Camp Cohutta, Part3

My Spring break ended with a three day weekend "training camp" to State College.  Eli and I departed Friday morning for a guys weekend.  We arrived in SC around 2pm just as the UPS truck pulled in the driveway with my new deraileur.  Thirty minutes later, the new shifter was in place and we were good to go.  My Dad, Eli and I suited up and went out to Coburn (yes, 45 min more in the car) to ride one of the train tunnels.  We got in a good (good for Eli) 9 miles on mostly flat rail trail.  But there were muddy sections and the tunnel was full of deep puddles and big rocks.   Eli wasn't up to navigating the rocks in the tunnel even though I was pretty sure he could make it through. 

Start of Old Shingletown Descent

On Saturday I ate a big breakfast and then was out the door shortly after 8am.  I took a full bladder of water, two full bottles, can of coke, ham sandwich, two tubes of cube chews, two granola bars and a big bag of swedish fish.  I would need all of it to make it through the day.  It was a foggy chilly start with temps around 45.  I wore a jacket to start and kept it through the first climb and descent before stashing it in the pack.

My plan for the day was to ride strong all day and not cramp up or blow my legs for the end.  That meant being judicious in applying my climbing power for much of the day to not burn out too soon.  I hoped to log 8 hours of saddle time, get close to 10k feet of climbing, and to practice riding lots of rock gardens.

I started out through Boalsburg and began the fire tower climb of 1000 ft on Laurel Rd to join the W101 course at roughly mile 30; it is a nice climb because most of it is 5% to 7% and you can keep a good rhythm.  Then I jumped off on to Old Shingletown Rd which is a bumpy descent dropping 1000'.  Funny thing, there were about a dozen Asian hikers way out in the middle of this path?!  Then it is a gentle cruise down to Wipple's Dam to start climb 2.

The drop in for Croyle Run descent.

The climb up Greenlee Rd is a long one, some 1300 feet vertical.  The first half is a forgiving 7-8% but then it rises up to 12-15% for the second part.  It seems to go up forever.  Just at the summit you enter the Croyle Run drop.  You feel much like a ping pong ball bouncing back and forth across the rocks.  Mostly you point your front wheel down the center and pray for the best.  I made it down without incident.  It looks like someone had gone through there to prune back the bushes -- thank you!

Dropping down in to Alan Seeger I met four young women hikers.  It is nice there were other people out enjoying the day.  Alan Seeger truly is magical, like being in a different world.  Old growth forests line both sides of the road and you feel like an Ewok is going to pop out behind the next tree.  The aroma only adds to the magic, the air always seems cooler and fresher in here.  But the respite is brief, because a 25% wall faces you immediately out of Alan Seeger.

The climb on Seeger Rd is a true brute.  The road gains 1200ft but most all of it is 12% to 16% without much relief.  The first quarter mile features grades between 17% to 25%, so it kicks you in the legs right from the get go.  Today I was able to set a good tempo, staying seated most all of the way and grinding up at a halfway decent clip. Yet still being able to keep my heart rate and effort level in check.  I stopped for a lunch break up near the top at the turnoff for the fire tower. 

Then the real insanity starts with several trails that are mostly all rock with a few dirt gardens sprinkled in.  Pigpile, then Sassapig, then Sassafrass, then Beautiful Trail, and the insane drop off of Noname Trail.  In the race last year I went out too hard.  I suffered badly on the climb up Greenlee and was completely blown by the time I limped to the top of Seeger Rd.  I had nothing left and when I encountered the never ending rocks, I had zero strength. I walked almost all of it.    

"Rock Chute" going down Sassafras

But not today!  I settled in a comfortable pace and was able to navigate almost all the challenges.  Tons of rocks, rock bridges, rock see saw, rock ramps, rock gardens on top of boulders, big rocks, little rocks, rock this, rock that.  Even a rock chute down a steep sketchy descent with a loose, off camber switchback right in the middle.  I nailed it all only dabbing a handful of times.  I was having such fun I forgot to stop to take pictures.  It was really nice to know I can make those big climbs and still have the legs to make it through the rocks.  Still, I was ready to be off them by the time I finished Noname. 

Top of Stillhouse Hollow Climb

I crossed 322 at the underpass and then climbed the big, steep jeep trail that is Stillhouse Hollow, the last true monster climb on the course.  I rejoined the early part of the course (mile 10?) and followed it back through Crowfield to Penn Roosevelt.  Then the climb on Thickhead Mountain and down Detweiler. One more climb over the top to Bear Meadows and then a nice romp on Longberger before heading home.

