Turkey Trot

    I'm still keeping the running thing going. I'm to the point now where running several miles doesn't kill me and it's actually fun. I recovered well from the 6 Hour, taking off several days. My first workout was on Wednesday when I just up and decided to go run one lap on the road I live off of. This road is fairly flat and measures 6.4 miles for one lap. I do a lot of my recovery rides there. For some reason, I have had this urge to run one complete lap. So I laced up the Pearls and hopped on the left side of the road to see if I could do it.

     Keith was feeling good after his half-marathon and decided he would do the R3 Turkey Trot in Clarksville on Saturday. He had been trying to talk me into doing it with him. There was a 5-mile and a 10-mile route. I was having none of it. I wanted to concentrate my efforts on the second race of the Cross the Way Series that was to be held on Sunday in Murfreesboro. I thought about the Turkey Trot the whole time I was running on Wednesday. My sister joined me for the last 4 miles. The pace I chose early was slower than I'm used to, but boy did it make me feel better later. I ended up leaving Dina and finishing a few minutes ahead of her. I felt so good that I ran back out to meet her. My total for the day was 7 miles, my farthest run ever by 2 miles. I was hurting a little at the end, but not too bad. I kept thinking about the Trot and finally decided that doing the 5-mile race wouldn't kill me. I'm already preparing for next year anyway, so I could use the extra training.

     Friday evening, Kaylee and I scouted the run course on our bikes right before dark. The course was just a few miles from where I work. We squeezed in a nice recovery ride and a preview of the next day's pain. The course was out-and-back and pretty flat. Saturday morning, it was rise and shine early and off to Clarksville for the run. I met Kaylee, Keith, Boobie Rick, Andrew Leonard, and Keith's neighbor Eric there. We had a fair amount of mountain biker representation! Boobie Rick had an interesting story. He doesn't run and just up and decided to do this. When asked about breaking in the running shoes he bought a few days before the race, he replied, "I ran 3 or 4 minutes on the treadmill when the girl at the running store checked my gait. I think I'm good." He has more balls than me. There's no way I'd jump off a bar stool and go run 5 miles!

The running crew before the start

     The gun sounded and Keith went off like a mad man, weaving in and out of the people as we tried to get to the front. It was all I could do to follow him through everybody. We started faster than planned. I had to let Keith go about a mile in just to keep from blowing up. Neither of us did any sort of warm-up. I caught back up to him after a while and we stayed together on the way out, rounding the turnaround at just under 19 minutes. My goal was to go sub-40 minutes for the whole thing.

And we're off!

    Eric caught us on the way back. He came chugging on by, forcing Keith and I to pick up the pace. I was planning to kick it up with 1.5 miles to go. With Eric leading, I was already at my top speed well before that point. Eric was still picking up steam as we started the last half mile. We ended with a sprint as we could see the clock approaching 37 minutes. I crossed the line at 36:58, with Eric just one second back. Keith came through 12 seconds later with a time of 37:10. Andrew and Rick came in at 47:28, a great time for two people who never run. Great job guys! Kaylee completed her longest run to date in 1:11:00. She ran the whole thing without walking. Her training is already paying off!

Kaylee finishes

Boobie Rick and Andrew weren't even tired by this running stuff

Kaylee and I post-race

     There were a good 20 runners ahead of us so I never dreamed of being in the medals. They started calling out the results of the older classes first. The top times from the 30 and 40-year old classes were much faster than I ran, so I wasn't really even paying attention when it came to my class. Then I heard my name called. Turns out I took 3rd in the 20-24 class. Talk about a shocker!

     After the awards, I hopped on the bike for a flat 25 mile spin to loosen up the legs. After that, it was home to build a new burm on the trail before heading to Keith's house to throw a surprise birthday party for Misty. She was surprised and thrilled to see us all hiding in her house when she came home. I'm sure the decorating job scared her. Give a bunch of dudes (a bunch of dirty mountain bikers) several rolls of crate paper and you will get something that looks great in the dark. Just don't turn on the lights! Thankfully, Kaylee was there to give us some sort of direction. It turned out to be presentable despite Rick hanging frazzled streamers off the ceiling fan. We all ate way too much of Keith's awesome burgers and enjoyed the cake that featured a burning sparkler after we ran out of candles.

