Crank the Volume (Part 2)

     The end of the second big week went good too and I logged some slower miles, but still got in some big time. The thing about these high volume periods is that you don't need much intensity. Speed will come on its own. Too much intensity just wears you down and you wind up burned out. I let the races give me my intensity and just rode a comfortable pace the other days. It was nice to be able to take in the scenery and go through some roads I don't ride very often.

Nice pond on one of my slower rides

     My Mom had asked me about having a yard sale at our house. I thought she meant in the future, but she showed up at 6:15 on Thursday morning and started setting up on our front porch. She had the yard sale for two days and got rid of a lot of things. It was my first time doing a yard sale. They can be quite intense around here. I did not expect so many people to stop by or for them to get so excited about buying our junk. I didn't have a lot to contribute, but Shannon put a few things out there and we sold $22 worth of stuff. Most of the older people were more interested in our garden and asked if we would be selling any produce later in the summer. Heck yeah! I would love to get a veggie business going from the house.

     On the second day of the yard sale, I came home from my morning ride to find a visitor on the back porch. There was a three-foot rat snake exploring the back of the house. I would have given anything if he had gone to the front of the house where my Mom was having the yard sale. That would have been very entertaining! She is scared to death of snakes. The snake was pretty fascinating to me. I was amazed that he could climb a brick wall. He wedged his body in the cracks between the bricks and slowly worked himself up and down the wall.

Back porch visitor

How snakes descend walls. He cheated by using the corner on this one. The second time he climbed up he did it with no corner help.

     Here's a lesser known fact about me: I was once big into snakes. I was that kid that was always running around with a plastic critter-catcher finding all sorts of animals. I was the one the neighbors called to come get the snake out of their basement. I had 10 snakes as pets at one time, including a seven-foot Colombian Red-Tailed Boa. I will have to find some pictures of him. He was huge! My fascination was not limited to snakes though. I had many turtles, frogs, lizards and salamanders over the years. When I began college, I actually started as a Biology major focusing on Herpetology, the study of reptiles and amphibians. But the bike racing got to me and eventually I turned my focus more towards health and fitness. Some days I miss having my little friends, but with all of our traveling nowadays, it is impossible to have a bunch of pets. Hence the reason Snoop still lives at my parents' house. I mentioned above that my Mom hates snakes. Yeah, that made for an interesting few years when I had the boa. She had nightmares a lot. Especially after he escaped the aquarium while we were on vacation and we found him hiding in a closet.

     After the yard sale was over, we went up to Pleasant View and ate at the local mexican grill on our $22. I have not been there in a very long time. It's good food at a reasonable price. There was a cardboard cut-out of the Dos Equis man, AKA The Most Interesting Man in the World, staring at us from the balcony while we ate. I guess we must be very interesting since we had his attention the whole night.

I don't always stare, but when I do, I do it like a creeper. Stay creepy my friends.

     Saturday we planned another long tandem ride with my parents, but it ended up being a little shorter due to some mechanical issues. We got the bike off the rack and it had a rear flat and wobbly wheel. I guess we broke a spoke on Tuesday's ride and didn't even know it. We replaced the spoke, trued the wheel and changed the flat, but it cost us an hour of precious ride time. We still did a good loop, but it was a struggle for my Mom. She was not having a good day and it seemed as if every dog in Cheatham County was waiting in the road for us. My Mom does not do well with dogs. Not at all. The only way it could have been worse was for the dogs to have been snakes. I'm guessing that will be her last road ride for a while, at least until she forgets how many dogs run loose in this area.

     Sunday wrapped up my second big week. I started before dawn which was a lot of fun. It's peaceful in the morning and I enjoyed watching all the animals that were taking in the sunrise. I saw turkey, deer, raccoon and groundhogs running around. Apparently, dawn is cow bathing time as there were plenty of them wading into ponds.

Cows taking a dip at dawn

    I rode some new roads around Springfield and farther east toward Greenbrier and Ridgetop, I found some fun climbs and was surprised to have good legs. Even though I planned for no intensity, I had to kick it up around the three hour mark just to see what kind of times I could lay down. Again, I was surprised to set some PRs. My legs really have responded well to this block of training. I rode again that afternoon with my Dad and ended the day with 82 miles. It was my third day of the week at over 80 miles. I smashed my goal for the week, logging 25 hours on the bike. I think that is the most hours I have ever ridden in one week in my whole life.

