Season in the Abyss

    It was a crazy week after the second TT at Montgomery Bell. Shannon had just come back from Utah. We were both busy at work and I was trying to squeeze in some good training in the terribly cold weather. I got in another bone-chilling Tuesday night ride with the Riverside boys. We logged a tough 61 miles at 32 degrees in the dark. It was a good workout and I had minimal issue with my gastroc this time. The gastrocs are getting stronger and I am convinced I will be over this fully very soon. I actually have had no issue out of the right one since New Year's Day. It's the left one that is being stubborn.

     We had planned to do another family backyard cross race later in the week. Then Shannon's car started acting up. She has had some issues with her throttle position sensor. The sensor is made onto the throttle body, which means you have to replace the entire part. At $250, it's not cheap. She first had this problem last year and I fixed it. After looking at the sensor, I discovered she was only having a problem with the connection. The sensor connects to its power source via two skinny copper tabs that fit between two copper plates in a small box on the throttle body. I crimped the two copper plates to restore good connection with the tabs and the thing worked perfectly for a full year. Then the copper began to wear and it started losing connection, so I crimped them again. I knew it was the last time they could be crimped as they were getting very thin, but I thought maybe it would go for a while longer.

     This time it lasted just a month and decided to go out the day before we had to make an unplanned trip to Michigan. Chuck Miller, a long-time friend of the Toney family, passed away suddenly. His memorial service was planned for Friday in South Haven, MI. Shannon wanted to be there so we made arrangements for her to get the day off work.

     It was an extra-crazy Thursday. We had planned to do our backyard cross race that night after work. I needed to work on Shannon's car as mine is not dependable for long trips in cold weather, but I could not bring myself to call off our race. I wanted the ride time knowing I would not have a bike in Michigan, and everyone else wanted to do the race too. We had spent a lot of time getting the course ready. This race was at our house on the farm and would be really fun. Everybody had headlights and we had lights all over the course. There were lights from the house and barn, lanterns hanging and blinking red taillights on the barriers and the logs of the run-up. We even had speakers outside for some music to jam to as we raced. We really went all-out on this one. The course was really hard, featuring three dismounts per lap and quite a bit of climbing. It was a tough night with the temp being in the upper-20s, but we knocked out a full hour of hammering. There are a few pictures below. You can also take a lap with me through my helmet cam here.

Me during our cold night race

In the dark places we were nothing more than our glowing headlight and the blinking lights we had on our wheels

Red blinking taillights marked each log on the run-up. Looked like an airport runaway in the yard tonight.

Blurry me under one of the more lit-up sections next to the house. The camera does not like these dark conditions.

     It was 11pm by the time we got changed and got the course cleaned up. Dina had to work the next day and I still had to change out the throttle body on the car. By the time I got that done and went for a quick test drive, it was well after midnight when I climbed into bed. We were back up and on the road by 5am, bound for Michigan. The forecast looked horrible. The South Haven area had about seven inches of snow on the ground from a storm earlier in the week, and were due to get up to 15 more on Friday and Saturday. It looked like it would be a smooth drive until we got to Michigan, so we were surprised to get caught in a sudden snowstorm in Kentucky that brought traffic to a crawl. I thought we might not make it to South Haven in time for the service, but we made it there right on time. There was a lot of snow on the ground in South Haven, but it was all very packed and did not affect traffic at all.

