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.