I fought the blues this year as much as I could. I did slack some, but not as much as in the past. Ten straight days of rain made it even easier to just sit on the couch, but I snapped myself out of the funk and got outside. Rain makes mud. Mud makes for good practice, so I busted out the old cross bike for the first time in three years and made myself a course in my parents' backyard. I added a few new pieces of trail to mix things up. The fresh dirt got really rutted, but that was a good challenge. Cross courses get sloppy and rutted. It is rare that you get to simulate that kind of slop at home. I resurrected my old stair run-up in the woods and even added in a new off-camber turn and run-up that would make me dismount on my opposite side. Being able to dismount on either side is a good skill to have. You always want your body to be on the inside of the turn and bike on the outside. That keeps your bike away from course tape while also allowing to take the shortest route around the turn and gives you the option to grab the tree or stake on the inside of the turn to help sling you around while maintaining foot traction.
I got in three full days of cross practices on three different courses. It sure is nice to have those kinds of resources at my disposal. I have had to work for them, but it is well worth all the effort. The three days of cross were the only days of intensity I got in for the first few weeks after Utah. I feel my endurance is great, but the lack of intensity has knocked my top-end speed down a little. My only other rides lately have been road rides at moderate pace exploring the local backroads as the leaves begin to change.
More full moon night rides
Fall riding
Best kind of sign you can find while out exploring
In Utah, I saw Jens, Horner and Danielson painted on the road. In Tennessee, it's all about Boogie. Whoever that is.
My first race of the Fall was the Race to the Canal up in Land Between the Lakes in Kentucky. It's always one of my favorite races. It has an epic point-to-point course that is almost all singletrack. In the past, there have been good quality Pro and Cat. 1 fields. And it's always colorful with Fall foliage. My plan this year was to ride the Scarecrow Century in Mt. Pleasant, TN the day before the race. It wouldn't be smart for my legs come Sunday, but I have always wanted to ride the Scarecrow course. It was supposed to feature a tough climb midway through the 100-mile loop that was a local Strava battleground. I decided against going once I read there would be a new course this year. All excitement was gone. Better to save the legs for Sunday now.
I was alone for this race as Shannon went home to visit the family and go to the Chicago temple with Jenna, who was about to get married. Her wedding was going to be in New Mexico so we wouldn't be able to attend. It was the only chance Shannon would get to see Jenna beforehand. My parents were supposed to come, but ten minutes before the start I had not seen them. They rolled up right before the start, so at least I had someone to feed me.
It was a cool morning, but the temp rose quickly. It was already tolerable in shorts at the start. I had been feeling a bit weird the past two days. My stomach had hurt and I felt weak. I never got sick, but I felt heavy. I had eaten some salty snacks during the week so I attributed the feeling to just a little water retention from extra sodium. I felt good in my warm-up and didn't think much else about my stomach until later.
The Pro class had two riders in it besides myself. Higher entry fees, poor race promotion and the popularity of cyclocross has caused turnout to dwindle in recent years. I remember racing here with 12+ Pros my first year in Pro/Semi-Pro. I let the other two go into the woods in front. It was a mass start of all Pro and Cat. 1 riders, but everyone pretty much went into the woods grouped up by class. I could tell right away that I did not have good legs. I got gapped up the first small hill, but then rode smoothly down the following descent to stay with the front two. On the first big climb, they left me and I lost several positions. It was clear that my legs were going to be slow today. I just held my steady pace and waited for my legs to come around. I figured I would feel good after an hour or so. The race is long, usually taking just under three hours to complete the 36 miles from the Golden Pond Planetarium to the Canal. That's plenty of time for legs to make a change.
Pro and Cat. 1 start
Turning into the singletrack
Dustin Burkeen of Wood-N-Wave and I rode together early on. He was racing Cat. 1. He was frustrated at times that the others were pulling away and that we kept getting sticks caught in our derailleurs. I just told him to relax. It was a long day. Sticks were everywhere. Everybody would get a stick stuck in their derailleur today. It was just going to happen. If we stayed steady, we would catch back up. Sure enough, things came back together. It wasn't how I expected, but we did catch back up. The leaders were missing turns. The course was not well marked with race arrows, but the North-South does feature good signage. The front four or five riders were simply not looking around at all.