     I never met Chuck Miller, but he seemed like a great guy. I have not been to very many memorial services in my life, but this was a really good one. By the time it was over I felt as if I had known Chuck for years. After the service, we joined Chuck's family for a dinner at the Lake Bluff Inn & Suites along the banks of Lake Michigan. The weather was insane! It was about 15 degrees with 60+ mph winds coming off the lake. Shannon couldn't even open the car door on her side because the wind was blowing so hard. She had to crawl out on my side of the car. It literally almost knocked us down while walking across the icy parking lot. Of course, I had to walk down to the lake. I could not be this close and not go see it. I've never seen a big lake like that in winter time. Somehow, I talked Shannon into going with me. It was just before dark, but we could still see the water from the bluff. It was partially frozen. There was solid ice next to the bank that extended about 20 yards out. Then there was a half-frozen kind of gel for 20 yards. The wind was bringing in huge waves that crashed against the gel and sent huge ripples through the ice all the way to the bank. It was so cool! I watched it until I couldn't feel my hands or face, which only took a minute, I snapped a few pics and then we high-tailed it to the inn and stood by the fire.

Looking toward Lake Michigan from the Inn

     The snow was really coming down when we left dinner, so we thought it best to go back to Elkhart, IN with Shannon's parents rather than stay the night in South Haven. We wanted to get further south and hopefully away from the snow so we would not get trapped in Michigan. We drove through some real blizzard-like conditions with practically no visibility at times around South Bend, but we made it to Elkhart safely. When we woke up the next morning, I finally got to see Indiana coated in some real snow instead of just a thin little layer of sleet like we had at Christmas. We helped them clear the driveway and then hit the road for home. It was a quick trip, but we had to get home as there was more snow on the way, both in Indiana and at home. We got home Saturday night before the snow storms hit. I was glad we left when Sunday rolled around. Elkhart got five more inches of snow Saturday afternoon and it snowed all they way south to the Tennessee-Kentucky border Sunday morning. We missed nearly all the white stuff here at home, but we would have had to drive the entire trip in the storm had we waited until Sunday to come home.

Snow in Elkhart

     Instead of driving in a snow storm on Sunday, we had an early-morning cross race at my parents' house. It was another tough course with a huge road climb on the loop, but the course was long so we didn't have to do too many laps to get in our hour. It was really cold yet again. The temp was 23 degrees with snow and sleet falling when we started. I know I am crazy and will ride in anything, but my entire family came out for this ride. They are obviously crazy too. Even my Mom was out there and she HATES the cold. I think she only truly likes riding in June and September each year (she's not too fond of summer heat either). I did an extra lap and was greeted with driving sleet on the open sections that stung on my cold face. It was another terrible day of winter weather that we made the best of by getting in a fun workout together.

     The next week was a week of rain and cold. It was too warm to snow this time. It was just ugly and dreary outside. I spent my time on the trainer and in the weight room. I've even started running again. I am only doing five minute runs, but I can do it without any aggravation of my gastroc. I'll keep gradually building that up until I can get back to using running for cross-training in the winter.

     During this week of grossness, I also managed to crash my laptop, which is never good when you are behind on your blogs and early-season bike racing is on live on the internet every morning! Seriously, I killed it and had to wipe the entire thing clean. It took me a few days to get it all reloaded, but now my computer is working like new so I am thinking this was not such a bad thing after all. It really does pay to have an external hard drive for backing up your important things. I lost nothing out of this crash.

     We got one more round of snow in February before the warm weather then returned. Everything was wet from the melting snow, but I squeezed in another practice cross race, possibly the last ever here on the farm. The farm we live on is owned by our friends, the Clarks. They have always farmed tobacco here and raised cattle on another farm a few miles away. They have decided now to give up the tobacco growing and focus on cattle. They're moving the cattle over to this farm, so they've been fencing the property for the last few weeks. The fence is going to go through part of our yard, eliminating nearly all of the area we use for cross right now. I'm sad to see my cross courses go, but I am not at all sad that I will have significantly less grass to mow this summer! And I'll have a lot more entertainment from the cows than I ever did with tobacco. This cross race came just as the fencing was arriving in our yard. I got it in just a day before they ran the strands of wire and closed the area off for good. It was a fun day of mud and suffering that left me pretty dirty at the end of the day.

Remnants of the latest snow

I thought this icicle looked cool. With the help of the wind it formed a giant curve off the edge of this barn. 