     I tweaked my position this week to get me a little lower. I have always had to ride a little higher than most riders because I have such limited flexibility in my glutes and hamstrings. But after working hard on gaining flexibility over the past year, I can finally tolerate removing one spacer from below my stem and dropping my upper body a little lower. So far it feels good. And my gastroc feels good. Not once has it bothered me over the high volume period so I think I have this thing beat now. You have no idea the relief it has been to be able to ride as far as I want without having some kind of soreness in my leg.

     Wednesday night ended my heavy block with Music City Crits Race #5. We were back to the normal course this week, which I was excited about. Like Roswell, this course once scared me, but has now become one of my favorites. This is mostly thanks to some air pressure advice form John Carr and Mark Miller. Those two are always trying different pressures and finally convinced me to drop mine last season. It has made all the difference and I am now more than comfortable in the hairpin turns.

     I was very tired when I got to the race. It was not so much due to the amount of riding lately as it was from shoveling dirt for more than two hours right before leaving for the race. It was not the smartest thing to do before a race on a 92 degree day, but when you are trying to progress in multiple disciplines you have to take advantage of a day off work. I was doing trail work and building some new obstacles to work on my mountain bike skills. If I get to spend some decent time on the dirt the next few weeks, I'll be racing my first enduro in a few weeks and maybe even a Super D.

     My goal for the race was just to finish. I expected to struggle with the pace. It was hot and I knew I was dehydrated already. I just wanted to stay in the main group. No following attacks unless I had something left near the end. I sat near the back the first few laps then worked my way up. My legs burned, but it seemed I was able to hold on in the faster laps with less effort than usual. There were many attacks early, but nothing that was serious. At about 16 minutes, Josh Lewis laid down a good attack and split four riders off the front. They built up a decent advantage. I expected a hard chase to follow, so I moved up towards the front so I would have a little room to drift back once the pace got ugly. As I moved up, a few riders accelerated and I just followed them with my momentum. It would have been a waste to give up my momentum just to accelerate all over again when everybody else decided to follow the move. Well, nobody else followed the move. I looked behind me to see that we had a gap. Five of us had split off the front of the group. I'm usually terrible at getting in breakaways. This time I didn't even try and found myself in a serious move.

     The two Jasons were in my group, Tatum and Chatham. They have some serious fire power. We worked well together and caught the leading four after a few laps, making it a break of nine. Then Patrick Walle crossed the gap and made it a break of 10. I was working hard to do my turns. Josh hurt me a few times as he was in full beast mode tonight. I could hardly hold his wheel when it was his turn to pull. After about 15 minutes of being away, our cooperation level started to lag. I got stuck on the front a few times after my pulls, which made me drop to the back and assess the situation. Several guys were sitting on, including Walle, who is one of the strongest riders in our region. I knew he would be laying down a big attack soon. Two teams had more than one rider in the break. The odds of a big attack coming were getting higher. I had been fully committed to this break, but my brain said staying committed would get me dropped when the accelerations came. I guess others were thinking the same thing as nobody really wanted to do much work anymore and the peloton began to close down our 15-second gap.

     Tatum was first to attack. Nobody went with him, but it did make us all start working together again to catch him. As we pulled him back, somebody launched a counterattack and split our group in half. I was in a good position to follow the move, but knew my legs were not there tonight to handle another 20 minutes with just five riders. My odds of getting on the podium are better in a bunch sprint than they are in an attacking breakaway situation. I had no acceleration in the legs tonight after all these miles and following attacks was not an option for me. I was very happy just to have made the breakaway for once!

     Walle and Tanner Hurst were in that front group of five. Even though the group had closed the gap significantly, I knew it would be hard for us to bring that combo back. Our group of five lasted a few more laps then we were caught by the pack. The break was back out to about 15 seconds, but never really got much farther away than that. We actually closed the gap some near the end, but never did catch them. Walle wound up pipping Tanner in the sprint for the win. Behind, we battled for sixth. Three riders got a bit of a gap as we went to laps. I lagged toward the back and waited until two laps to go to move up. I used very little leg to move up, doing it mostly through the corners. As I got to the front, I realized we were not going to catch the three that had slipped away. We would now be sprinting for 9th.

