go away.   This Saturday morning greeted us with 23 degree air temps and a stiff 15mph wind coming out of the NE contributing to a 12 degree windchill.  It is just freakin cold outside ... a whole 25 degrees below normal according to our perky weatherman.   I just need miles, there is no choice. And it did not precipitate today, so out I went for a century.

John wanted to ride from Granville, up to Mt Vernon and then connect with various parts of the Ohio to Erie Bikeway.  Our ending destination was Fredricksburg, some 49 miles away from Mt Vernon.  I was only good for a century, so I drove up to Mt Vernon and met John there after he had already logged 30-40 morning miles.  Just fine with me as the extra 2 hours would allow things to warm up just a little bit more.

Our first section is about 12 miles of paved rail-to-trail called the Kokosing Gap Trail.   This is an awesome trail with a couple of scenic highlights including pretty bridges, a retired steam locomotive, and this lovely old red building next to the stone tunnel pictured here.  It looks like an old mill except I could see no waterworks nearby.  But a very classic looking old building.  This first section of trail ends in Danville OH.

Our next section is a brief piece of trail called the Mohican Valley Trail.  It picks up right in Danville and extends for 4.5 miles toward Brinkhaven.  This is a true dirt pathway and, in these spring conditions, was very soft and mushy.  We got a good covering of mud on everything and, even on the cross bike, parts were a real slog in thick, muddy goo.   The only memorable feature of this stretch is the "Bridge of Dreams" which is a 370 foot span crossing the Mohican River.  Supposedly Ohio's longest covered bridge and the nation's second longest span.   This bridge is in the distance of this photo.  Don't let the gravel here fool you, it is only a 1/4 mile stretch; everything else on this path is mud.

Since the Mohican Valley Trail is mostly unfinished, we now had an 18 mile road stretch to make it to Killbuck where the trail picks up again.  There are big hills here; we had several long climbs that lasted multiple hundreds of feet which is fairly rare for Ohio.  We weren't exactly expecting this, but the elevation was a nice change of pace from a long day of flat bikepath.  

In Killbuck, you rejoin the trail as the Holmes County Trail.  It is all paved and the unique feature is that there are separate trail lanes for horses and for bikes.  Lots and lots of Amish live in this area and we passed a dozen or so horse drawn buggies on this stretch.   You do have to keep your eyes open for the road apples.   This section goes from Killbuck to Millersburg to Holmes to its terminus in Fredricksburg.

John had business in Millersburg.  He was after a new frameset and had looked up a bike shop in Millersburg.  The shop was a few miles outside of town (away from the trail).  It is run by Amish (who don't answer the phone).  Since I was low on energy and needed badly to eat, and the shop was near closing time so John wanted to make time there, and this shop was up in the hills with several long steep climbs to get there, I skipped this part and parted ways with John.  I figured he would catch up to me on the trail at some point since he is a faster rider than me.   I snarfed a powerbar and sucked some go juice from the hydration pack before heading up the trail.  

Today's ride was constantly characterized by a stiff headwind and bitter cold temps.  The unusual NE wind blew right at us the whole way up.  I sat on John's wheel till we split in Millersburg and then had to face the ferocity of the wind on my own.  I had a thick base layer and then a riding jacket over top.  I had lobster gloves on and alternated between putting bar mits on too or not.  When you are only out for a few hours, you can kind of suck it up and be cold.  But when you are out for a hundo, you need to be warm.

In Fredricksburg, which is heavily Amish, I found a small general store (run by Amish), parked my bike outside (between two Amish buggies), ate a sandwich (made by Amish) and then headed back.  There was a decent tailwind push but it just didn't seem strong enough to make it "fair" for all the hardwork we logged to get there.   About 3 miles back, I meet up with John who is still coming from his Millersburg bikeshop excursion.  He wants to go to the terminus, so I shout out to him my route and expect him to catch up to me about half way back; that's 6 extra miles for him within a span of 49 -- yup, he should catch me.   Except that between Killbuck and Danville I stick to Rte 62.  It is more traffic, but it eliminates many of the climbs and bypasses the muddy Mohican Trail.  So I make good time and end up beating John back to the car by 20 minutes.   He also has to stop and refuel since he didn't stop in Fredricksburg.

A good long ride.  I was tired but not wasted.   Could have gone more if needed but didn't want to in that wind and cold.  Cohutta is looking good but there is a huge difference between a hundred miles on mostly paved bike path and a hundred miles with tons of gravel road climbing.    I had 97.4 miles, 3100 feet vertical, 16mph average, 145 bpm heartrate and 5001 calories.  