Double mud pit through the soft garden on my latest farm cross course

Used my jumping ramp ladder to bridge across the creek

I have used this ladder for a variety of things. It's been a jump ramp as intended, but also a bridge, the ladder used in the barrel ride stunt a few years ago, a shelf in the basement and a ramp to load the tiller into the truck.

The creek that separates our yard from the rest of the farm

Dirty cross bike

The moon was out today

     It's been quiet in the area of hunting for a house. The housing market is booming right now. Houses are going for WAY more than they are worth and flying into contracts within a day or two of being listed in most cases. We hadn't seen anything in our price range that was decent in several months. Then, all of a sudden, we saw several good homes. I always like to check them out before I call for an actual showing with the realtor. Often the pictures on the website are amazing, yet the house is not. Those photographers can really work magic with angles. I like to go by the house (usually on my bike) and see how close neighbors are. You never see any other houses in those pictures, but when you check it out in person or on a satellite image, you see the house next door is practically sharing the same driveway. I am not into close neighbors. I need space!

     I ruled one house out right away after a ride-by viewing. The next one we came across was already under contract as soon as we saw it. Too slow. Then came along a nice home in an area we liked. It was five acres with no close neighbors. It backed up to a Christmas tree farm and had the biggest basement I have ever seen. It had two basement segments, each of which were bigger than most large basements. We both really liked the house and it was on the outer edge of our price range. We were the first to make an offer on the house, but were joined by two other people the same day. It turned into a multiple offer situation where they pitched us all against each other. I didn't really care to get into a bidding war with it already being on the upper edge of our price range. Then we found out that internet was not available in that area. What?! I didn't know that still happened in this day and time, especially not in an area as populated as middle Tennessee. We could only get satellite internet and the company that provided it to this area wanted more than double the price that we pay for service now at less than 1/20th the speed. We do a lot of stuff online. I was not willing to stick my neck out for this house considering we wouldn't be able to afford even the worst of internet services if we lived there. That would mean longer hours at work for both of us too because the internet was too slow to run our documentation program. So, we retracted our offer. I hated to lose that house, but I guess it just wasn't the right place for us. I doubt we would have won the bidding war anyway. The search continues...

     I'll end this post with some pictures. The first set are from a recent road ride on a warm, but windy day. The clouds looked strange and made for some great pictures. Those pictures are followed by a really cool sunset I was able to shoot here on the farm. I don't know what it is with me and sunsets lately, but I sure have been noticing them and really enjoying them. Maybe it's because I lived in a wooded area when I was a kid, never having a view of the sunrise or sunset. Now I can see both everyday on the farm. That's one of the many reasons why I love it here.

The fields glowed when the sun hit them.

Our house with some bright colors behind it

The colors were ridiculously bright and clear this evening

Shortly after the sunset...

Adjustments

    I wrapped up a long period of work in early February, ending the maternity leave coverage I had been provided for several months. While I enjoyed having steady hours at one place and making some money so I can one day buy a new mountain bike, I was ready for a break. The company I work for no longer holds the values that I do. Everyone is being overworked and told they aren't working hard enough. Good patient care was becoming impossible because you just had too much to do. Seeing three and sometimes even four patients at once was becoming the norm. They were misleading us on production numbers and expecting us to work through lunch and do our paperwork after work, all with no pay. A lot of this is due to the changes in healthcare reimbursement that have come about the last few years, but most of it due simply to greed and the fact that the higher-ups are so distant to the real employees that they don't know what goes on at our level anymore. They want to make the same profit percentage as they did 10 years ago when there was no cap on insurance reimbursement. The goals they are setting for us are beyond our capabilities and border on completely impossible. It was a good experience for the memory. It made me remember why I quit working for them full-time and why I need to work harder on my bike and at home so I don't have to work there as much.

