I took advantage of my new schedule to log in some monster rides. I got in several 70-90 mile rides that were just brutal with hills. I went on a few roads that I have not been on in years. On one particular ride in the Joelton area, I rolled upon the set of a movie. Who knew they filmed movies in Joelton, TN? And who knew they were filming a movie about Chattanooga in Joelton, TN? They had fake Chattanooga City Limit signs on the road I was climbing. It's another reason not to believe what you see on TV. I have no idea what the movie was called or about.
On these brutal rides I have been pushing myself hard to break my own personal records for the climbs or different stretches of road. I've chased Strava KOMs and gotten a few more. I've also pushed hard behind the scooter. Shannon is getting better at pacing me. She is getting more steady and giving me a better workout. I even sprinted the against the and almost beat it once. I have to cheat a little and set the sprint up on a slight uphill where the scooter can't accelerate as quickly. I'm trying really hard to get my max HR up. I've been in the low-180s for the early part of the year. Four or five years ago I was hitting 193 in the sprints and winning them. I believe that I will need to see at least 190 now before I will start winning races again.
Our little garden is in the ground and looking good! We planted our same two plots as last year, plus made a climbing fence for beans and peas, and added a huge plot next to the house for bigger plants. Here's how the farm looks so far this year.
The upper plot is producing some lettuce, spinach and kale already
Green beans and peas getting started on the fence
The bush in the backyard is blooming
So we never had an iris bloom at our old house. Last year we got one flower. This year we have a bunch!
Studying for the CSCS exam is going well. I'm getting plenty of time to read. It is almost an overwhelming amount of material to go through. I'm pacing myself well though and should be ready to test in June.
With no races on the agenda, Shannon and I took the time to support a local tour ride. We went to the Little River Ride in Hopkinsville, KY, which is not too far away from us. The ride is raising money to continue building a greenway through Hopkinsville. I have ridden this ride three times previously. The last time I rode it was two years ago when Adam Queen and I broke away from the start and hammered into the wind by ourselves the whole way. This was Shannon's first-ever tour ride. Actually, it was also her first ever group ride too. My parents came with us. They rode with Shannon on the 30-mile loop, while I did the 60 option. It has been a warm Spring so far, but not this day. Blackberry winter was definitely here. It was 43-degrees when we got to the starting point!
Shannon was a little chilly, but still excited for her first tour ride
I got hooked up with a group of 12 or so after mile 5. My favorite stretch of the whole loop comes after the first rest stop. The road becomes curvy and has a lot of short hills on it. It feels like riding a roller coaster in spots. Apparently, I hit it a bit hard and cut our group down to just four, with one dangling off the back. I went back to give the guy a draft and pulled him back to the group. He was an older man on an old-school steel frame bike with toe clips and down-tube shifters. The wheels looked stout enough to handle being put on a dump truck. I was super impressed that he was hanging with us rolling 23-25 mph. He lasted a few more miles, then fell off as the climbs got bigger.
It was windy on the flatter second half of the loop. We took turns on the front, but I was getting bored. I didn't want to attack everyone and drop them, so I just did longer pulls than everyone else until we got to mile 50. I figured it was close enough to home that I could light it up without feeling bad for dropping someone. I took a turn at 30 mph for a few minutes. The guys laughed as I drifted back after my pull. One even called me "Rocket Man." There was no laughing the next time though. I pulled at 30 mph again, this time up a slight grade. One guy fell off the back. I did two more pulls cranking as hard as I could, shelling another guy. A triathlete from Clarksville hung with me all the way to the end. He looked to be the weakest rider in the beginning, but definitely was the strongest at the end when it counted. The route wound up being 60.1 miles and we completed it in 2:45:09 with a 21.8 mph average speed. Shannon turned out to be the strongest in her group and had a great ride. She enjoyed the flatness of the 30-mile course. Afterwards we got a lunch of hamburgers served up by the club volunteers. It was a fun day on the bike and a good workout.
There's a new weeknight crit. series in Nashville this year. It's the Music City Crits Series, promoted by Michael Edens. He is a great guy and really will put on some good races. Edens has stepped up after the cancellation of the NashvilleCyclist.com Summer Crit. Series. Tim Hall was forced to cancel his series due to parking changes in Nashville. We raced at LP Field in the empty parking lot before. Now the lot is being used by employees of the State Capitol. Their parking lot was demolished to make way for the new Nashville Sounds baseball stadium. It will take all year to construct the stadium. After it is finished, the employees will park in the parking garage being built with the stadium and we can have LP again. Until then, we thought weeknight crits were done around here, but Edens has saved the day with his series taking place at the Fairgrounds Speedway Nashville.
