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.