     I found myself second wheel behind Mark Miller with a lap to go. We took different lines off Turn 1 and I was not on his wheel. John Carr made a big move up the left and Mark went after him. I hesitated because I did not want to waste my legs before the sprint even started. Guys started to come up my left and so I accelerated to get on the train. It was too slow of an acceleration to jump on Mark's wheel, but too fast to get into the line that was coming by on my left. I stayed just enough ahead of them to make them slow down and try to find my wheel, while at the same time I backed off trying to let them come by. The result was a big gap for John and Mark. I finally decided just to go for it. So what if I blow up. We were sprinting for 9th anyway. I chased hard but could not get us all the way across to John and Mark. John sacrificed himself for Mark, taking a big pull all the way to the end of the backstretch.

     I was a sitting duck as we came onto pit road. Several guys came by on my right. I just kept pushing with everything I had left to try to limit the damage. I pushed for the last turn like it was the finish line and was able to pick off three riders going through the turn and then hold them off in the short sprint. I ended up taking 11th. We caught Mark and the other three that were just up the road right on the line which made it look like one big group finish behind the front break of five. I was very happy with that result. I felt horrible and to still have a sprint left after being in a break for 20 minutes and leading the group the majority of the last lap was awesome for me.

Short video Dina filmed which includes the finish

     We ended the night with a 26.1 mph average speed, much faster than I felt we were going. It was the third race of this series where I think I had a big smile on my face for the majority of the race. It has a lot of fun racing with these guys over the past few weeks. I want to send a shout-out to Josh Lewis for getting on the podium. He and I struggled together through Hell of the South earlier this year and now he is starting breakaways and getting on podiums. Great job Josh!

Pro/1/2/3 podium shot

     I get a few days to rest now. We will be visiting with family over the next week or so, so it will be a good time to take a break from the bike. I really don't want to as I have thoroughly enjoyed being on my bike so much the past few weeks. I've gotten into that rhythm of riding a lot each day. It's almost an addiction. I don't feel right unless I have ridden a few hours. I'm not sure if I will race next Wednesday's Music City Crits race or not. If the legs feel stale after the rest period, then I will come out in hopes to open them up before Tour de Grandview next Friday. If the legs are good, or I am still not fully recovered, I will skip the race. The body will tell me what it needs.

     I want to end this blog by just stating how grateful I am for everything in my life. The Lord really has blessed me over the past year, way more than I deserve. I cannot possibly be grateful enough for all I have been given. I am much happier with everything in life. We never seem to struggle with anything for very long. When a problem arises, a way to solve it is usually not too far behind. Working several part time jobs has its drawbacks with no guarantee on hours, but whenever money is tight, something always comes through. I no longer get frustrated with bike racing. Results don't matter. I have had more fun this year than in any other year before and that's what really matters. I use the terms "frustrated" and "irritated" quite loosely on the blog. I would not call what I feel a deep frustration, just a desire to be better at whatever thing I did not do well. Guess I'm just a perfectionist when it comes to expectations for myself. Reaching my true potential is my goal and I have been blessed a lot recently in getting closer to realizing that potential. I have really pushed hard to be a better person, to help others, and to be a good example on and off my bike. I still have a long way to go to being that good example, but I can already see the blessings we are promised being delivered. I am truly grateful for that.

Crank the Volume (Part 1)

    The last three weeks have been all about cranking up the volume of my training. After not having any soreness in my gastroc at the CRAM, it seemed I was finally ready to put in some big miles. Work has kept me from logging big miles the past few years and I feel that missing those miles has kept me from reaching my potential during each of those race seasons. Work made things challenging this time, but it was not impossible. With my schedule being about as flexible as it is ever going to be, there is no better time than now to get on my bike.

     The first week did not go as planned with me working more than planned, rain coming nearly every day and then missing BUMP N' Grind. I was only able to log 10 hours that week, nowhere close to high-volume. But since then, things have gone smoothly. Actually, it's probably the best two weeks I have ever had with training. I felt good, got the results from every ride just like I hoped and have had no setbacks. No rain. No getting called into work. No sickness. No gastroc pain. It has been great!

     I started the first big week in typical Dustin fashion, cranking out my longest ride of the whole training block by accident. Some days I just have so much fun and feel so good that I just keep on going even when the ride clock says I have done enough. I did a 36-mile sprint workout in the morning, then went back out for what turned into four more hours in the afternoon.

