I climbed back on the bike for the local group ride on Tuesday. I was excited to get out with the group for the first time this year. I may have been there mentally, but I was far from there physically. My stomach hurt the entire ride and I had absolutely no speed. One week post sickness and the verdict was still feeling destroyed.
I had only managed to gain back 4 of my 8 pounds by the time Chickasaw rolled around. I felt hydrated and good as I got ready for the race. I rode down with Adam Queen. We got to the race later than planned due to making an unexpected stop to pick up another rider when we passed through Nashville. That cut into my warm-up time and I wasn't completely ready when 9am came.
Elevation profile for one lap at Chickasaw. More hills at the end of the lap.
Google Earth image of the race course.
The weather was just perfect. It was cool, but not cold. The sun was shining bright with a mild breeze moving the air. On the line, there were 6 of us in the Pro/Open class. Of those, 3 were teammates on Biker's Choice. I knew they were all strong and would definitely light it up early if they got together. I always have to anticipate some team tactics from them as well. The best way I knew to keep from getting block was to lead. So I did. I grabbed the hole shot and led the Pro group into the woods.
Me leading into the first turn
Out front early in the race
The trail was slick from overnight rain. I was jittery and made some mistakes early, including bottling everybody up on the first climb (but I didn't dab a foot!). I nailed my lines in the following rocky section and got a small gap. I saw it and quickly tried to take advantage, giving it full gas in the next section. Shannon had brought Pat, our friend and coworker, along to watch. With those two cheering me on and my parents also on hand, I think I way overdid it in the first section. I put in a good effort, but I didn't go anywhere and was quickly joined by the others along the Duck River. I really didn't realize how much you could draft in that section until later in the race when I was following someone. I was a sitting duck, doing the work while everybody else got into a rhythm.
Craig Evans and Kyle Taylor put in a big attack on me in the first long field. I didn't react. I knew I couldn't hold that pace without a full warm-up. Matt Schupp and Jeremy Chambers also came by me before the Ravine Loop, which was the next section.
Jeremy Chambers
Me in 5th halfway through lap 1
I kept Matt and Jeremy in sight for the next 2 miles. Then came the difficult Trail of Tears section, which contains the majority of the climbs found in the park. I had put a little extra air in my tires today because I am freaking tired of having flats! It seems like everywhere I go I hit something while riding like a maniac and blow a tire off the rim. Well, I should have left my air pressure alone because I had absolutely no grip. I was sliding through every turn and spinning up every climb. The four riders ahead of me pulled away and there was nothing I could do about it. I even dropped another spot back to 6th when Corey Rimmer came by me on the biggest climb. He had a mechanical early in the race and was trying to chase back on to the front group.
Kyle Taylor leads
Craig Evans in 2nd
Me on the Dump Climb for the first time in the race
Adam Queen chaisng Don Galligher up the Dump Climb
I was feeling pretty crappy and getting frustrated at my lack of grip when I came out to finish lap 1 of 3 around the 9-mile loop. I calmed myself down as I began lap 2. It was a new lap so I could wipe the slate clean and get my race together. To my surprise, the course had dried considerably with the sunshine and traffic. My tires began to hook up in the turns and my whole outlook began to change. I was now having fun carving the singletrack. My legs were getting stronger too. I really felt good on the flats and began to chip into the advantage that Corey and Jeremy had on me.
The hills were a different story. I struggled on every one of them. It seemed I could only hammer for about 10 seconds and then my legs would just die. My stomach also began to get upset yet again. The sickness still refused to let go of me. I lost the time I had gained on the flats and found myself facing the exact same time deficit to Corey and Jeremy starting lap 3 as I had faced starting lap 2.
Jeremy in the Trail of Tears
Corey Rimmer in 5th
Me back in 6th
Pain!
Adam climbing
My first 2 lap times were very consistent. I actually ran a faster second lap than first. Again on lap 3, I was strong on the flats. I enjoyed the new double jumps they have built along the River Trail by the boat ramp. I cased them the first two laps, but carried more speed the third lap and managed to clear them all with good flow. It was a blast. I got caught by Cat. 1 leader Don Galligher with about 6 miles to go. He had been battling the whole race with Adam. A knee injury has plagued Adam off-and-on for quite some time. He had a flare up in late-February that turned into tendonitis and forced him off the bike for almost 4 weeks. He was riding so strong despite the time off the bike. I could see him behind us periodically and was determined to stay ahead of him.