     I wrote last year about spending a lot of time improving my flexibility so I could get to a lower position on my road bike. I am not trying to get into some crazy-low position. I sit up way higher than most riders because I have been too tight in my hamstrings and glutes to tolerate being bent over any farther. I finally got a spacer lower on my stem last year on the road bike. When I got back on the cross bike this year, it felt very short. It is in fact shorter and actually too small for me. The Redline cross frame is a 54 cm and I need a 56. Without changing stem length, it will never fit me properly. But I had it set up even shorter with my seat slid forward and handlebar as high as I could get it. I could feel the difference, then got visual confirmation after seeing some pictures from the races at Clarksville and Harpeth. I was riding very upright with a rounded back. Not only is that not aero and not allowing you to use all of you large muscle groups to their full extent, the rounded back also takes your core out of the pedal stroke. I began to extend my position and work hard on engaging my core. It felt better on the very first day I made the changes.

     The changes in position also revealed some weaknesses in my pedal stroke. By riding upright for so long I had adopted a pedal stroke that was dominated more by the upstroke than the downstroke. I was actually pulling harder than pushing, putting a lot of stress on my hamstrings and calves. The hamstring is strong enough to take the extra stress, but evidently the calves were not. This pedaling style is likely what has caused my gastroc issues over the past year. I overworked the gastrocs, causing increased muscle spasm which eventually got so bad that it caused irritation at the muscle-bone junction on the distal end of my femur. That would also explain the weak quads I discovered when I started doing weights in December. I was not using the quads very much with that style of pedaling. The goal on every ride became to stay in that new, more extended position with the core engaged and focusing more on pushing than pulling when pedaling.

     The second race of the Montgomery Bell Winter Mountain Bike Time Trial Series was my next fitness check. A lot of things had changed in the five weeks since race #1. I had started to change my pedaling style, I had spent a lot more training time doing intense efforts for 60-75 minutes like this race would be, and I had dropped 7.4 pounds of body weight. I was still well over where I need to be to race well, but I had made a lot of progress with weight loss. I was also feeling stronger throughout my body with all the strength training sessions I have been faithfully doing. I worked hard to correct that quad weakness, pushed my core to a new level and worked the upper body to get it ready to handle the stresses of mountain biking. All these changes were very noticeable in the race.

     It was another perfect day for winter mountain biking. We had some heavy rain earlier in the week that damaged some of the trail, but Michael Edens and his crew put in a lot of manual labor and got everything looking perfect on race day. While there were some slick corners in the sections that had no leaves on them, the course was better overall than in January. It was rode-in better in the leafy sections and just felt faster. I knew it was a good day to lay down a better time. I wanted to knock off at least 30 seconds so there would be no doubt about that time discrepancy a lot of us felt was there in the results of race #1.

     I started about five riders back. I was fine with that as I wanted somebody to chase. There were several juniors starting ahead of me and dang were they fast! The one that started 30 seconds ahead of me, Harrison Klapheke, held me off for much of the race. I started slower and gained speed over the course. I was surprised to not even see Harrison until almost halfway through the race. Once I got to him, it took me a long time to actually pass him. I picked up two sticks in my rear wheel and had to stop to clear one of them. Each time I would get back across to him, something would happen. I was a little stronger up the climbs and finally got by him with about four miles to go. He is a strong rider and one to watch out for in the future for sure.

Scott Schlapman of Alabama

Bobby Jones getting underway

Michael Edens

Me starting my run

Photo by Randy Woodward

Schlapman

Bobby Jones

Harrison Klapheke

David Jones. Glad to see my high school friend getting into mountain biking now to help with training for hare scrambles.

Dustin Burkeen. He is always fast, but a hard crash after clipping a tree messed up his rhythm today,.

Clint Burkeen

Grant Wilson on his fatbike. He finished 7th today on that hog!