     Shannon and I rode the tandem for 26 miles. We had planned to do a charity ride in Clarksville the following Saturday that we thought was 40 miles long, so we had to test ourselves to see if we could actually make it up hills and complete 40 miles. Prior to this, all of our tandem rides had been around 15 miles and as flat as we could make them. This ride went well and we found out that climbing is not so bad. We both put out a lot more than in previous rides and still felt fine at the end. I then jumped onto my bike and rode another 39 miles, meeting up with the local group for their fast ride. I planned to sit in the back and just log the miles because I wanted to save the intensity for the Music City Crits race the next night. But, as usual, the guys irritated me and I wound up doing a few big pulls near the end just to see how many people I could drop. They continue to make fun of me as a "wanna be," but nobody was talking smack after I did a few pulls at over 30 mph. I didn't tell them that I did those pulls 85 miles into my day. I'll keep those little secrets to myself. By the time I got home, I had logged 102 miles for the day and over six hours of saddle time. And the legs still felt great!

     The following night brought the fourth race of the Music City Crits Series in Nashville. We were treated to less threat of rain tonight and a new course. This week we ran a simple oval in a clockwise direction. I thought it would make for a boring race. The course was so fast that it would be hard to get away in a break. I was fine with that though as I knew my legs would be tired from Tuesday's
long day.

Oval course for Race #4

     I did a spin early Wednesday morning to find some crappy legs. Somewhere between work and the race my legs completely changed and I felt pretty good in my warm-up. We had a big group for the race with 42 starters in the Pro/1/2/3. It was a slow start, then things got ugly with almost constant attacks going off the front. There was a $50 cash prime to be given out so I was staying near the front hoping to take a stab at it. But a break of three went up the road just as the bell rang for the prime and their gap was too big to cross in one lap. I settled back in the pack for a bit, trying to calm myself down. When I stay up front, I tend to follow every move and I did not think my legs could hold up to 60 minutes of that tonight.

     The three-man break got a substantial gap by the 20-minute mark, putting half a lap between themselves and the peloton. Then a group of eight or so riders got a gap. I could see there were some big dogs in that group and it would likely stay away, so I attacked and attempted to bridge across to them. They had about 15 seconds on me when I started across. I closed most of the gap quickly, then realized I had two riders on my wheel. I tried to get them to help, but they both attacked me hard and I could not accelerate with them as my legs were lacking that punch tonight. I found myself hurting bad and all alone in no-man's land. I had a second where I wondered if I was going to make it across the gap. I decided to just commit and give it everything. To my surprise, in a lap I had joined the group and began to rotate through. I finally made a break!

     We worked well together for about five laps, but the pace was too high for us to sustain. We were rolling about 32 mph all the way around the course and quickly ran down the three leaders, growing our group to 14 riders. Then our numbers went up to 19 as a few others trickled across the gap from the peloton. I was dying at this point. My legs were strong, but there was a 10-minute period where I was going 100%. I held my max heart rate for the race, 185, for two full laps during this time. I had to back off and started to skip pulls, but so did most of the others. Everyone was blowing up and we were just 33 minutes into the race.

     Our group of 19 destroyed the rest of the peloton. They blew to pieces trying to catch us and all of them wound up being pulled by 43 minutes. It became more of a race split than a breakaway in the end, but still it was a big achievement for me to even be there, especially on tired legs. Several small breaks went in the last 15 minutes, but each one was pulled back. I found Tanner Hurst's wheel and latched on, preparing for a bunch sprint for the win. But John Carr was determined to get a break going and attacked for the third time with about 6 laps to go. He was the one that started the original break of three that forced the field split. Again, he took two other riders with him. The gap stayed small, so two other riders were able to get across individually. Inside of three laps to go, big Travis Werts went across. It got real when he got to them and made it a leading group of six. I still thought they would be caught so I stayed on Tanner's wheel and waited.

     Like in Race #3, the group lost interest in the last two laps and the break stayed away. We sprinted for 7th place on the last lap. I lost Tanner's wheel and got shuffled back coming to the bell, but I still had some legs left and was determined to use them all on the final lap. I got a good run onto the backstretch and picked up some spots. Then I found an opening up the right side between the group and the wall. I eased my way up just as the group was slowing. I had some momentum and was about to attack when Josh Lewis came over on me and nearly ran me right into the wall. Josh had been doing a lot of work for his Red Kite teammates all night and they were never short on words to yell at him all night long. They were always telling him which side to move to so they could attack on the other side without being blocked. They saw me coming up the right and yelled for Josh to move right. He did immediately to get out of their way, but blocked me in the process. I don't think he had any idea I was coming up the side, but the other riders knew and their plan worked. I was blocked and it took me completely out of the sprint. The group came by on the left and I had to wait until they all passed before I could get out from behind Josh and begin sprinting. I started my sprint in 18th and wound up getting 14th. Not bad for almost stopping before the last turn, but still irritating as again this week I felt like I could contend for the win in the sprint. Like the norm for this year, the last lap was our fastest as we turned a lap time of under one minute!

