I talked with two local teams hoping to get some teammates and at least some bike shop support. But I ran into the same old barrier that has come up since the very first day I started racing in 2000. Nobody wants you to race road and mountain. Road teams still think I'm a mountain biker. Mountain bike teams think I've converted to all road. I can see the mountain bike teams thinking that because I have raced primarily road the past few years. But as for the road teams, if they haven't noticed my commitment to the road yet they never will.
The two local teams did not have much to offer with teammates in my category. Most of their riders were Cat. 3 or Cat. 4 level. Neither could offer any help with expenses. Both wanted me to focus on road events in Tennessee to score TBRA club points for them, and required me to buy my own kits. I appreciate the interest in me, but I don't see the point in spending money on a kit when I get no teammates, no financial help and am asked to focus on races I don't really care to do. I'm just not a fan of most of the Tennessee races, road or mountain. We have some good riders around here, but mountain bike races draw two to three Pro riders, and road events are lucky to see 20 Pro/1/2 riders at most events. I'd rather race with 20 fast Pros at a SERC mountain bike race, or mix it up in a crit. with 100+ guys. That's just my preference. There are a lot of other local teams in our general area that have more to offer, but so many of them now are built around riders from that particular area. We live out away from most other riders and racers. We don't really fall into the Nashville, Clarksville or Hopkinsville area so I feel that gets me overlooked sometimes.
I contacted more companies in the bike industry than ever before this year, but was unsuccessful in getting any sort of help. Actually, none of the new people I contacted even responded. I applied again to Maxxis and First Endurance again in September. First Endurance got back to me the next day and offered me a continuation of my current discount deal. They apologized for not being able to give me more. I know I'm not finishing well enough to get a bunch of free things from a small company such as them. I was amazed that they even thought about it.
Maxxis notifies its grassroots riders around Thanksgiving about their sponsorship status. I didn't hear anything in November or the first half of December. I had given up on them, thinking I just didn't do enough in 2015 for them to justify continuing my grassroots contract. Part of that thought was true. They didn't justify continuing my grassroots contract. Just before Christmas I got the email that I had been upgraded to a Pro contract! It isn't Pro as in getting paid. It's Pro as in I will get some free tires for 2016. In the 10 years I have worked with Maxxis, they have been great to me and they did not disappoint this year. They know I'm working hard and they want to help. The 2016 season will be the 11th straight season I will be backed by Maxxis. Thanks guys!
I have had talks with another person/company interested in helping me, but so far we have not progressed beyond talking. His initial idea sounded great, with the possibility of it becoming even bigger, but we have not been able to get anything going yet. He wants to help, he just hasn't decided exactly how he wants to contribute yet. Whether he does get involved or not, I'm still happy to see that we have generated some sort of interest. I've worked really hard at this over the past several years with no change to show for it.
Bright late-December sunset on the farm
I did No-Shave November with a few guys at work. The left picture is from Oct. 31 when I shaved. I actually shaved everything off, which is something I have not done in years. Right picture is Dec. 1. Winter is beard time!
After Cross the Harpeth, I was feeling much stronger in my gastroc and ready to start real rehab on it rather than just manage the symptoms. It was time to strengthen the gastroc and the surrounding muscles that all contribute to pedaling on a bike. I had a great strength routine down by the end of last winter when I was rehabing the left gastroc, so I knew just what to do this time. I worked on ankle, quad, hamstring and glute strengthening. To my surprise, my quads were quite weak, which is really uncommon for a bike rider.
I was into a good rhythm of working out by the time Christmas came around. We spent the holiday in Indiana and Michigan visiting the Toney side of the family. We drove up on Christmas Eve and spent Christmas Day in Elkhart with Shannon's family. It was a nice, peaceful day. Not all the family made it up by Christmas Day since Christmas fell on a Friday this year, so it was a lot more laid back and more quiet than the typical family function. The weather was cool, but it was sunny and beautiful out. I hit the road for a while to enjoy the day and do some exploring. I rode further west than I ever have and found some nice gravel roads. It was a nice Christmas gift. I got some really great gifts this year, even though I probably deserve a big lump of coal. In addition to a gravel ride, Shannon bought my a new Elite trainer as my old indoor trainer was about to fall apart. I've had it for at least 12 years and logged many, many miles on it. It was in such bad shape that it was starting to lean to the left and you had to sit weird on the bike to stay upright. Dina bought me two tickets to see Lamb of God and Anthrax in concert later in January. I'm a metal head so I was really pumped about that!
Indiana gravel on Christmas Day
Rocky little side road through farmland
The gravel ride was two and half hours long and the gastroc pain came creeping up on me toward the end. It wasn't bad, but it was there. It was frustrating because I had some pain-free rides recently, but I still wasn't lasting much past two hours. My strength workouts over the Christmas period had mixed results as well. I had pain at the end of the workouts two of the days we were there. It was fine doing stationary exercises, but the second I did anything dynamic, like running or jumping, the gastroc would tighten and become painful. Shannon worked hard on me with massage and helped me manage the symptoms. I was unsure whether to continue trying to strengthen or take some time off. In the end, I chose to press on as I felt it needed to be strengthened and tolerance to activity built up. I wasn't going to push into the pain, but I felt it needed to be pushed to that point each workout.
