Hold On

     I chose Hell of the South over Chickasaw. The weather was not good either day, but the rain held off on Saturday and the road race wound up being the better choice. It rained overnight, but was gone by the time I woke up on Saturday. I was not at all prepared, mentally or physically. I was more set on racing Sunday. I literally made the call at the last minute and headed out for Berlin, not even getting in a good breakfast. I was coming off a rest week so my legs were stale. And I had been eating junk all week. It was not looking like the makings of a good day on the bike, but I couldn't pass on the opportunity to get in a long race, especially one with a gravel section in it on a cold, wet day.

     I was also dealing with a freak toe infection that came out of nowhere. Contrary to my Dad's comments, it was not from forgetting to clean to funk out from under my toenails, but rather an infection on the other end of the toenail up under the skin. I don't know where it came from, but I woke up Wednesday night with a throbbing toe and could barely walk at work on Thursday. It got better on Friday as I was able to drain some of the infection out, but remained sore Saturday morning. Luckily, it did not bother me one bit during the race and has now resolved itself.

     I am a huge, huge fan of cycling's Spring Classics. They are the one-day races that test rider and machine. They are long races full of rough, cobbled roads that often are accompanied by brutal weather. It really brings out the "hardmen." Hell of the South is the only race around this area that at least tries to simulate a Classic, though one section of gravel each lap that is less than a mile in length is hardly close to bringing out the "hardmen." Nevertheless, I am always up for a little gravel. The loop for this race is constant rolling hills with some sketchy pavement most of the way around. Potholes abound and claimed more than their fair share of rims during the course of the day.

    The Pro/1/2/3 race was 78 miles long, taking in 3 laps of the course. The gravel is normally the splitting spot, where the group will often blow to pieces. Some people are scared of the gravels while others can't get up the two small climbs that come in that section. It's usually chaos in that part so staying near the front of the group is very important.

HoS Race Course Map

     We began on damp roads with the temps in the upper-40s. It was a rather cool morning for the end of March, but then again every morning has been cool this March. The start was slower than in recent years. I've done this race 2 out of the 3 previous years it has been held and both of those times started like we were racing for 5 miles. We got a big speech from the official on the start line about how there are no yellow center lines on these backroads, but we all know where the center is and we would be disqualified if we crossed over it. What a joke. We were spread ditch to ditch nearly the entire race and not once did the official's car behind us honk the horn and no one was DQ'ed.

    I stayed in a good position early on and hit the gravel for the first time near the front. My buddy Chris Cundiff was also riding up front. He flatted last year on the first lap, even before we reached the gravels. I had a bad race last year as well, having just come back from the stomach illness. I took my only DNF of the year after just one lap of racing.

     I survived the gravel the first time through. I was hurting bad at the exit, but managed to hang on the back of the front group. I hit my max heart rate for the race here at 191. We had a few stragglers catch on after the gravel, but most of the riders that missed the split never rejoined. We went down from 60+ riders to about 40 after the first lap. I nearly lost a water bottle again this week. In Union City the week before I lost a full water bottle when I hit a pothole at the end of the first lap, which likely contributed to my cramping at the end of the race. I caught a rough patch on a fast bridge today that again dislodged my full water bottle from the rear cage, but it wedged itself between my calf and the frame and I was able to use my snail-like reflexes to get it before it hit the road. It must have wedged in there good because I really was slow to reach for it! Got to love the looseness of a carbon bottle cage. Sometimes I miss heavy technology...

Pro/1/2/3 group just after the gravels on lap 1

Photo by Thad Hoffman

     Chris was in the group until about 2 miles to go in lap 1 when the flat monster reached out and grabbed him again in the form of a sharp piece of gravel that sliced his tire. He made a valiant chase after getting a wheel from the awesome neutral support moto behind our group, but it wasn't to be for him today. Props go out to MOAB for providing not only many sets of wheels for neutral support, but also placing one of their mechanics with wheels and a car just after the gravel and another riding behind us on a moto. It sort of made this race feel like a big-time event.

     Numerous breaks tried to go away on lap 1, but all was brought back together with a huge effort from a few riders to start lap 2. I was put into difficulty during that time, but held my position. I didn't dare stick my nose into the wind when the pace was high. The 40 or so riders were still together until the gravel on lap 2, where we then split the group down further to just 31 riders. I was the last one out of the gravel that stayed with the front group. I just barely managed to latch myself onto that last wheel at the top of the second hill. The problem with this lap for me was that we went into the gravels too slow. That bunched us up and killed any momentum we may have had for the upcoming hills. It's hard to maintain traction on a steep gravel hill when you nearly stop halfway up and then try to go full-on again.