Kiersta Tucker
More pain!
Adam was on my heels
I stayed with Galligher until the hills, when again I unraveled up the climbs. I had tried so hard to catch Corey, but had gained nothing. I faded badly the last 3 miles and finished 6th with a time of 2:11:57. I was 12:49 behind winner Kyle Taylor. I gave it all I had, but what I needed just wasn't there. I could tell I wasn't back to 100% yet, but I felt decent and just plain got my butt kicked today. I did hold off Adam though! One interesting thing to note was that due to my stomach hurting I didn't eat anything and barely drank one half of a bottle for the entire race. No wonder I faded.
Butch Carter
My Chickasaw video
Lucky Rick's take on this year's race.
Chickasaw was disappointing, so I took out some frustrations on the group ride the following Tuesday. I was feeling much better and put in a few attacks early. We slowed to regroup at one point and all except one rider rejoined. The group was starting to speed up so I told them he was almost back to us and I would go back to assist him back to the group. I dropped back to him and turned around to see the group attacking hard. Thankfully, Mike Bircheat had also dropped back. We started working together to catch up. After a minute or so, the guy we dropped back to help said he was toast and we should leave him. Great. Huge gap now for nothing. Mike and I busted our butt to close down the gap. He is very strong. Mike had raced Chickasaw as well, winning the Cat. 3 40-49 race. I was a little upset that they had attacked us and once we rejoined, I did my best to make their ride a living hell. I was definitely feeling the tired in my legs left from Chickasaw, but I did not care. I pushed through. I attacked and attacked and attacked again until I was alone and had blown the group to pieces. This was not the first time they had left me like that so I had plenty of memories to help drive me on.
Well, apparently an anger ride was not what the doctor ordered because I felt awful the next few days. My stomach was still jacked 2 weeks after my illness. I wasn't eating much which made recovery more challenging. I spent the next few days off the bike to ensure I would be good by the weekend when I planned to race the Hell of the South Road Race.
My rest days were spent working around the house and relaxing. Shannon and I have been doing some landscaping in the yard, mostly planting flowers and an herb garden. We woke up one night to some gnawing sounds coming from the attic. I went on a mouse witch hunt for several days, but was unsuccessful in a good way. I didn't catch any, but I also didn't see any mice or signs of mice.
We planted a variety of flowers in this old stump in the front yard.
One of the first seedlings to appear
In the attic
Found a few holes in the insulation, but no other evidence of mice.
Brown Recluse spider coming out of a hole. Good thing I took spider and insect spray with me when I went up.
Traps set!
Here mousey mousey...
Here are some interesting pictures I have taken lately. There's some damage from recent storms, a badly misspelled sign for a local business and some pictures of critters in the yard while I was bored at home during my sickness.
The grass is greening up.
Slug!
Slugs everywhere
My car hit a milestone too.
And the bull is still running strong. I had to clean out the throttle body the other day after some sputters, but now the car is purring like a black kitten.
We also went to see Head in concert at Austin Peay State University. Brian "Head" Welch is a former member of the band Korn and now has his own band. It's heavy music, which is good. He has cleaned himself up a lot and found church, which has led to him writing clean songs with some actual meaning to them. That proves that rock and metal doesn't have to be full of cursing to be good. Because of this, Head's music is considered Christian Rock and so they rolled his performance up into a long presentation that was basically a come to Jesus meeting by a very overly-enthusiastic local preacher. He was all about accepting Jesus and you will be saved. You don't have to change yourself, just accept Jesus he said. Right. I guess we were given the entire Bible just to study one small part. To me that's like only studying the heart in an anatomy book. Yeah, the heart is very important, but it doesn't work without the rest of the body. Anyway, it was awkward. We went to a rock show and finally, after 2 hours, we got some rock! Head tore it up. They were into the performance and put on a great show for everybody in little ol' Clarksville. I couldn't hear for 2 days. It was awesome!
Head concert
More to come on Hell of the South and training. Thanks for reading!
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