Took a little gravel road through this cemetery. Remembering the dead on Christmas Day.
The workouts were nothing spectacular, but they sure wore me out. I had a nice nap in a very uncomfortable position during an evening with family in Michigan. I had been working on a huge puzzle with Amber most of the night. Once we finished, I was tired so I laid over onto a speaker and wound up sleeping there for close to two hours. Speakers do not make good pillows, but I was so tired that I did not care. Brooke took a picture so we could laugh about it later.
One of the funniest things we saw on our Christmas trip was a letter to Shannon's Dad. He is the bishop of the church ward in Elkhart and he often gets drawings and letters from the children. The spelling on this one had evre butty cracking up.
As usual, we brought the warmer weather with us (warmer for them, still cold to us) and it was a green Christmas yet again, but we did see a little snow the day we left. It wasn't much, but it was nice to see. It was the first snow we had seen this winter. Actually, it was more sleet than snow. It kept filling up the satellite dish and knocking out our feed of the college football bowl games.
When we got back home, the gastroc was feeling slightly better. The whole family decided to keep our backyard races going and we ended our 2015 and started our 2016 on the bike. We had a night short track on New Year's Eve, followed by a morning cyclocross race on New Year's Day. The short track went well for my leg, but I had a lot of pain with dismounting and running during the cyclocross. I had to stop after 20 minutes due to the pain. I didn't want to push into the pain and really get it aggravated. I had planned to do the first race of the Montgomery Bell Winter MTB Time Trial Series on January 3, so I couldn't afford to get the gastroc hurting too much. I hated to quit, but knew it was the best decision. I grabbed a bell and heckled Dina as she completed her full distance.
Later in the day on New Year's Day, we had our third annual backyard Polar Plunge in the pond behind our house on the Clark Farm. Shannon's brother, Jared, brought us a bike several years ago. He bought it and wanted me to fix it up, but the bike was in bad shape. It was going to take more money to fix it than he was willing to spend. Somehow, I ended up with the bike and it's been taking up space in the basement since then. I decided to make use of it by riding into the pond to kick off the Polar Plunge. I spent an hour on it making it rideable. It didn't have brakes and barely could be pedaled, but it would last long enough to ride into the water.
Everybody wanted me to ride off the biggest hill into the pond, but I knew that would be disaster and I was not prepared to give them that kind of show. The water gets deep really quick and I would surely be vaulted over the bars immediately upon hitting the water. I wanted to ride straight off the dock, but the dock was broken. I constructed a sketchy, rickety ramp out of some chunks of wood I had lying around in the basement. It wasn't safe, but it would hold up for one run.
My Dad was still set on me riding off the hill. He was also upset that I was taking what he considered a perfectly good bike off into the water. I let him take the perfect bike for a spin. He quickly found out that it was trash, but he still rode it up to the top of the hill to show me what I should do. I was thinking he would just sit there, but he started off the hill toward the water. I yelled to him that the bike had no brakes. He freaked out, turned the handlebar and got dumped onto his face on the hillside. He was about two feet from the steep part of the hill where stopping would have no longer been an option. I got a good laugh as he dusted off, which irritated him, but then I reminded him that I didn't have to tell him about the brakes.
Again this year, we had several people that wanted to do the jump with us, but when the time came, none were to be found. It ended up being just Dina and I jumping. I kicked things off by riding off the dock on the bike. The start was tough with my sketchy ramp and the fact that the rear tire was flat after my Dad's crash, but it was so fun to ride off that dock! You never get to purposefully ride over the edge of any ledge and let the front end drop. It goes against every instinct you have. I enjoyed being able to just let the bike go. The front dropped faster than I expected and the chainring dug into the dock, accelerating my flip over the bars as I hit the water. I finished my flip underwater and was waiting for the bike to fall on top of me, but I never felt it. We had tied a small rope to the bike so it could be fished out easily afterwards. Nobody wanted to stay in the water long enough to go to the bottom and retrieve it.
A little prep work, making sure the rope was long enough for me to get all the way into the water
On the way
Impact
From the other side
Dad fishing the bike out
The water was cold, but not as bad as in past years I'd say it was 40-42 degrees this year. Air temp was that cold too so it wasn't much of a shock when you hit the water. I was able to talk Dina into going in more than once this year. She jumped twice. I rode the bike in and jumped three more times.
Dina's first jump
My first jump caught at a perfect moment to make me look weird
Dina helped me with the second jump
After the push
My last jump
Some of the bystanders then went to get a big plastic pipe. Austin and Lucas Clark, whose family owns the farm we live on, told a story about how they rolled down the hill into the pond in a plastic pipe a few summers ago. Somebody else said they would do that and the next thing you know the pipe is getting carried out from the barn and people are rolling down the hill in it. They didn't go down the hill into the pond, but instead picked a bigger hill at the back of the farm. I was hesitant to do it, but after my 60-year old neighbor and my Mom did it, I figured I would give it a shot. I took the GoPro with me, which was a huge mistake. You needed both hands to brace yourself inside the pipe. Once it got rolling fast and hit a few bumps, I got tossed all around the inside. When we finally stopped, I couldn't get up. Both knees and my back took a beating and I took a few good shots to the head. It made for some good video though. It looks like my head actually came out of the pipe near the bottom and I smacked the ground a few times. We have pictures and video posted below. The end of the video is my favorite part because Dina went down the hill a second time and held the camera. You can see her eyes spin when she gets to the bottom. It was a day of spontaneous redneck fun on the farm, as you can tell by all the redneck accents you can hear in the video.