    I ended the first big week with a weekend full of road riding. The trail is wrecked from some nasty storms so it was not an option and we did not have time to drive anywhere to ride. The storms knocked down many trees in our area and almost destroyed our garden. We had some straight-line winds followed by some very heavy rain and hail. The wind bent the plants over to the ground, then the heavy rain turned the yard into a big puddle, causing mud to move all around the garden basically burying our plants. We lost almost a full row of tomatoes, but everything else survived for the most part.

     Shannon and I decided not to do the local charity ride on Saturday after we found out it was only 31 miles in length. We were set on doing 40, so we just rode from home and got in 41 miles. My parents tagged along for the first 31 miles. We rode pretty slow as neither of my parents have been riding much lately. I was impressed that they could even do 31 miles. I went out for more on my own bike afterwards, setting a few new PRs on some local climbs. It was motivating to not only set some PRs after a long week of riding, but the way I did them made it that much sweeter. All of them were broken by riding the full climbs seated on the big-ring. The power is definitely improving! I ended my riding week with 21 hours on the bike, surpassing my goal of 20 hours.

Tandem break

    After the ride, my Dad and I did some trail work, rebuilding our wooden tabletop that has rotted over the past year. The boards were getting old on one side, so we tore it down, rebuilt the frame, threw on some planks and then covered the main line with some extra roofing shingles we had laying around to help with traction. This thing has been on my to-do list for some time as it is a very fun feature that has been missing from our trail.

     Later in the evening, Shannon and I went out to the Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway for the local races. I really enjoy the speedway, both on my bike and in the stands watching the Pro Late Models fly around under the lights on a Saturday night. When I was younger, the speedway hosted some of NASCAR's more prominent series, like the Camping World Truck Series and the Xfinity Series. I've even watched a sprint car race there. My Dad has taken me to the track many times and I have seen lots of good racing. None of the bigger series come to Nashville anymore, which is a shame considering it is still one of the best short tracks in the country. We had a really good time and the racing was great as usual. Everyone sitting around us probably thought we were pigs by how much we ate. We brought cooler full of food so we could load up on calories to help recover from our day full of action.

     Last week was my second successful long week. I set the goal a little higher this time at 22 hours. I was not sure I could make it. My bum was very sore and I was tired early in the week. And I was still nervous that this was going to be too much for my gastroc to handle. As the week wore on I started feeling better and better. I did another long Tuesday ride, hitting 37 hilly miles on the tandem with Shannon in the early part of the afternoon. We rode around the scenic, but hilly Lock B area, taking in some views of the Cumberland River and surrounding ridges. Now that I know we can climb hills, we are no longer avoiding them.

One of the few times you will ever see me do a selfie

    After the tandem ride, I tagged on to the back of the local group ride again this week. Again, I did not keep myself in check with the intensity. It was not out of irritation, but more out of fun this week. We did some hills at the end of the ride, deviating from the normal loop that we have ridden every Tuesday for the past eight years. I loved doing something different and had a great time sprinting my friend Paul Carter up some of the climbs. He is light and strong, so he climbs very well. He made me work hard to stay with him. It was nice to ride with somebody who actually likes to ride with me rather than the boneheads I usually get stuck with. I ended the day with 81 miles, another good day!

     Last Wednesday was the third race of the Bells Bend Time Trial Series. I could not care less about this series as I am a terrible time trialist, but I did want to go to it and see what kind of time I could do on tired legs. Besides, it's only $5 to enter. That's hard to beat. To get in my time, I rode from home to the race, which takes place on the west side of Nashville. I left really early so I could ride at an easy pace, but realized that I had forgotten my racing license when I was about three miles from home. I thought about just leaving it, but then decided to go back for it. They have been pretty hardcore with checking licenses lately, so I did not want to ride all that way and not be able to race. Once I grabbed the license, I had to kick up the pace to be able to get there on time. I wanted to register early so I could get an earlier start time so I would not have to wait so long between getting there and starting the race. Plus, getting finished earlier would allow to me to ride most of the way home in daylight versus darkness.

