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...