     I was getting tired as we started the last lap. The breaks were still trying to form, but it was all being pulled back so far. Then with 25 miles to go, the elastic snapped and 5 riders got clear. They were never to be seen again. I was starting to bonk. My goal was to get to the gravels with the group and then just take it a mile at a time. Again, I was last man out of the gravel, but hung onto the back by the skin of my teeth. I used a slightly different tactic this time. We again entered the gravel slow, but this time I didn't panic on the first hill, instead staying steady and then hitting the second hill hard to ensure I held my momentum through the last deep section of gravel. That seemed to work well for my tired legs. I sipped on my bottle of Ultragen throughout that last lap. It's a recovery drink, but works wonders on the final lap of a long race because it is designed to get a ton of nutrients into your body very quickly, making it perfect for reviving from a bonk. It was just enough to save my day.

     Two more small breaks of 6 riders slipped off the front in one of the hillier sections. We nearly caught the third group with 6 miles to go, getting to within 5 seconds of them, but then everyone turned off the chase and just let them go. I wanted to bridge across so bad, but I knew that physically I couldn't do it. It would've been sure suicide. I was content just making it with the peloton today.

    Those last 6 miles turned into a fun ride as we cruised in at 18-20 mph until the final sprint. I way underestimated what I had left and tried to wait for the final few hundred meters, but found that there were gaps ahead of me when I pulled out of line. I ate up several positions before the finish line, but wound up 5th in the sprint, giving me 22nd overall. I hit 187 heart rate in the sprint so there was definitely still something left in the tank. I was toast in the legs after the race, but actually felt good by the time I got home. If nothing else, I am recovering well this year!

Even with the rain overnight, my bike still came out of the race with a bit of gravel dust on the frame.

    Chickasaw wound up being very, very nasty. It was a good call on my part. My new drive train would not have enjoyed being welcomed into this world in those conditions. I feel like such a pansy for missing the race. I love the muddy conditions, but it just doesn't make sense any more for me to do them when I haven't shown any real race form on the mountain bike the past few seasons. Mud really hurts your parts, which in turn hurts your wallet. We just don't have that kind of race budget anymore.

    Since Hell of the South, Winter has reared its ugly head despite it officially being Spring. It has snowed twice and averaged in the upper-40s to low-50s on temperature. I have not tolerated it so well. I was mentally prepared to end the trainer the week of Union City, but the cold rain has kept me indoors and the motivation has suffered. I can only do so much on the trainer with my high-intensity workouts now. My plan was to be working on sprints and explosive power now, two things you just can't do on the trainer unless you want to rock the trainer over in the floor. With less bike motivation comes less motivation off the bike and my nutrition has declined as well. I think I pushed it a bit too far with dropping weight right after Union City and that has caused more food cravings. Easter is a bad time to want to eat because there is just too much candy lying around, especially at work. Patients have been bringing us oodles of chocolate and cakes. I have partaken of more than my fair share and have seen the effects on the scale this week. I've put 2-3 lbs. back on, but the positive thing is that I'm still below the weight I was at any point during last year.

The day of Chickasaw (March 24) started out with rain, then brought thunderstorms and even some hail seen above...

...then less than 10 hours later snow was covering the ground.

Snow on our cars as we leave for work on Monday

    The cold continues to bring me down this week. We did a group ride in Sango on Tuesday. I felt horrible, probably due to my nutrition and the cold. I thought I was going to freeze to death before getting home that night. I just hung on the back and got in my miles for the day, then struggled to keep feeling in my fingers and toes on the ride back home. Things have not gotten much better since then, with me not having any legs on the trainer today. I felt like such a weakling and ended up ending the workout early as I just didn't have the legs to get my heart rate up for interval work. I was doing so good with sticking to my training plan, but the weather has wrecked it the past 3 weeks. I've been forced to get in riders whenever I can, not always when I want. I thought I would plateau on my progress, but instead I have seemed to regress. It's frustrating and has killed all my confidence going into the big crits later this month.

     I hope it warms up soon. I don't know how much longer I can take this cold weather. As I write this, I'm staring out the window at a cold downpour with the temperature under 40 degrees. I can't believe this is nearing the end of the first week of April. Normally by now I am riding in shorts 4-5 days out of the week. So far this year, I've ridden in shorts in Tennessee 4 times...and probably shouldn't have for 2 of those rides. There's a race at Cedar Hill Park this weekend. It's close to home and I had originally planned to race it, but I'm not sure now. I'll have to see how I feel on my ride this Saturday and then make the call. Until then, I'm going to go search for my motivation. It has packed up and left town so I must go catch it before it gets away for good.