I got the chance to help out a former patient a few weeks ago by volunteering with her running event. She was the new promoter of the Wilma Rudolph Road Race 5K/10K in Sango, which I raced myself two years ago. My duty was course support/first aid and I got to do it by bike. I basically kept track of all the runners, alerted the water stops of where the last runners were, and was ready to provide any first aid necessary until the EMTs could get there. For my service, Marleen let Shannon run for free. Amber was in town for the weekend and she also ran, as did Dina. So our family helped boost the numbers on the day, though they didn't really need our help with over 200 runners showing up. I rode with the GoPro on my bike and captured some video during the race, which is posted below.
10K Video
5K Video
The day was pretty uneventful, which is good for someone working first aid. I had a few get sick on the 10K and one fall near the end of the 5K. But the most exciting part was a guy in a Batman costume passing out on the first hill during the 5K. He got a little overheated and fell out. We ended up calling a ride after he could not carry on a normal conversation with anyone when we tried to check on his condition. It was a fun day and we all had a good time. I rode 27 miles in total, which is a lot considering the courses were not even 10 miles long combined!
10K gets underway
My biggest foe has come around again. Nothing seems to ruin me faster than work frustration. It is something I have battled off and on for the last two years. I've mentioned this before and it has reared it's ugly head yet again. I'm so tired of working. The drama, the contradictions and the deception are completely unnecessary. I've been promised a raise which hasn't come through, and been scolded in the middle of a group meeting by a boss for just sitting there listening. Apparently, I smirk when drinking from my water bottle. There seems to be no way to progress in this company and nothing I can ever do to "win" with my superiors. I'm always the bad guy no matter what. You give them your all and in return they give you heck about everything, all the time.
Training has not been a whole lot better than work. I'm more than frustrated with group riding. The local group seems to hate me. They let me ride off the front, then when I wait for them, they slow down and ride about 50 ft behind me. They don't talk to me. Three weeks ago, they let me sit off the front, then turned a different way. I ran them down just to prove they couldn't drop me even with doing something shady like that, but I'm done riding with them. I'm, not sure what I did to piss everyone off, but I sure did it. I'm clearly not welcome there anymore.
Not all things are bad though. I have been working hard to hit higher heart rates. My legs are still too weak to really push my heart. Cardio is definitely better than strength right now. I've had a hard time hitting the heart rates I want, but I've been setting new personal records on my favorite hills and improving my sprint speed. I even broke a record that has stood for over three years on my favorite hill near Ashland City. I've been trying so hard to get that one, getting to within 2 seconds of it several times this year. This time I knocked 2 seconds off of it. It made me feel good to see some real progress. I've worked hard on my sprints the past few weeks. They are coming along well. It's amazing how much speed I picked up after just the first 3-4 workouts. I'm back up to sprinting 33+ mph again without anyone to draft off of.
Another good thing we have going is our garden. It's finally growing and all the hard work of digging, planting and weeding is starting to pay off. We have already been eating lettuce, spinach, kale and arugula that we grew ourselves. It's so cool to be able to make lunch, then walk outside for a fresh piece of lettuce to add to a sandwich. Mmm tasty!
Our garden from the back porch
The top tier includes peppers and tomatoes
The lower tier features the leafy veggies...and some random tomatoes that grew from the compost
My morning glories are slowly creeping their way up the lattice on the inside of this old swing frame in the backyard
I took over a month off racing to train before catching the Cookeville Criterium in Cookeville, TN on June 30. I had planned on racing the Tennessee State Road Race Championship the prior day in Gainesboro, but opted out. I had been worried about the distance of 83 miles with some fast Pros on such a hilly, difficult course, but it was not the distance that made my final decision. It was the fat $35 entry fee with no payout. Apparently, it's the cool thing nowadays to not offer any payout simply because it is the state championship and you think everyone will come anyway. Well not this guy!
The Cookeville Crit. had low payout and, as a result, had low turnout. Just 18 riders started the Pro/1/2 event. I felt great in warm-up and was ready to tackle one of the fastest, most fun courses in the southeast on a cloudy, but hot afternoon. I implemented my new hamstring warm-up routine that I learned at the running course in Memphis last month. It's working well so far and my hamstring pain is improving.