    Thanks Keith and Misty for the pics I used here. We are all going to get back together for the Jingle Bell Jog 5K on December 4 in downtown Clarksville. Info is available here if you want to join us.

6 Hour Disaster

     The Lock 4 6 Hour Challenge was a race I had been looking forward to all year. With the cancellation of the 12 Hours of the Canal Loop, it would serve as my only endurance event this season. I had always wanted to do a long race at Lock 4 too. That trail is just so sweet!

     Life threw me one of those curve balls in the week leading up to the race. It's funny how everything you know can change in the blink of an eye. I was stressed and hadn't had more than a handful of hours of sleep all week. The morning of the race I felt drained. You may know your body is off, but you have to put all that behind you when it comes race day.

     My goal was not necessarily to win the race. I wanted to run a time similar to what Steve Wilson won with last time. I wanted to complete 8 laps. Wilson is a beast. I knew if I could run a time like his I would be in contention for the win anyway. The goal was to average a 44:22 lap time and finish in 5:55:00. I'm not a fan of the rule that you only count what you complete before 6 hours. That's not a true 6-hour format. It shouldn't be over until the leader finishes a lap after 6 hours. But the rules for this race are what they are and I adapted my strategy to them.

     The Le Mans start was the first disaster of the day. There was a rectangular area ribboned off for us to place our bikes in. I purposely put my bike 3 spots from the far left so I could easily find it. Sometime after I placed my bike and took to the line, it was found that the rectangle was not big enough and so bikes were placed farther to the left. Off I go sprinting to the bikes to find everything looking different than it was when I left my bike there. My bike was now 8 from the left. The few extra seconds of searching put me near the back. Lucky for me, we did a parade lap around the peninsula that allowed me to move up to the top 20 before we hit the woods.

     The first half-lap was a parade. My main competition got in ahead of the group I was stuck following. It was a pain in the ass to get by people. A few let me go, others raced me to the death for the position. I tried to take my time getting through and not waste energy. I finally got clear just before the silo parking lot. That gave me a little time to gain on the front runners. You can see so much at Lock 4 that it's easy to get a time check on your own. I timed myself at 1:24 back at the parking lot. I trimmed about 20 seconds off that by the end of the lap. First lap finished in 43 minutes. Even with the bad start I was right on schedule and now in the top 5.

     Lap 2 was much of the same. I was alone now and slowly picking up time. My legs were feeling pretty good, but I was holding back and saving them for later. My heart rate was super high. I was holding back a lot and still running XC heart rates. I just couldn't get it down. I guess the body was just that beat up. All I could do was cross my fingers and hope I could hold that kind of heart rate for 6 hours. I was just over 30 seconds back ending lap 2, which was faster than my first lap at 42 minutes. Things were looking good, but then I started to feel it. My stomach started hurting and I was forced to back off. I dropped to 44 minutes, but still ahead of my goal. Then I hit the wall on lap 4. I got weak, nauseated, and my legs just fell apart. My lap time dropped to 47 minutes. It was only that fast because I was suffering like a dog and trying to ride through it, hoping later it would go away. I had been eating more than normal, and I believe that combined with the high heart rate was giving me the sick feeling. Lock 4 is not exactly what I would call my favorite place to race due to the people that congregate there. Seems they want to see me fail every time I go up there. They were very vocal about how much they enjoyed seeing me struggle. I just acted like I didn't hear it and kept turning over the pedals.

     I made a short 1 minute stop after lap 4 to stretch. I had some cramping in my hamstrings and my big camelbak was killing my low back so I ditched it. I absolutely hate to stop, but I figured giving up one minute may help me feel better and make up several minutes on the trail. Things just got worse on lap 5. Up to that point, I was still ahead of my 44:22 average. I had my goal lap times wrote on my stem because doing math becomes very hard when you've been riding more than a few hours. So I knew after lap 5 that I wasn't going to make 8 laps. I felt like death, but I was not going to quit. Hell, I was still in 4th place! I took a long break after lap 5 to regroup. I took my Gatorade-RedBull mix bottle and went back out with Adam when he came by. I was hoping to grab his wheel and get back into a rhythm, but I had nothing. He rode away on the first climb. I stopped at the top and dry-heaved a bit. I wanted to throw up. It would've made me feel so much better, but it just wouldn't come.