Simon Lewis

Cayce Tielser

Jeff Barber

John Carr

Scott Marx, the Singlespeed winner today

Mike Taglio

Jean-Paul McNeely

Butch Carter

Joe Grubbs

My Dad, Jesse Greer, in his first mountain bike race in years

Steve Smail

     I managed to catch everyone that started ahead of me except for one. Again, it was a Junior. Bobby Jones started about 1:30 ahead of me and I timed him at 3:00 ahead at one point near the end of the lap. He was flying! I had a great ride and ended up bettering my time from January by 1:32. My official time was 1:10:16. Bobby smoked it with a time of 1:08:18 to get the win. He was 1:58 ahead of me, which means I pulled back some time near the end. Cayce Tiesler started deeper in the field on his home course and clocked a 1:08:45 for second place. That was very impressive considering how much traffic he came through and that he was on his singlespeed. I took third place and another podium to kick off the year. I was happy to see progress, but I want to win some races this year. I still have a lot of work to do to really get back to a Pro level on the mountain bike. With this series being decided by your fastest single race, I know I have to really step it up in March if I want to win. I hope the weather will cooperate again next month. It was awesome to see some new faces at the front, especially Bobby and Harrison, both of which are just 15 years old!

Bobby Jones near the end of the race

On my way to 3rd

Photo by Randy Woodward

Photo by Randy Woodward

Edens

Klapheke

Schlapman

Dustin Burkeen

David Carpenter

Simon Lewis

Grant Wilson

Cayce about to take 2nd

John Carr with his game face on as usual

Marx

Barry Reed

Gib Morehead

Butch

Carey Dincauze

Sarah Moore

Lucia Colbert

Pops made it out

Christie Brinker

Tagz

Marsha Williams

Kailin Acheson

     I was tired after the race, but not near as much as in January, so I took another lap on the course to get in some more miles. I pushed some of the hills, but just stayed steady overall. This race is short at 1:10, so I needed more to get me ready for a full two hour XC. I enjoyed catching the back of the field that were still out on course. The Juniors were at the back. It was fun to cheer on the little junior girls. They were all so nice and riding so hard! I wish I had been that determined when I was that age. Some of them are just 13-14 years old and out there tackling a very tough course. Everyone gives credit to the overall winners for being so great, but these girls are the ones that are really throwing down and reaching beyond themselves.

First buttercup of the year popped up along the race course today. It gives the illusion that Spring is here, but I am sure we have a lot of cold suffering yet to come.

Photo by Laureen Coffelt

     My Dad even came out to race for the first time this year. I talked him into a few road time trials last year, but this was his first mountain bike race in years. He has not been riding much and this course made him pay. His legs cramped badly at the end, but he made it out and finished 27th in the 40+ class, far from last place like he thought he would finish. I just have to get him more motivated at home so he can make it through these races without quite so much suffering. He did buy a racing license so I know I will get him out to several more races this year.

     After the race, I went to the airport in Nashville to pick up Shannon. She had been in Utah visiting Gma for their birthdays. They both have the same birthday and both were hitting milestone numbers this year. Shannon turned 30, but Gma hit the big 80! Most of the family was able to get out there and throw her a surprise 80th party. She was happy to be able to see everyone. They also did a very cool thing for her with the party invitations. Everyone's invitation was a picture of Gma and they were asked to write their favorite memory of Gma on the back and mail it back to her. There were some really funny stories that came out of that!

    I mentioned in the last post that I had been playing with some new settings on my GoPro, like the timed shots and burst settings. I figured out how to do some time-lapse and caught a nice sunset at the farm a few weeks ago. The video is below. I'm hoping to try time-lapse out some more in the coming months and also experiment with some new video settings I discovered. My Hero2 does not have all the functions of the newer GoPros, but it has more on there than I have been using. It makes me want a new one because some of the new functions are really nice for slow-motion video and also burst shots. GoPro has many tutorial videos posted on their YouTube channel. If you have a GoPro camera it is worth your time to watch their videos. They're very helpful in learning how to get the most out of your camera.

Video: Time-lapse sunset on the farm