The course is an L-shape, beginning on a downhill. The first two turns come close together at the bottom of the hill, both 90-degree lefts. Then comes a gradual uphill on the backstretch up to turn 3, another 90-degree left. Then the hill gets steeper, climbing for one block behind the county courthouse to turn 4. Turns 4 and 5 begin to descend slightly, taking riders to the only right turn on course. Turn 6 is the final corner and leads you onto a faster downhill for the last 250 meters to the finish line. The weather added to the speed today, with a tailwind coming up the hill and the downhill being sheltered from all the wind. It was like having a tailwind in all directions!
Cookeville Crit. course map
Cat. 3 riders on the backstretch
Cat. 3s cross the start/finish line
The two Cat. 3s that stuck the break. The leader here, Richie Slagle, took home the win in a two-man sprint
Four of the five Pro/1/2/3 Women that started today's race
The race started fast with aggression being displayed from the gun. We busted up and then regrouped at lap 4. Then the big attacks came and I found myself missing the front group of 4. Then my group split. I got caught behind a slower rider and missed the break. It was chaos for 2 laps as riders blew up and created gaps. When it all shuffled out, there was a group of 10 up front, then 5 of us in a chase group 10 seconds back. I felt great, but could not close down the gap alone. Our chase group never worked very well together and riders began to suffer after just 2 laps of chasing. There were two Cumberland Transit riders in our chase group and they seemed to be attacking our group rather than helping with the chase. Their tactic didn't work and they both wound up blowing like cheap bottle rockets.
Pro/1/2 Men on the start line
First lap gaps
Me in the group behind a Texas Roadhouse rider
Group rolls through turn 1
At 19 minutes I found myself alone as the chase group splintered around me. There were now 10 up front, two riders chasing at 15 seconds, and then me chasing at 20 seconds. I slowly lost ground over the next few laps, then was pulled just 21 minutes into the race. I was so disappointed and mad at the same time. Disappointed because I felt great and just missed the split. Mad because I got pulled when I wasn't lapped, nor was there enough people in the race to be pulling riders. There were only 13 of us left! How hard can it be to keep up with 13 people! The officials in Tennessee are pathetic. I mean, geez, I was just outside of the payout and still got taken out of the race. Of course, I was the last one to be pulled and they let the rest finish the race. It irritates me so much that you pay $35 to ride and then are pulled not even halfway through the race when there is no reason to pull someone other than you simply don't want to keep up with them anymore. In the past, I have had beef with TBRA events and people are still asking me why I don't like TBRA. Here's a perfect example. I will not do anymore TBRA races because they have the worst officials and do not care about the riders. All they care about is money and convenience to themselves. I'll spend my hard-earned money in some other state racing in a better atmosphere and against better competition.
Lead group after the big split
Me leading the chase behind
Lead group on the backstretch
Me on the back of the chase group
Viedo: First 20 minutes of my race shot from the GoPro attached to my stem
Video: Clips from the Masters, Cat. 3, Pro/1/2/3 Women and Pro/1/2 Men's races
I was pretty bummed after Cookeville. That blew all of the confidence I had going in. I'm ok racing in a group, but I clearly still don't have the strength to ride with anyone one-on-one. I can't bridge even a small gap. I was questioning my will to fight on anymore. My training doesn't seem to be working and the races are not fun when the officials pull you out early. Then I was reading an article in the USA Cycling newsletter about perseverance and the story of Kiel Reijnen, a Pro for United Healthcare who hasgone through a lot to get to where he is. The story reminded me of myself, especially the part about the mystery virus. It reminded me to keep plugging along. Like Kiel says in the article, "The beautiful thing about cycling is there will always be another race next weekend." It really reminded me to let the bad races go and keep plugging along toward my goals. It is worth the sacrifice and hard work. And a better day will come. It's time like these when it's easy to look at the troubles with racing, group riding and work as Hell. It would be so easy to give up, but I refuse to let the Hell bring me down.
I am reminded of a line from a Lamb of God song: "We're all going through Hell, it's burn or keep on walking." I still have a ways to walk to get to my cycling goals and I don't plan on burning to ash just yet.
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