Gravel Rouser Classic

Yesterday I attended the 2011 Gravel Rouser Classic in Athens, OH.  It is a fun group ride with an informal race interspersed in the middle.  20 miles of road/dirt out to Lake Hope St Park, an optional short single track race, and then a 25 mile ride back in to town.

The ride out was nice and relaxed, with about 60 riders spread out over a 30 minute window.   About half participated in the single track race.  It started after a slow paced group ride to the top, so we had a massive grouping ready to drop onto the down hill single track.  I think I got in about 10th wheel and worked my way up to 5th at one point.  I pulled over to let a SSer go by and then stayed on his wheel.  I finished in a small group that placed 4th - 6th.  Pro rider Brian Matter started near the back and then worked his way through the field to finish first; the guy is amazing on two wheels.  

This was a hard, ultra intense effort that was very different than my long steady distance work all winter.  I realized that I had more endurance left at the end, but didn't have the burst-ability to get by people when I needed to.  Still, my goal races are all 100 milers that take place on lots of wide roads, so I need endurance more than burst passing.  This kind of intensity is good for building overall speed.  And I really needed some time on the mtn bike to work on bike handling skills which were better than expected.


2011 Gravel Rouser, Athens OH from Matt Kretchmar on Vimeo.

I put in a hard effort with two other guys on the return trip.  We really hammered it home and it felt good to get in the extra work.  This was my first mtn biking expedition yet this season and hopefully the sign of good things to come.  

Karate Monkey Nirvana

The cold rainy drizzle of all day yesterday vacated our area around 2pm today, the sun popped out, things warmed up and dried out quickly.  And I got out on my new Surly Karate Monkey with my son, Eli.  It is loads of fun.  Pretty much what everyone says -- it is not super light but hides its weight well and rolls nicely.  The large bars give good climbing leverage.   It feels like a tank in that it just keeps moving forward regardless of what is in front of it.  I can tell there are millions of smiles to come.   Tomorrow morning I will try to climb the big hill to work with the 34x17 to see just how bad it is.  I notice it  is faster than my 26" faux SS that I've been using all winter, so it is definitely a higher gear.  But the extra leverage of the bar might allow me to still scamper up the hill.

Oh and I got 54 miles in with T.F. on the cross bike.  A nice ride today with pushing a stiff headwind on the way out and an easier spin on the way back.  Now two days of "rest" so I am ready for the Gravel Rouser race on Saturday.  The weather looks very promising.   I'll probably take the Superfly out tomorrow for a quick spin to make sure all is right.  But I've been throwing some TLC at it, so all should be good to go.

Christmas in March

I've been eyeing an old fashioned, steel, single speed build for quite some time.  I hopped on a Surly Karate Monkey back in November for a "test ride" and was smitten.  I've spent too much of the last four months surfing online tests and discussion boards for the merits of a Niner SIR 9 vs JabberWocky vs Singular Swift vs etc.  Way too many good choices out there.   But my imagination exceeded my budget.  Finally my friend J. G. tells me he can get a stock Surly KM SS for less than half of what I could build frugally on my own.  So I pulled the trigger and my new KM arrived partially assembled yesterday.

Hey, how did that beer get in the picture?

There is just something amazingly simple and practical about that bike, very unpretentious; even after looking closely at the other very special frames, I kept coming back to the KM.  I bribed J.G. with Chinese take-out to help me with the build tonight.  The whole thing went together in about 90 minutes.  The only tricky part was cutting down the fork and getting the headset right.  Everything else went together easy.  Of course, it is raining hard tonight so I only got a 30 second test ride on the dark, wet driveway.  I can guess that I'll want to swap out the stock, swept back bar, for a straight one and change the 34x17 stock gearing for something more friendly to the 20% grade that separates my front door from my office.  I'll have to wait till tomorrow for a full maiden christening.  More pics coming soon, I promise!

Spring Riding

I've been trying to pack on some more miles.  On Saturday, I aimed down toward Zanesville and then turned North to Dresden.  There were 25 mph winds coming out of the west so the ride down was pretty quick.  But turning back west I got slammed by a horrid headwind ... at about 50 miles into the ride.  I managed just 8.5 miles over the next hour and then realized I wasn't able to make it home in time to take over kid duty so Laura could go to her concert.  So unfortunately I had to waive the white flag and call her to come retrieve me, still 25 miles outside of town.  

Today was breezy, annoyingly so, but still much better than Saturday.  I went up Northeast to ride hills.  I tackled at least 15 of them in the 100ft to 250ft range, some with grades in excess of 20%.   I managed 4 hours of pushing hills and wind, a good ride.  I can feel the last few days of hard work in my legs, they are getting tired but I am still able to keep a good spin on the pedals even after 4+ hours.  A good sign but also an important reminder to rest fully before Cohutta.  