In all, I was out on the bike with a ride time of over 8 hours, 80 miles, 9500' climbing.  It was truly a smashing success.  I feel very ready for the 100 milers coming up this season.  Now just add to the fitness and not get injured.   

I took two bikes to State College, the Superfly 100 and my new El Mariachi.  I ended up riding the El Mariachi exclusively, so the SF just went along for the ride.  I really really love the Salsa bike. It just seems to fit so well.  I like the 2x10 gearing, the wide bar, and the looks.   It has this kind of underdog thing going for it too -- it isn't an exclusive race wagon, just a blue collar get r done kind of bike.  But it works.  I'm half contemplating riding it for the Cohutta race.  I know the SF is about 2lbs lighter, it has full susp which will make for a more forgiving day, but I'm just in love with the Salsa bike at the moment.  Maybe it will help me go slower at the start!?   

Special kudos to the good crew at Freeze Thaw.  My shifting was still not dialed in and I arrived all smelly and dirty after my ride.  They fixed up my bent deraileur hanger right on the spot even though they were obviously very busy.   

Camp Cohutta, Part 2

Today was my second major ride of the week.  It was a brilliant 78 degrees today, more like June than March.  Bright sun meant I needed sunscreen and lots of water, I was summer sweating. 

I took the day off from work, got the kids on the bus, and drove down to Lake Hope State Park.  I got started just after 10am and set off with already warm conditions.  I brought both the El Mariachi and the Superfly 100 today, but picked the El Mariachi and rode that all day long.  No regrets, it is a great bike and a super comfortable position.  The gearing is just perfect -- use the small ring for trail riding and steep climbing, the larger ring for fire road descents and gentle ups.  The front fork is decent, but doesn't have the magic feel of my more expensive Fox.  The bike feels firm, but not lightening carbon fast.  Still I spent a good chunk of the day in the saddle and wasn't needing to get off.

I rode lots of trails, more than I thought I would.  Sidewinder twice, Copperhead twice, Wild Cat, etc.  And some good fire roads too.   The trails were wet in a few spots which meant lots of mud, but mostly dry and fast.  The stats are 50 miles, 5000' climbing and 5 hours -- the five trifecta!   It was less than I thought, but it was still a good day.  The best part is that I felt strong all the way through.  Even in the end I felt like I had another few hours in me if necessary.  This is a very good sign for mid-March.  

The only downer of the day was a mechanical in the last few miles.  I was finishing up on the last bit of single track and picked up a sizeable stick in my rear deraileur.  I am pretty sure it is bent and the shifting is not working properly.  I ordered a new one and had it shipped 2-day express to State College -- hopefully it arrives on Friday and I am good to go again for Saturday.  I always have the Superfly as my B bike!  :)





 

Camp Cohutta, Part 1

This week is training camp, Camp Cohutta.  It is my spring break and I'll take two days off from work.  My goal is to get three hard rides in and two or three smaller rides. 

Last night I got out for about 10 miles with 1500' climbing ... hill repeats on the Karate Monkey SS in town.  Today was one of the bigger rides.  I rode south of Brushy Fork and Flint Ridge to hit Mullbury, Bear Mountain and a bunch of other barely-roads.  I logged 54 miles, 3:36, with 4k ft vertical.  It was a little short of a "big ride", but it was an honest effort.   Wednesday is my very big ride, so I can save a little leg for that. 

It was a gorgeous day with sunshine and temps around 65.  I wore shorts and a short sleeve jersey for the first time.  There was a stiff wind of 15mph out of the southwest which made the return trip hard, but otherwise perfect.  

As I am logging these longer rides, a few things come to mind.  Foremost, I feel my legs fatiguing much too quickly.  Forty miles in, and I can feel them going.  I can still climb, but my speed drops considerably.  I just need more miles and more saddle time to prep for Cohutta's distance.   This year the Cohutta course is changed with more single track and now 14k feet climbing.  I am targeting 10 hours time, so I need my longer rides to be 6 - 9 hours.  I'm just not there yet. 

I also need stronger climbing legs.  My speed is just too low.  I feel like I am crawling instead of tempo-ing up a hill.  More strength and more stamina.   I've noticed my speed dropping over the past two weeks, since the Southern Cross race.  So maybe it is just fatigue from training, but I don't think I'm logging that many miles to make the speeds slower.  Maybe my older body just needs more recovery leading in to a race. 