    It took me two hours to get to the race. The last few miles were out in the open and it was super hot. It was the first humid day over 90 degrees and I felt ever bit of it. I was too late for an early start time and wound up having to sit around for an hour. There was one early start time still available and the guy in line in front of me took it. As usual, I was one spot too far back in line. And of course they didn't check my license this time. I sat in the shade for a few minutes and drank some water that my Dad brought for me. He is really getting back after it, not only showing up to race the TT, but also buying a racing license! I've finally got some commitment out of him. He is cheap, so I know he will race at least seven times to get his money back for the license.

    My legs were crap when I started spinning before my start time. I had 2:30 and 41 miles in by the time I hit the line. It was amazing how much more tired my legs felt on the start line compared to how they were when I arrived at the race. Sometimes sitting around wreaks havoc with the legs. My goal for the 12-mile TT was to get as close to my time from last month as possible, which was 31:30. I knew I would not beat it because I was fresh last month, but I wanted to see if I could get close to it. I rode the Merckx class again, so no aero bars. I even went without aero wheels and race tires this time. I also had a lot more weight on me for this race, packing two full bottles, lights and enough food in my pockets to sustain a normal person for at least three days.

     I started slow and built into it. My legs hurt, but they were strong. I held back a lot on the way out to keep from using up all my legs in the first half. Even with holding back, I was eight seconds ahead of last month's time at the turnaround. I pushed hard on the way back, but ran out of steam on the long final climb. I went up it ok, but not nearly as fast as my previous races here. I ended up finishing in 31:44, just 14 seconds off last month's time. That was awesome considering how much I have ridden lately and all the equipment differences compared to last month. My race tires probably make 14 seconds difference compared to my heavier training tires.

    My Dad was upset that I rode back home because he felt it was too late in the evening and too far to be riding after a race. He was a little irritated that I would not ride back in the car with him, but I had lights and was ready for night riding if necessary. I know many people think riding at night is dangerous, but I feel safer. Never have I been run off the road at night. The cars usually slow way down because they see one light and can't tell what's coming at them. That is especially true when I use a helmet-mounted light. Not only is there one light, but it's very high and turning side to side sometimes. And my rear tailight provides much more attention than riding in daylight in a plain jersey. Just saying.

     Before I left the race, one of the boneheads from Clarksville that I mentioned earlier had to come over and talk a little smack, asking me how far it was home. He snickered when I said 35 miles and said "Oh, I thought you really did something." It cracked me up! I didn't see him riding the 35 miles down with me, nor was he about to ride home with me. It turned out to be a nice night and I really enjoyed the ride home, getting in about half of it before dark. I was treated to a beautiful sunset along the river, and tons of bugs to eat for extra calories. Mmmm! I ended the day with 84 miles.

    To be continued...

Mad Dog

    We lost Gpa Mad Dog before Memorial Day weekend. He was a great man, always very welcoming every time I came to visit in Utah, putting up with me eating all his food and dragging in every evening worn out and dirty from a full day of riding. I was unable to go to the funeral, but we did manage to get Shannon out there. We had planned to go visit the Toney side of the family up in Indiana for the weekend, so she still got to see them, just on the other side of the country as everyone met up for the funeral. I may not have known Gpa very well, but I will never forget the day of the picture below. It was one of the most fun experiences I have ever had, a combination of bike riding and family.

Gma and Gpa Mad Dog with us at the Kennecott Overlook

    I took advantage of my weekend at home, getting back into the swing of focused, regular training. I got in a good interval session to break the legs out of the funk they have been in, then rolled to Clarksville for the CRAM ride on Saturday. The ride follows the same course as the popular Sunrise Century, a ride known for fast century times held each Labor Day weekend. Both rides are organized by, and raise money for, local chapters of the Rotary Club in Clarksville. It's been at least 5 years since I have ridden the CRAM. In the past, the farthest route was 62 miles, but now they offer a full 100-mile century.