     My back was feeling better and I was holding off the cramps until I crashed with a slower rider down by the lake. It was a really tight, but still fast portion of the trail with a 10 foot bank on your left and lake to your right. I didn't even ask to pass because it was a bad spot. He locked up the brakes and I had no time to react. I ran right into him, then cramped when I tried to unclip my feet. I fell to the ground, unable to get up because both hamstrings were locked up. A rider behind us stopped and helped me get out of the trail. I tried to get up and get going, but the muscles were locked up. I sat on the side of the trail for several mintes rubbing my hammies and stretching. Finally, I was able to get up and get moving again. Dustin Burkeen came by and I hitched onto him, hoping to be able to hold the wheel of a familiar face. He hurt me on the climbs, but I held on and we finished the lap together.

The Dustin train. Burkeen leading me on lap 6.

     I started to feel better early in lap 7. I was back to 7th or 8th place now. I don't know if it was the RedBull mix or what, but I came back to life. All of a sudden the legs felt good and I had energy! I went around Burkeen about 3 miles into the lap and set sail for Adam. I knew he was over 4 minutes ahead, but I wanted to try and catch him. To my surprise, I was on him just 3 miles later. He looked like we had reversed roles. He was hitting the wall as I felt like superman. I sprinted the entire last 3 miles. The legs felt numb. I could sprint a huge gear and there was no burn. That feeling was totally worth all the suffering I'd gone through up to that point. I even doubled a gap between two ditches that I have always wanted to make, but never had the speed to get me across. I ran over something with a mile to go and punctured my front tire. I had Stan's sealant in them. It sprayed out for a few minutes, but did seal the hole and I was able to finish on a low tire. The last lap effort pulled me back up to 4th place. Not bad for such a shitty day. I finished 7 laps in 5:25. There just wasn't enough time to get in that 8th lap I wanted.

     Congrats to Tanner Hurst as he was able to hold a fast pace all day and get the win. Got to give some credit to Keith, the iron man of the day. He started running about 3 weeks ago and took on a half-marathon the morning of the 6 hour. He kocked off a 1:48 half-marathon, then drove over to Lock 4 and completed 3 laps on a team! You the man Keith!

Keith throwing down on the bike after smashing a half-marathon earlier that morning.

Day 2 at USGP

     The second day of racing saw a longer course and the hope of maybe making an extra lap before J-Pow and Ryan lapped me. I drew a starting spot farther back in the 50s, but still a great spot with 80 riders taking to the line. I learned a new lesson on the start. When you're marred back in a pack it's better to start in a bigger gear. I started in an easy gear to get a jump. Not the best plan. There's no getting a jump when you are behind 50 guys. As I tried to run through my gears and build up speed, I got smoked by all those already in a big gear. I was back in the 70s coming off the first turn. Thankfully, there were no crashes on the start today.

     The dust was bad, but not quite so bad as yesterday. The wind was roaring and blew the dust away as quick as it was kicked up. The first time over the barriers was still sketchy. I just guessed when I thought it was time to jump. I took a different approach today, trying to stay calm early and not go so damn hard the first lap. I sat at the back of the group comfortably, enjoying the tight 180-turns they added overnight.

photo by Marsha Williams

     All was well until the end of the first lap when we hit the steep climbs. I got caught behind a rider who dismounted on the last climb. I wasn't able to get around him and had to dismount myself. That's all it took for me to loose the group and I never got back on. After that, it was just catch and pass whoever fell off the group. I hurt my back a few weeks ago and my core is still a little weak. It showed when my core gave out on just the third lap. The sand runs and Green Monster tore my lower back up! I was definately not as strong as on Saturday and ended up battling with the same group of guys until we got pulled after 4 laps. I hate the new 80% Rule put in place by the UCI this year. If you aren't within 80% of the leaders time then you get pulled. We missed it by 3 seconds. That sure was a fat-ass entry fee to get pulled before you get lapped. But that's how it goes at the big races. All for the Pros and no help for the little guy. Once they get your money they just want you off the course to make it easier for scoring.