Putting In The Miles

This weekend I had to work Saturday, so ride on Sunday with blustery winds, cold temps and several small snow squalls.  I had joined up with John and John (and later Rick) to ride cross, but I just didn't have it in my legs to stay with the faster guys.  I think I was still feeling the hard effort last weekend at Southern Cross.

So almost immediately I broke off from the small group and went my own way.  I managed to get in 62 miles with 5150' of climbing.  It was a slower day, though, only managing 14 mph.  The winds and cold temps made it tough, but mostly I was interested in LSD, not a hammerfest.   I did get my climbing and mileage in though, so it was a victory.  The roads were lovely.  A heavy rain on Thursday had tamped down the dust, but the roads had settled in to a perfect fast riding surface with hardly any mud.

Next weekend is the start of spring break.  I am hoping for at least 4 tough rides, half of them on a mountain bike on trails or in the mountains.  Maybe a trip to Lake Hope?  Maybe a trip to State College with the kids?   Maybe get two days off from work?  Spring Break is always full of hopeful ideas. 

Two Big Weekends

Muskingum River Ride

The last week has been good for cycling.  Last weekend, I finally got out on my 80 mile route to Dresden, then Zanesville, then home.  I mapped out this ride six months ago and have been waiting for an opportunity to go -- one aborted attempt 2 hours in due to icy rain a few months ago.  It was a chilly VERY WINDY day.  Of course, being a route that is East of here, I had tailwind there and fought a fierce headwind most of the way back.  I think I logged 84 miles in a touch over five hours, 4200 ft climbing.  The only downside was a set of strained abdominal muscles; with a week to go before my first race of the season.


Southern Cross

On Friday, I took off from work and drove down to northern Georgia, just a few miles south of Cohutta last year.  It is an easy interstate drive, as easy as 600 miles can be.  Race day brought sunshine with a chilly stiff wind.  We were mostly in the trees so the wind wasn't terrible, but the temps never really got much above the low 40s.   About 60% of the people were on cross bikes, the other 40% on mountain bikes -- most of them with cross type tires.   One of the top finishers summed it up best when they said they would have preferred to be on a mountain bike, but think they were probably faster on a cross bike.  I kept thinking how much fun I would have had on my new El Mariachi hardtail, but the cross bike was faster.

The course consisted of two long climbs of about 2000 ft gain and bunches of rollers and smaller climbs.  It was probably 80% forest service roads with 6400ft vertical in 51 miles.   This course suited me perfectly, I like the longer sustained climbs. The roads were in great shape, a bit rockier on the climbs but smooth on the descents.   The course layout was nice and the nearly four hours passed quickly.

I was rocking the descents, not usually my specialty.  They were moderately steep (5-10%) and had lots of switchbacks and blind corners.   I was able to find a dirt grove in the gravel and really rail a number of corners.  It was thrilling and I had a net gain of 2 riders!  

The start and end "cross course" hurt bad.  It is not my thing and I just got it over with.  I was passed by 4 riders in the very last two miles, all on the cross course.   I also went out too fast again and didn't have pep in the last half of the race.  I wasn't blown, but I think I could have been 5-10 minutes faster overall with a more conservative start and putting more oomph in the climbs.   I picked up a dozen spots in the last big climb, but probably should have picked up another dozen more.  I finished in 74th place (out of 300?) with a time of 3:53.  Not a bad showing at all.  And it was fun to ride these roads, even if it meant a 9 hour car ride on either side.

February Century

Finally I got a break in the weather and I took full advantage of it.  I had already put in for a day off from work (supposed to be a ski weekend ... but no snow), so I decided to keep it work-free and set off on a long adventure.

I mapped out a route that went north via Mount Vernon, through Fredricksburg, and on to Bellville.  After refueling for lunch in Bellville, I followed the rail-trail to Butler, a long slog south to Gambier, then Martinsburg, St Louisville and home.  My weapon of choice was the cross bike, not anticipating any gravel, still there were roads that I hadn't been on before and the cross bike allows me to explore unexpected mud and gravel without worry.  RidewithGPS showed the route to be 104 miles with 4500 ft climbing.  
I set off at 9am with temps still a bit chilly, 30 degrees at the start with a hard frost on the ground.  There was a nice 5-7 mph wind out of the south which help blow me all the way up to Bellville.  I made good time even though I tried hard to keep my heart rate in a low zone.  Legs felt good and energy remained high for the 3 hours up to Bellville.  The roads between here and there were mostly gently rolling, with some flatter, faster sections.  I jumped in to a local pizzeria shortly after noon and didn't mind the 15 minute wait to get my personal pizza.  Temps were rising in to the mid 40s now, sunny skies.