It was like a broken record early on. Burkeen and I got gapped on the hills, then caught back up when the leaders missed a turn. Seriously, it happened at least four times in the first 10 miles. On the last big climb before the road crossing at Sugar Bay, I got away from Burkeen and tried to bridge to the leaders on a fire road. Suddenly, the road didn't look right. I knew we were off course, but I hadn't see anything that looked like a turn. I told the guys in our group to go back. Only one of the four turned around with me. We eventually found the turn. A tree had fallen across the trail and kept it from looking like a trail entrance off the fire road. The tree also blocked the sign post from that direction. We lost about three minutes, but were back on course. Burkeen made the turn and was now out front by two minutes at Sugar Bay, 13 miles into the race.
The two other Pros did not turn around so I was now leading. I don't know how far they went before they found the course, but I led for quite a while. The section between Sugar Bay and Duncan Bay is my least favorite section. I just wanted to get to Duncan without being more than a minute behind. You hit three big climbs right when you leave Sugar. I was struggling. My legs were burning and weak. I felt like a manatee as well. My stomach was not working at all. Everything I ate and drank just sat in my gut. I felt like I had a huge, bulging potbelly. It was terrible! My lungs were also not cooperating. I almost felt like I had asthma. I couldn't breathe enough to hold my normal race heart rates.
I was creeping along, but to my surprise I was still out front of the Pro class at Duncan Bay. Lee Hauber finally caught me on the next climb after Duncan with 18 miles to go. I was much closer to the lead than expected at this point, but I was feeling worse instead of better. I stopped drinking and eating for a while to try to allow my slow-poke stomach to empty. It helped some, but then I had to eat again or risk bonking hard before the finish. The breathing was getting worse. At one point just after Birmingham Ferry I was coughing so hard that my upper traps both began to spasm. It was like my body was just falling apart out there. I was so slow the next few miles. I had to granny-ring all the climbs. I couldn't even get my heart rate over 145 in the section between Pisgah Bay and the Hillman Ferry Campground. Still, nobody caught me and I remained in 2nd.
Me nearing the end of the North-South Trail with about 6 miles to go.
After Hillman, I began to feel a little better. My stomach was still bloated, but my legs were better and my lungs were improving. I started to gain some speed over the final 11 miles. The closer I got to the finish, the more nervous I got that Joe Williams would catch me and take 2nd place away. That fear kept me pushing hard and I was flying by the finish. I even set PRs on the last few climbs as I could finally get the heart rate up into the 170s again. I had a strong finish, enough to hold onto 2nd. I finished with a 3:07:02, some 15+ minutes off the winner, but still well ahead of third. It was awesome to feel so good at the end. I know my endurance is there, even on bad days. When I got home I got on the scale to see how much water/food I was retaining. I weighed eight pounds more than I did earlier in the week. That's a lot of weight to be hauling around for 36 miles!
The race attendance may be dwindling and the crowd less enthusiastic than in the past, but I still love that race. The course is so fun to ride, even when you feel bad. I had a lot of fun and can't wait to go back and ride the trail again soon.
I have finally edited and posted the highlights from my Gateway Cup races, shot with my handlebar cam. They were all very exciting races. I will be watching the full versions on the trainer this winter for sure! You can watch the highlights by looking back through the blogs (Gateway to Fast Racing/ Getting There!) or by going to my YouTube page.
There will not be a Utah video this year. We did not film enough to make a full video. Everything we shot has already been posted in the Utah blogs. If you like videos then you are still in luck. I have found a few interesting ones lately and have posted them below. The first is a video of extreme toy mountain biking. It is a clever video set up just like a freeride mountain bike video in every aspect, from the soundtrack to the filming styles. Only the riders in this video are Lego men. Somebody spent a ton of time on this thing! The second video is from Danny MacAskill. Any video Danny makes is stunning and this is no exception. Enjoy!
Video: Extreme Toys Mountain Biking
Video: Danny MacAskill's "The Ridge."
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