My Fall was spent mostly in the woods. I got in a lot of time on the mountain bike on our shortened XC course at the house. Our established loop was less than two miles long, but it is very fast and fun so making several laps on it every day was not mentally difficult. At first I missed the long lap times, but after a while I actually enjoyed the change to a shorter course and making multiple laps. Our course offers some power sections and a few short, steep hills so it sort of felt like a World Cup with 12-minute lap times. We are still in a major drought so trail conditions have been dry and fast.
All the mountain biking motivated me to start cutting new trail directly behind our house. We have some land of our own to work with now, plus the section of the neighbor's land that backs up to it is relatively young trees so it is safe from the logging for the most part. The logging that would take "a few weeks" is still going on. Last I heard the target finish date is Thanksgiving. It can't come fast enough for me. I'm ready to start cutting trail and stop hearing the constant sound of crashing trees.
After a few days of work, I got 0.3 miles of flowing singletrack added behind my house. It's a hillside so I didn't have a lot to work with, but I think it turned out really well. It's fast and fun with a few jump options and plenty of quick elevation changes. I love it, but everyone else in the family thinks it is too slow, too hard and too rough. It's as fast as anything else we have so I don't understand the complaints on that. It is rough for sure. The ground is so dry that it feels more like concrete than dirt. I attempted to smooth out a few sections, but it was tough going with hand tools. It was so dry and loose after I worked on it that Shannon and I had to carry a water can around and spray down the loose spots so the dirt wouldn't blow away in the wind.
Despite all my mountain bike time recently, I still feel like my form has slipped away. I have been slacking off the bike and I can feel it. The legs feel good, but I can tell I'm hauling around a few extra pounds. PRs continue to fall at the house, but I feel a lot of that is due to the blazing-fast trail conditions more than my actual fitness. I have been working hard on my skills, trying to improve my cornering and flow while at max effort. I want to be able to flow over the terrain faster while recovering rather than it taking so much energy to ride aggressively. I'm definitely riding more aggressive than I ever have before thanks to the Epic eating up the trail. I am making gains all the time, but it has also put me on the ground several times recently. I've had two pretty big falls since Race to the Canal. My right knee took the brunt of both of them, the same knee I busted at the Canal. I don't bruise very often, but lately I have been covered in bruises on my legs. It's just one of those things that comes with pushing the limits.
By the middle of the month, I had overdone it with mountain biking every day and had to take a week off. I wasn't doing any structured training, just getting out and having fun riding my bike. But it still takes it toll on the body and you must rest periodically. With feeling fatigued, not in great shape and with the weather conditions still being warm and dry, I just couldn't get motivated for most of cyclocross season. When trails are this good, I'm going to spend my time mountain biking, not riding circles in the grass. I decided to skip the Tennessee State Championships for this reason and also the fact that there was no payout. I do not support the trend of offering no payout to any classes just because a race is the State Championship. To me, that should be the biggest race of the season in Tennessee. It should feature the best racing from the best racers in our area, and they should be rewarded with the biggest payout of the year in addition to the medals and jerseys. Just my opinion...
It was hard to take a break from riding, but I survived it and was back on the bike at Thanksgiving for our annual Tour de Turkey races at home. The logging wasn't finished and the neighbors allowed deer hunters in the woods all weekend, so we were limited to my parents' property and just over one mile of trail for four races. It was a good time despite the short loops. It was the first time I can ever remember dry conditions for Thanksgiving weekend. It was warm for all of our events except the night short track race we did on Black Friday. I just got a new Maxxis skinsuit that I got to test out in that short track. It's an old aerosuit designed for time trialing for the Maxxis-Shimano team. It fits a bit weird, but it feels fast. Just make sure you don't eat too much before you squeeze into an aerosuit. They are beyond form-fitting. It's another hand-me-down extra that I was able to get my hands on. I got it for a good price and am happy to have some new kit for next season, providing Maxxis continues to sponsor me for next season.
Speaking of sponsors, First Endurance has already agreed to continue sponsoring me for the 2017 season. They didn't even hesitate in offering me their Pro deal. I am very grateful to be working with them. This will be our eight year working together. I have tried to secure more sponsors for next year, but so far I have been striking out. I was hoping the SERC title would help me get some notice out in the cycling world, but I have been ignored thus far. And I really mean ignored. I wasn't even considered by one single company or team I applied to. Most of them never even responded to any of my attempts at contact. Looks like the privateer life will continue in 2017.
November ended on a bit of a sour note in Tennessee. The drought got pretty bad and brought on obvious burn bans across the entire state. Of course, there were people that were still having brush fires and throwing out burning cigarette butts which caused multiple fires all over the state. Tossing cigarette butts is annoying on a normal day. It's litter. Put it in the trash. Throwing it out into the grass when everything is dry is just stupid. I watched one of my neighbors toss butts out in front of my house almost every day as they came driving by. I can't believe people lack the sense to know they could set someone's yard on fire and maybe even burn down a house just because they couldn't wait another 30 seconds to throw their butt into the trash at their own house.
All the small fires were controlled without much damage, but finally the big ones got started and turned into full-on forest fires. They began in western North Carolina in the mountains and burned several parts of not only that state, but also east Tennessee. Then there was a big fire in the Great Smoky Mountains that made it's way down the mountains to the town of Gatlinburg and did a lot of damage. The fire burned over 17,000 acres, nearly 11,000 of which were inside the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. When the fire reached town, 2,460 structures were burned, many completely destroyed. Fourteen people lost their lives and 191 others were injured. Thanks to the 800+ firefighters that came to the area from 40 different states, the fire was stopped before all of the town was destroyed. It is estimated that Sevier County sustained $500 million worth of damage.
Gatlinburg Fire
photo courtesy of Facebook/acesoutheast
photo courtesy of CNN
As usual, the volunteer state has stepped up to help everyone. Most of the town has reopened and those in need are being helped. That is what I love about my state. People always help others in need which is something you do not always see nowadays. Google "Gatlinburg Fire" if you want to read more about it. There were some pretty insane videos of people escaping the area as the fire moved in. They have suspects in custody for possible arson charges. The fire was bad enough, but knowing it was likely set on purpose just blows my mind. When we were in Utah this year, there were several fires burning and a man was arrested for arson. He was seen setting at least six fires and turned out to be a former firefighter.
Aftermath of the Gatlinburg fire
photo courtesy of CNN
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