Once I turned back, I notice how much the wind was blowing.  I followed 5 miles of paved rail trail to Butler and then headed out into hilly country.  The hills were larger, steeper, and unrelenting.  I faced a stiffer headwind down in to Gambier ... it seemed never to come.  I finally rolled in to main street Gambier, now about 20 minutes behind schedule, more tired and hungrier.  I grabbed a drink and crackers from the local mart and watched the Kenyon students lounging about.  Most were smoking and trying to look James Dean cool.  I was too tired to care.  This was the hard part, mile 74 and a lot more hills to come.  At least the wind was dying down now so I was only fighting gravity and not a headwind also.   But this hard part is why I need a long ride.  To be tired and know there is still much hard work ahead but not give up or back down.

Just before rolling in to Martinsburg, Rick gave me a buzz.  He was thinking of joining me earlier in the day for a large part of the ride, but instead choose to catch up with me later in the afternoon for my return leg.  He was heading up to Martinsburg follwing my return route backwards, we rendezvoused in downtown.  It was a great help having him along, I grabbed his wheel and the speed increased notably.   It was nice now having to concentrate working harder to stay with him, even though I was pressing harder than I wanted.  I managed a good show until we hit the steeper parts of Welsh Hills Rd.  After 94 miles, my legs were mostly blown and I puttered up those hills pretty slowly.  

In the end I logged 99.87 miles - I didn't feel compelled to ride down the block to make it 100.  I also recorded 5700 feet of climbing ... more than my route anticipated.  And all in 6:20 for good time.  Considering I've only ridden 70 miles once this year and nothing much in the last three weeks, I did much better than expected.  I was dead tired but not completely blown away.  Hopefully a sign of good things to come.

Ride Interrupted

This winter has been both great and terrible for cycling.  It is the warmest winter with the least snowfall we've ever had.  Freaky warm ... feels like spring most of the time.  That would be good.  But it has also rained tons.  We just got through a stretch in January with precipitation on 20 out of 22 consecutive days.  Only a few of those were real "wash outs", but still, rain it is.  It feels like the trails will take about 3 years to dry out enough to even think about mountain biking ever again.

This past Saturday I cleared my schedule for a 6 hour, 80 mile effort.  I left in the morning with the slight chance of being joined by a few flurries at some point.  I thought I could live with a few flurries and still get in my time.  But two hours down the road it started to rain, hard.  Freezing cold, non-stop, sideways rain.  Fortunately I was passing through the small town of Frazeysburg and managed to find shelter from the spitting wind.  But I clearly wasn't going to ride another four hours in this stuff.  Time to call in the reinforcements (wife with minivan).   It rained hard for about 90 minutes or so.  This really sucks!

Sunday, I planned for a 4 hour ride in the 60 mile range.  I got to the edge of town and was greeted by 30 mph head winds with gusts even stronger.   Ok, I could have toughed it out.  Though the sun was out, it was a chilly 30 or so, with windchill in the lower teens.  But I just didn't have it in me.  I turned around and went back to the basement to log 2.5 hours on the trainer.  Good workout, but still not 6 hours on the road with real-life hills instead of imaginary trainer ones.

Tuesday was a beautiful spring day (in January!).  So I went out with lights on after my wife got home at 5:30ish.  Nice air temps but again very windy.  There was the slight chance of precipitation LATER that evening.  Once again, I got about an hour into the ride and the rain came.  Cold rain coming at me sideways with 20 mph winds.  Yuck!  Fortunately I could turn with my back to the wind and TT'd my way home in about 30 minutes.

I've got Southern Cross coming up in a few weeks.  Its only 50 miles, but I haven't ridden 50 miles in several weeks.   Friday is supposed to be nice again and I already had the day reserved vacation from work (supposed to do a ski trip, but no snow!).  So I will head out for 80 miles or so on Friday.  And hopefully ride with Todd on Saturday or Sunday for 30 miles or so.  It will probably hurricane or earthquake or something, or maybe a plague of locusts?  

Yup, nice weather but not so nice.  Ride interrupted!