Our neighbor, June, climbing in on one end of the pipe
My Dad on the other end
Down the hill they go
Dina and I get ready to go down
Me on the way down. Dina is in the other end.
My head sticking out near the bottom
What it looked like from inside
Dina stumbles away as I try to slide out
Sums up how I felt afterwards
Dina took the camera on her second run. She was excited when it first started.
Getting rough, but still a smile
Those eyes say she's coo-coo for cocoa puffs
Video: 2016 Polar Plunge & Pipe Roll
I took a complete rest day on Jan. 2 to let the gastroc recover in hopes it would hold out long enough for me to complete the Montgomery Bell TT. Michael Edens started this new winter series at Montgomery Bell State Park in White Bluff, TN. He modeled it off the Snake Creek Gap TT Series in north Georgia. We would have three races, taking place on the first Sunday of January, February and March. Prizes would be dished out based on your fastest time of the series. Times for the three would not be added together, it would be your fastest single run that would count for the final standings. I'm not really a fan of that format because you can win with only doing one race in the series. In winter, we may only get one dry race, so that put all the emphasis on the one day. But it is what it is and I was ready to give it my best shot at every round to try to set that best time.
Montgomery Bell is a tight, technical trail, so it suits me well. Even with the gastroc injury, I knew I could do well in this first race, maybe even contend for the win. I still was in poor shape, but my skills could help me hang with the others who would also likely be off their game a little at this point in January. I had dropped two pounds since Cross the Harpeth, which I thought was very good considering that was over the Christmas weeks which are always filled with goodies and too many big meals. But I was still way overweight and out of shape overall.
They announced they they would try to judge our speed and seed us based on who they thought was fastest, with fastest going first so it would minimize the amount of traffic for everyone. The course was a good distance for winter racing. The loop was about 13 miles and is very difficult with numerous steep climbs. I expected to complete the course in 1:15-1:20. I got seeded third, but wound up starting second as Edens was seeded first, but he was still out marking the course when it was time to begin.
Starting second gave me one rider to chase. We went at 30-second intervals, so that put the rider ahead just out of sight. The trail was in good shape today, only slick in a few places, which is remarkable for January. The leaves and pine needles were much more of a problem than the dirt. We even had warm temps with it being in the upper-50s. I paced myself well on my run, starting at a moderate pace and picking it up over the course of the race. I caught my 30-second man after about 10 minutes. The first section is tight and twisty with lots of pine needles. It's easy to over-ride the corners and make mistakes here. Some of the sections have sort of a speed limit dictated by the turns and needles. You just have to calm down and be smooth through this part, then you can open it up in the second part, which has more straightaways, fast turns and longer climbs.
Scott Schlapman was my 30-second man and he hung with me for a while after I passed him. He made me push hard in the second section just to get away from him. I didn't want to drag him around the course and then have to let him go if my gastroc started hurting and have him end up beating me. I was alone by the time we reached the first of three long, slick creek crossings. This creek crossing takes you onto the more difficult portion of the trail, the part where most of the steep climbing is located. It starts with the infamous "Tommy's Revenge" section, then includes the long climbs of "Charlotte's Ridge" and the twisting "Goatpath." I didn't clean Tommy's Revenge and struggled some up Charlotte's Ridge and Goatpath. The course is very twisty in the back portion, so I could see many other riders and none seemed to be closing on me. I knew I could have a shot at the win if I could keep pushing on. My right gastroc felt great, but my left one was giving me problems. It has not been perfect since the week the right one became aggravated, but it has been much less bothersome, taking a backseat to the pain I had on the right side. The left gastroc got tight and was very fatigued, but it never hurt.
photo by Bryan Bloebaum
I knew the course was hard, but I still underestimated it a little. I hit "Heartbreak Hill" really hard, thinking it was the last real climb on course. But really, it's all uphill from there to the finish. I faded some in the closing two miles of gradual climbing, but I clocked a 1:11:47 on my clock, good enough to get the win! It felt good to get a "W" in the first race of the year. Now I know I will not go winless in 2016 like I did in 2015. They recorded my time as 1:12:16, almost exactly 30 seconds off what I was showing. After talking to others, all of the recorded times were 30 seconds off, which was likely due to the time not being adjusted right after the first rider scheduled to start was not there. I didn't think much about it at the time, but later I wanted it right. If it rained in Feb. and March, this time could be my best time and could mean a lot for the overall. But we couldn't prove the time was off unless everyone went up there together so it wasn't worth fussing about. It just made me more determined to go faster in the next race.
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