The series will be 12 races long, mostly happening on Wednesday nights. The first round was rained out as we had some nasty thunderstorms move through the area that afternoon. It was reschedule for the following Thursday. Rain and strong storms were again a threat, but we got the races in without a single drop of rain. There was lightning in the distance, but it never came close to the Speedway.
I will have to admit that I was not excited to race the Speedway. In my mind, it would be boring. But again, Edens saved the day, coming up with a course configuration that was very fun and fast. The finish line is located on pit road, going in the opposite direction as the car races. The race course has a left 180 to start with. It is wide, but still sharp. The 180 takes you from pit road onto the front straightaway of the main racetrack. We then roll through turns 1 and 2 of the track and go down the backstretch into turn 3. From there, we dive down onto pit road, then hang a left onto the small racetrack in the center of the Speedway. Again, we are moving in the opposite direction than car racing. The transition from pit road to the small track makes for a quick left-right chicane. Then you fly down the backstretch of the small track and end the crit. course with a sweeping 180-degree right turn back onto pit road. It is a cool course and I instantly loved it once we hit it at race speed.
Maybe this map from my Garmin will help you better understand the layout. Going counter-clockwise...just like NASCAR.
Women dropping onto pit road
The early races were fun to watch. I got in my warm-up outside the track and was surprised to have good legs. I was so stale on Saturday at Little River and I did a tough sprint workout yesterday. I did a morning spin to check the legs and they felt ok. And they were still good in the afternoon as I easily hit 180 HR in warm-up. That's rare for me.
We started on the front straightaway of the big race track, on the actual Start/Finish line. That was a good starting point for us. I really didn't want to start the race with a 180. We had over 30 riders for the Pro/1/2/3 race. We were shortened to 50 minutes due to the other races running behind. The pace was fast early, as expected for a local shoot-out race. There were some big dogs in attendance, including many Cat. 1s. It was a good workout for me. I missed the break that went off in the first few laps. I attempted to bridge, but I had no acceleration tonight. I could push hard, but couldn't sprint to save my life. The group was content to just ride after the break went clear. The only big name that missed the break was Ryan Sullivan and he didn't seem to care. I took a few big turns on the front, just to make sure I got in a good workout. Mark Miller was doing the same thing. It was fun to be on the Speedway. I didn't realize there is some slight elevation change along the track. It's slightly uphill on the front stretch and through turns 1 and 2. The backstretch is then downhill. It's also a little rougher than I expected and the banking is much steeper than it looks from the grandstands. I felt like we were flying down the backstretch when we were doing 32 mph. I can't imagine doing it in a car at 160 mph.
Crash at the finish of the Cat. 4 race
Me leading this little group under the lights
The break lapped us at the 35-minute mark. John Carr was in the break and I did my best to help him in the finish. I tried to tow him to the front in the closing laps, but we got separated. The final three laps were blazing fast. We flew down the backstretch the final lap and took the chicane a little faster than I was comfortable with, but I stuck it out and held onto the back of the line that sprinted for the win. The chicane was scary at times, but once I figured out there was no penalty for overshooting the exit I began to push it more. There's no wall on the outside of the turn, just grass and a small rumble strip that you can run right over.
Tim Henry took the win out of the leading six riders. I was third in the sprint of the lapped riders, giving me 9th place on the night. John got 5th. I was pumped to get a top 10! We averaged 25.0 mph in the lapped group for just over 51 minutes. The last lap was the fastest lap all night and it also saw me hit my highest heart rate of the season at 184. It was so awesome to get to finish under the lights. I just love night racing!
We spent Memorial Day Weekend in Indiana as has been our tradition in recent years. I love going up and visiting the family. Even more I love getting to race in front of them at Ft. Wayne. Well, this year the Ft. Wayne crit. was cancelled. I was disappointed, but it made for a much more relaxing weekend. We got to spend more time with the family and I got to do more exploring on the area roads. The highlight of the weekend was getting some mustard made by the Amish as the local bakery. Yeah, I'm a sauce nerd. We went to the flea market in Shipshewana on Memorial Day. There's always a bunch of Amish riding bikes in this area. They are usually on basic bikes, but I saw an Amish guy on a carbon Cannondale painted up like the Cannondale Pro Cycling Team. He may be the Amish Peter Sagan.
I finished off the last week of May doing a little time on my mountain bikes. I have been riding all of my bikes to be ready for BUMP N' Grind next weekend in Alabama. They are having an Omnium this year, featuring a downhill, short track, Super D and XC. I am interested to see if I can still be a threat in the gravity races. It will be a good tune-up for my skills for MTB Nationals that are coming in July.
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