     The other races were fun to watch. Here's a few pics from the early races.

The Green Monster

Miles of SRAM tape lined the course.

The pain of cross was on display everywhere.

     Thanks again to all those who cheered for me. Even the guy who yelled. "Don't you wish you had gone to LBL?!!" That'll be a good line to paint on the wall and stare at while I sit on the trainer all winter. Kaylee did a super job in the pits again. I didn't have to use her in the race, but I'm sure she would've been just as good as the help all the factory teams had!

USGP Louisville - Day 1

    A week after DGD, it was onto skinny tires in Louisville, KY for the USGP of Cyclocross. The big races are definately my thing. You get to race people you don't normally race, the crowds are huge, and there usually isn't the high school drama that comes with a weekly crit. series. I like to travel so it all works out to the good.

    The USGP straight-up kicked my ass last year. I was burned out and had a terrible weekend of riding around by myself off the back listening to people shout a bunch of crap about how they think they could do better. I did not prepare for this year's event at all. The cross bike had only been off the hook three times prior to being put on the car rack to make the trip north.

    Our weekend started with a late night drive up to Louisville after work on Friday. We rolled into the hotel well after midnight to find an empty reception desk. To make a long story short, we looked for anybody that resembled the host for over an hour. Kaylee finally stumbled on the guy sleeping on a cot in a back room. She beat on the wall to wake him up. When he emerged from his cot cave, we realized why he had not heard us walking around. Dude's eyes were as red as a firetruck. And I believe he may have been burning enough grass to need a firetruck a few hours earlier. He couldn't even hand me my receipt. We were pissed about it, but started to laugh by the time we got to our room. You always get a good story from a road trip. We proceeded to call Mr. Stoner about every 5 minutes until 3am. He never answered, and probably didn't even hear it ringing, but it sure made me laugh to think we were waking him up!

     After a hearty breakfast of blueberry muffins smashed up in Frosted Flakes and waking Mr. Stoner up again so some peeps could check out, it was off to Eva Bandman Park to see the new race course. I passed on the Danish treats as I still had a sugar hangover from DGD.

     The new course was cool. I liked it way better than the old one. Eva Bandman has more elevation change, some woods, and it is sort of techincal. Looking around at the place, I could see a lot of versatility and I think this will be a great place to have the World Championships in 2013. The only problem I saw was parking. The amount of people on hand for the USGP is a mere drop in the bucket compared to what will be there for Worlds. Most people had to park somewhere in the back 40. We were lucky enough to find a space on the shoulder of the road within sight of the park.

Got some crash pics during the 2/3 race. Here's a first-lap endo at the barriers.

    After watching the Cat. 2/3 race and scoping some of the course, it was back to the car for a tire change. Got in a new rear tire from Maxxis and slapped that puppy on just to feel better about flat protection. The course was dusty and traction wouldn't be a big deal on a worn tire, but we had driven too far to risk a flat. You only get one shot in cross. I did a very long warm-up on the road and on the course. My first lap on the course was sketchy to say the least. I felt very out of control and uneasy, especially in the final wooded section that had several steep descents with off-camber corners at the bottom. I told myself to stop being a bitch and just ripped it the second lap. The increased speed made everything feel much smoother and made me more confident.

The Elite Women pass the pits

    I drew a nice starting spot of 36th out of 83 riders. That alone had me pumped for the start. I had no real ambitions except to hang on as long as possible. It was a very short course so I knew I'd get lapped early on. I didn't care if I got dropped like last year, just so long as I didn't have empty legs like that. It's a really bad feeling when you get the empty legs on a day when you're on display to the sponsors. We had a tire check before the start. I had no idea that there was a new UCI rule about max tire width. It's now 33mm.  My tires say 35mm on the side, but thankfully they passed inspection by the slimmest of margins. The guy actually had to hit the template to make it fit, but it did go on and they let me roll up to the line. My spare tires are wider so I know they aren't legal.