     I got to the ride early to go for a warm-up spin. My legs are always slow to get going, especially after a day of intervals, It's makes it hard for me to hang with the front group off the start if they want to hammer 30 mph right away. Of course, since I was ready, nobody wanted to go super fast. I sat up front waiting for things to get organized for the first six miles. My patience were growing thin just as some of the I AM Racing guys got things going. We only had a 21 mph average speed at this point. I was hoping we would be closer to 25 mph for at least the first half of the ride.

CRAM start line

phot by ClarksvilleNow.com

     I did a lot of work from mile 20 to mile 48. There were some fast sections that I was having a lot of fun on. The legs felt good so I contributed to the rotation as much as possible. I was freaking out the part of the group that was sitting on. Apparently, riding with no hands in the rotating paceline while eating Clif Shot Bloks makes some people nervous. Racing dulls my nerves. Sometimes you have to do crazy things to be able to eat in a race, and I tend to forget that some of those actions make others nervous. Our average speed raised to 24.3 mph by mile 50. I started to get some tightness in my right hamstring at this point and began to skip a few turns. My endurance is not there for 100 miles at that pace. I knew this and expected the legs to fade just like they did. Our group went from 40+ riders down to just 12 by the rest stop at mile 60, where we all took a break to eat and stretch the legs off the bike. After that stop, my legs were terrible. I was hanging on the back suffering by mile 66.

     We got held up at a busy intersection at mile 69 and the group split in two. I was in the second part and went to the front to pull us back up to the lead group. I got us there just as we hit a slight rise. Right as we joined the back, two riders accelerated and the group blew to pieces. I found myself gapped yet again with not much left in the tank. I tried hard for about a mile to get back on, but couldn't get there. Those two riders who started the hostilities stayed up the road, then a group of seven formed up ahead of me. Two riders were with me, but once I finally blew, they came by and I couldn't even get on their wheel. My legs were gone! It was the most tired my quads have been in a long time...and I still had 30 miles to go.

     I rode by myself for 11 miles before getting caught by one rider. We joined forces and tried to tick off the final miles as quickly as possible. I stopped one more time at the last rest stop, this time actually feeling better afterwards. We picked up a rider that had been dropped from the front group, then he fell off with about eight miles left. My companion began to cramp with five miles to go and he fell back. I pushed with what little I had left for the last three miles, which are on a difficult false-flat road into a headwind. My total time was 4:51 and ride time was 4:43. It was much slower than my best century time of 3:54, but it was just the kind of workout I need right now. After the ride, I almost could not walk into the school for the spaghetti lunch that was included in our entry fee. I hobbled in like an old man. Everything was cramping. That's when you know you had a good day on the bike.

     The next week, I worked some long days down in Bellevue. One of the therapists there, Erin, has been riding a tandem with her husband, Jordan, quite often and they invited me down for the local group ride from Trace Bikes after work on Tuesday. It was a great ride. I enjoyed riding some new roads. We rode a few backroads in the area, hit a few decent climbs, then finished with a spin down the Natchez Trace Parkway. I was impressed by watching Erin and Jordan on the tandem. The last climb was long and steep for a tandem. I doubt Shannon and I could ride it without stopping. We have been riding the tandem lately, but still are a long ways from getting to the point Erin and Jordan are at.

The group at the Trace Bikes Tuesday night ride

Saw this little guy on one of our tandem rides

     The next day was supposed to be the third race of the Music City Crits Series, but rain forced it to be moved to Thursday night. Shannon and I got in a nice spin on Wednesday. It may have been raining in Nashville, but not in Pleasant View.

View on our Wednesday night ride

     I was off work on Thursday, so I took advantage of the time off to do a two hour ride in the morning, then worked on our yard and garden. Both are getting out of control with the high amounts of rain we have had recently. Something got in my eye as I was finishing up the yard and I had a really hard time getting it out, spending 30 minutes trying to find it. I never saw anything, but I finally got it comfortable enough to start getting ready for the race. By this point, I did not even feel like racing. I was tired from all the yard work and stressed from the eye ordeal. But sometimes the days you don't feel like racing turn out to be your best days.

    We got the race late because of the time I lost dealing with my eye. I got in a very brief warm-up and started near the back. I stayed back there for the first 15 minutes to ensure my legs and heart were ready before I made a real effort. We were scheduled for 60 minutes of racing on the same course as last year's series, which loops around the Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway. I heard the officials making a few comments about race length before the start, so I assumed it would be shortened. That happened often last year in this series.

Music City Crits Race course. Race moves counter-clockwise.