The dirt roads are finally drying out.  I found a gem from Dresden to Frazeysburg that went up and up.  Today I attacked several of my favorites, only one was a bit mushy, the rest were tacky and nice.  The photo here is of the top ridge of Floyd Boyer -- one of my favorite climbs in the area.  But the pea gravel on top of blacktop really bites.  Somehow rural counties think it is a good idea to dump loads of the stuff on back roads in the winter.  Lots of spinouts on the steep climbs.  It could be worse, I could be on my road bike instead of the cross bike.

I managed to grind my bottom bracket into nothing on Saturday.  Probably a remnant of last week's major sufferfest in the rain.  It was making a holy racket on Saturday, not that I could hear much above the blasting wind.  So I got a replacement and managed to put it back in right on only the second try.  Very smooth action today, and quiet!  

The forecast is calling for 18 hours of rain starting tonight.  It is fine with me as my body is telling me to recover a bit.  I am supposed to log 60 miles of flattish riding with T.F. on Wednesday.  We'll have to see if the rain moves off early enough to get it in.  I hope it clears up after that as I am planning on "racing" the Gravel Rouser in Athens on Saturday.  My first day out on the mountain bike to shake off winter cobwebs.

82.5 miles of hell

Today was one of the physically toughest challenges I've faced in my 40+ years.  I set out for an 80 mile loop on a day the forecasters had promised rain.  And rain it did.  I covered the last 35 miles or so (more than 2 hours) in a steady, heavy rain.  And it was very cold too.  And herein lies the problem.  I quickly got soaked to the bone and spent two miserable hours fighting off hypothermia.

It started with the extremities, naturally.  I lost sensation first in my feet.  Then my fingers went numb.  And finally I lost contact with most everything from the elbow down.   The saving grace was that my energy remained high.  High enough that I could really work the bike and keep some warmth in my core and my legs.  Only when I hit Newark and had to slow for traffic did I really get in trouble in my core.   And Newark sucked because my hands were too cold to brake or to work the gears.

By the time I got home I was shivering and going in to shock.   My hands were too cold to function so I couldn't strip the wet clothing off.  It was 15 minutes or so before I regained enough feeling in my fingers to work loose the clothes and helmet.  I lay on the ground, naked, shivering in front of a space heater for another 20 minutes.   My feet didn't warm for about 45 minutes.  And when the did, it hurt something fierce.   I finally got enough courage to hit the shower and try to warm my body.  I was beyond teeth chattering and starting to shake more violently so I needed the warm water even if it meant excruciating pain in my feet.

A number of other stupid things all conspired today.  Despite going through my very careful pre-ride ritual of laying everything out carefully, I somehow walked out the door without my cellphone.  It was in a baggie with my credit card and money.  So I had no phone.  And no lunch because I didn't have any money.   I might have called for ride at some point had I a phone.  Of course I could have stopped at a convenience store and called collect or something.

I've been trying to take a day off work for more than a month with the intent to fit in a long ride like this.  I have to plan these days at least two weeks in advance or else they won't materialize in my busy schedule.  I've failed twice previously this year because of miserable weather ... yes, beautiful days while I am at work and then all hell breaks loose (snow, sleet, rain) on my day off.  So this morning when the forecaster was calling for a chance of rain during the day and real showers moving in later that evening, I figured I had a good shot at getting the ride in before any real weather hit.  Besides, I would have felt just lousy if I wimped out, went to work, and it turned out to be a nice day.  So I set out and had almost 3 hours of chilly, but dry weather.  The last 2 or so were much worse.  The other poor aspect is that the forecaster called for a high of 52 degrees.  It didn't creep above 40 during any of my ride.  So I was underdressed as it was.

If there was anything good that came out of this misery, it was my performance.  I've had a handful of rides in the 40s, one in the 60s and now I jump up to 80+ miles along with 3700 feet of climbing.  A big jump.  But my body was solid.  My legs stayed strong through the whole ride; good thing as I needed them to keep me warm during the end.  And I missed lunch.  I did have a bottle of go-juice, a power bar, and a gu -- and gladly used all those -- but I didn't bonk and I kept up a good tempo right through to the end.  I was hitting 18.5mph on the bike path (flat ground) pushing into a slight headwind.   I also didn't stop other than to gu up once or twice.  I am really psyched about the 100 miler coming up ... as long as it doesn't rain on a cold day, I'll never do anything that stupid again.

Sorry no pictures .. left the phone at home.  Not much to see anyway.