    My heart rate was thumping as we were given 15 seconds to go until the gun. I looked down just as the shot rang out to see 142 on my heart rate monitor. How's that for nerves?!! The start was retarded to say the least. It's amazing how 83 riders can build up to 30+mph in just a few meters when they're only inches off each other. Somebody caught a wheel in the first turn and bodies began to fly. I was in a good spot and had time to react. Locking up the brakes for a split second allowed the falling riders to slide across in front of me. I made it through, but lost a lot of positions to riders who took the inside and missed the carnage completely.

    I knew it was dusty, but I never thought we would be riding blind. It was literally like being in the dark. The only thing I could make out was the back of the rider directly in front of me. I just followed him and hoped he didn't hit anything big. You couldn't see the barriers at all. I just jumped when the other guys jumped. Things were still a jumbled mess when we hit the first sand pit. I piled into some fallen riders and ended up going under the camera scaffolding, getting my bike tangled up in the tape. I was pretty much at the very back after I got out of that mess. The first time next to the pits was crazy as you couldn't see the pit lane divider through the dust cloud. Guys were going through the pits because they couldn't see. It was like "What's that red thing up there? Oh damn! It's the SRAM service car!"

The barriers on lap 1. I'm barely visible back there between number 52 and 54.

Feeling the good hurt.

    I hung on the back for a few laps, shuffling positions with the same few riders over and over. I didn't care though. It was so great to be racing someone this year, even if it was for 65th place! The course was good for me in many ways, but the dusty was so deep in the turns that there was really only one line. Deep dust settled on the outside of the turns and had the feel of sand which prevented any passing except on the straightaways.

     My legs were awesome! Definately the best I had felt all season. My max heart rate this year has been 191. I hit that twice for a mere second. Both times came in a sprint finish of a crit. where we went wide-open the last 4 laps and I had a hell of a day (won one of them). In other words, I can't hold  a pace that high for very long at all. This race punched holes in my lungs as I held over 190 for more than 5 minutes and topped out at 192 for 35 seconds! Those are killer numbers for me. Finishing in 61st and getting lapped after 24 minutes was not a bad day at all. That just shows you how f-ing fast these boys are. I was giving it 110% and watching them ride away.

          The final section is what destroyed me every single lap. There were three very short power climbs that came one after the other. I was fine with one of them, but three pushed me over the edge and I had to recover in the next section. By coincidence, I have worked on short power hills the last few weeks with Adam and Keith. It definately made a difference, but I still have a ways to go. I feel fast enough to hang with nearly everyone at the race in each section seperately, but I can't put them all together.

     You couldn't wipe the smile off my face! It was so much fun to get out there and race with the best cross riders in the States. Got to say thanks to all the people that cheered me on. It was good to hear my name yelled. I have never tasted so much dirt. I could feel it sticking to my teeth like sugar. Guess that's what happens when you smile in a dust cloud for 20 minutes.

Feeling a little dirty post-race.

     Thanks go out to Kaylee, Marsha Williams, and Marshall Bassett for the pics. Kaylee gets triple thanks for helping me in the pit. This girl is easy to please. You don't have to buy her dinner to get her to help, just let her keep the pit pass!

So Many Donuts, So Little Time

     Welcome to my new blog! I am excited to be writing about my riding experiences again. I don't want to go back in time too much, but I have to start off my race talk with Dirt, Guts & Donuts because it was the coolest damn race ever! I mean, what in this world could be better than riding bikes fast and stuffing your gut with donuts!

     There was some weird draw to this race. I felt like a moth getting sucked in towards a light. Maybe it's the irony involved. No other race pairs up top-shape athletes with artery-clogging, calorie-packed junk food. It seems so wrong, but tasted so right!

                                               Me enjoying a donut at the second stop.

                                                 Give me some more of the glazed-goodness!

     My plan was to lay out a lap at max speed and consume 5-6 donuts. I had no idea how the donuts would make me feel on the bike. Donuts really aren't my thing. The start of the race was slow as we were almost instantly into traffic. The women started first and that made the technical first section of singletrack a traffic jam. Tim Baker took the hole-shot and got away as we worked through traffic. Adam was leading the main pack for our Jelly Donut class (Men Under 165 lbs). Mean Joe is about the coolest, calmest guy when it comes to racing. He talked to the women as we caught them and it got us all by safely and without making them hate racing with men.