    The pace forced me to move up after 15 minutes. It was a fast race and guys were starting to get gapped near the back. My legs were tired from the morning ride, so I did not want to put myself into a position of having to chase too often. We started with 34 riders, but lost quite a few of the Cat. 3s. There is now a Cat. 3/4 race earlier in the evening so some of the guys are doubling up. Their legs were not ready for a 26.1 mph average speed for the second race. When I moved to the front, guys started yelling "He's attacking on the right!" and everybody jumped to my wheel. It's nice to see I have gotten their attention a little bit. They sure were watching me all night.

Hanging out near the back of the race. Thanks Dina for the pic!

     I followed an attack at 27 minutes, trying to get into a break with John Carr and Josh Lewis, but the group gave us no rope tonight. We didn't even make it a full lap off the front. When I went across to Josh and John, I did it through the two hairpin corners. I passed the group in the right-hander on the inside. A rider cut down on me as I came flying through, forcing me to change my line. I was leaned WAY over. So far so that I clipped the short cone on the inside of the turn with my right pedal, which was at the top of the pedal stroke. I was afraid that the cone flipped out into the course behind me, but it just tipped over. I must have touched it ever so gently as I flew by. I hit that corner like a Mad Dog!

Video of a prime lap, shot by Dina

     I stayed near the front the rest of the race. My legs were actually getting better as everyone faded. I had been struggling off the tight left hairpin early in the race, but now was hanging on easily thanks to using one gear harder than I felt like I needed coming off the turn. The bigger gear was tough for the first two pedal strokes, but then was much faster as I did not have to shift at all.

     The pace stayed super high because we had two riders off the front. I had no idea they were out there. Apparently, they went off on lap 1 and had held 20-30 seconds on us the whole race. I did not see them until we reached six laps to go. Their gap was 18 seconds then. A few attacks from our group closed the gap to seven seconds with three laps to go, then we slowed. I found myself sitting in second behind Matt Meunier, who totally sacrificed himself for his teammate Tanner Hurst. Meunier put the hammer down for two laps, but we did not catch the break and wound up sprinting for third. A surge came from behind me at just over a lap to go and I got blocked in behind Meunier. Jason Chatham was on my inside going into the Turn 1 hairpin on the last lap, which forced me to take a wider line. I made things worse by misjudging the turn a bit and going even wider. One rider slipped under me through the turn and then sat up immediately after the corner. I had to get on the brakes to keep from running into him, then accelerate again to close the gap that was getting big in a hurry. Everybody was going all-out now and it took a lot out of me to get across the gap. I chased hard for about 30 seconds, then caught back on and weaved my way through the riders that were falling back from the sprint. I couldn't believe how strong my legs were as I was able to rejoin the front group of sprinters as they exited the backstretch of the oval. I still had too much traffic to go through though. You need to be clear of everyone before the last three corners because there just isn't enough time to make that many passes before the line.

    I was unable to pass the rider ahead of me before the turns started because we had to funnel down to pass the riders that were doing the lead-out and had sat up. I was forced to pass around the outside of the next turn and did complete a pass. It was then a drag race down to the final corner. I got up alongside Josh going into the last corner and totally railed it around the outside to move into 4th in our group. There just wasn't enough time for me to pass anybody else. I was coming, but ran out of time. I was 4th in the sprint, giving me 6th overall. That was my best finish in this series and my second best finish ever as a Cat. 2, but I could not help but be disappointed. Even on tired legs I felt like I should have won that sprint. Positioning in the final lap is hurting me more than fitness at this point.

Race finish video, shot by Dina

     I was glad to finally get to race after missing a few of the Music City Crits races due to rain. I decided to skip out on BUMP N' Grind the last weekend of May due to weather. It rained in Birmingham all week and the forecast was for more showers on the weekend, so I opted to stay home. I wish I had gone now as the weather stayed dry, but I did get in a great hill workout at home, setting a few new PRs along the way. I big-ringed a lot of the climbs, which I have never been able to do before. I am so surprised at how strong my legs have been recently. I feel like I should have lost fitness with my inconsistency, but I seemed to have gained a little. I still have about a month to get ready for another round of big races, starting with the Hyde Park Blast weekend in Cincinnati, followed by Indy Crit, which is one of the best races of the year. I'm holding out hope that I can somehow go to the first half of the Tour of America's Dairyland, but it is not looking like it will be financially possible, I really need to get some sponsors!