     Once we got in the clear, it was balls to the walls the rest of the race. My strategy was to take 2 donuts at the first stop which came about 3 miles into the 9.75 mile race. I had just passed Adam to move into second when we arrived at the first donut table. I was breathing like an asthmatic horse which makes chewing large amounts of food very difficult and choking very easy. I put 2 donuts down and realized I had time for a third. I stuffed it in and was off in pursuit of Keith, who was just ahead of me racing in the Singlespeed group. I was excited about my 3 donuts until Keith told me he shoved down 5!

     The donuts had no effect on my riding. Actually, they may have helped me. I was ROLLING through the turns and putting time between me and the chasers behind. I landed at the second donut stand with only Tim ahead. And I knew Tim wasn't stoppping for donuts. The original plan was for 3 donuts at stop #2, but I knew I could do more. I put down 3 fairly quickly to up my total to 6. Then Adam, pulled up. I ripped down another with ease, then went for one last piece of sugary delight. The last few bites of the eighth donut made me gag a little. Donuts were starting to not taste so good...

Adam and I stuffing down the calories.

The most digusting picture I have ever seen of myself. Yet also the funniest!

Adam has the food sweats!

Keith is starting to look like maybe he got a bit too excited about having an excuse to eat that many calories.

     I left the second stop on the gas, not worried at all about anyone behind me. Little did I know that Adam had a plan. He was playing a strategy that I hadn't thought of. You got a green dot sticker added to your number plate every time you ate a donut. Adam did a quick count of my stickers as I left. Knowing I was beating him on course, he threw down 2 extra donuts (giving him 10 total) and then set off, hoping to come in within 4 minutes of my time. I rolled through with a huge smile on my face because it was just so damn fun to combine riding and food! Adam's strategy worked. He came in 3:31 behind me, giving him the win by 29 seconds when the donut time was subtracted. I couldn't care less about the finish positions. I'm just glad I got to race one of my best friends and come out that close to each other. We had a pretty good gap over everyone else in the race. Keith layed the smack down too, winning the Singlespeed race handily after putting away 13 donuts. Keith is now known simply as 13 after consuming the baker's dozen.

Me wishing it wasn't over yet

     I talked Kaylee into racing and she had a good time too. She only ate one donut. I gave her a hard time about it until she said that she ate that one donut twice after it tried to come back up on one of the climbs! She ended up taking a top 5 and didn't have a stomach ache while waiting for the awards like most people did.

Kaylee just after the start

Adam rubs his donut holder as John and I join him on the Jelly Donut podium

     Two peeps sat on the side of the trail and had an eat-off to see who would be the donut-eating champ. One guy ate 33 donuts (add that up and you get about 8250 calories!), but he would throw them back up before finishing the loop so it doesn't count in my book. I think Scott McConnell should be the champ. He ate 15 and held them down. You da man Scott!

    I can't wait for next year! Thankyou Mathew Portel and the group at Ride for Reading. You guys did a great job with the event. Krispy Kreme donated a TON of donuts for this event. It's great to see a company helping out an event for charity. I know where I'll buy my donuts from now on. Thanks Keith & Misty, and also Ride for Reading, for the pics I used here. I still laugh for 30 minutes every time I look at them!

A New Pariah

     Blogging about riding and racing has always been fun for me. I've maintained a blog through MySpace for the last 6 years. MySpace has fallen to crap now (not that it ever was great) and so I have decided to move over to Blogger. It seems like a good time to do it too. A lot of the people who don't particularly care for me have stumbled upon the blog and now spend their time trashing it. I have never been the most popular rider. I don't know why. For a while it made me want to end my blogging. So I thought about it, and thought about it some more. My decision is to keep on writing. If my blogs piss people off, then so be it. You can't get everybody to like you. I just like to write about my rides and what's going on in my messed-up head while I'm turning over the pedals.

     This blog is mainly for me. It's my diary of racing, riding and life. It's also for my family and friends who want to keep up with my racing and my life in general. If you happen to be a hater and stumble upon this then I hope something in here changes your mind about hating on me. If not, please go away and let everyone else enjoy the blog.

     It's time to start fresh, as the pariah I have become.