The month began with the final Montgomery Bell Winter TT race of the series. It was a beautiful day in the upper-50s with some sunshine and a dry trail. I was much more prepared for this round. I rode well, making a few mistakes here and there from just not having the trail dialed in like I did last year when I blitzed the March round. My legs were good, but I was missing the snap to hit the hills hard and carry speed over the top. I worked hard the past month, but I didn't lose any weight, so I was still really heavy for this race and it showed on the climbs.
Kyle Tiesler, the eventual race winner, caught me with about 1/3 of the race to go. I was able to get on his wheel and follow him the rest of the way. My legs started to really fatigue right as we reached the finish so I gauged the effort about as well as I could on my current form. I clocked a 1:36:30, good enough for 4th on the day and 4th for the overall series. I was disappointed to not be ready like I was last year, but it was a good ride considering how overweight I am and I was still just 2:53 off the win. It was by far my best time this year.
That performance helped me carry a little momentum into March. I still wasn't logging enough miles to get into great shape, but I did get to ride a fair amount. I was still working a lot, taking as many outpatient PT hours as I could get. I ended up having to leave my home health job. They continued to have me schedule days with them and then not give me any patients. I finally had enough and stopped scheduling anything with them. They asked me to turn in my smartphone, which felt sort of like the end, but things dragged on a bit longer. In December, the started texting me to see if I could see either seven or eight patients the following day. Not asking me if I could work, but rather asking how many patients I could see. Only problem was that I had scheduled all my days with outpatient. The home health people couldn't understand why I would do that. They didn't see anything wrong with them not giving me patients. They then began to demand I work weekends. When I said no that wasn't our deal, they said take it or leave it. I chose to leave. What a weird job experience that was.
That was my first smartphone. Sounds crazy with the digital age we live in, but it was true. And I'm glad to get rid of it. Don't get me wrong, I loved using the phone. I could check traffic, weather and email, not to mention Google anything I needed. But that was also the problem. Too much time spent checking emails and using apps. It seems necessary when the phone is in your hand, but wasn't before I had a smartphone. It was a distraction and I welcome back my old flip phone. Not to mention the flipper is WAY cheaper when the bill is coming out of my pocket. I would rather save that money to use on my bike than to have the ability to check Facebook at all times.
The weather was a bit crazy in March, which is pretty typical for Tennessee. We ride the rollercoaster of temperatures this time of year. We started with warm, sunny days and the flowers began to appear everywhere. I dug up a ton of buttercups along a road I ride often and moved them to our house to add some early season color to our lawn. I got them planted just in time for a few rounds of snow. It was nothing major, but it doesn't take much to cause mass panic around these parts. Being busy at work is stressful, but not being busy is worse. The bosses lose their minds, constantly worrying about missed visits and making budget. They come up with plans that basically punish us for the bad weather days, making us work extra hours to make up for the slow day even though we are always there willing to see anyone that comes in. I'm all about getting every patient seen that wants to be seen, but it's a bit ridiculous for us to spend extra hours trying to beg patients to reschedule and then spend more hours seeing them. Often they don't even show up for the rescheduled appointment. Snow days should be built into the budget. They happen every single year. I would be fine with working extra hours if it is what the patients needed, but we are only working hours to make the clinic more money. It has nothing to do with patient care these days.
I spent a lot of time on the cross bike on those snowy days and did some work on my garage. I'm trying to insulate the walls and get things organized the way I want it. We have had a small stove out there, but it does little to heat up our giant garage. My Dad built a barrel heater and we installed it in place of the small stove. What a difference! The barrel heater can warm the entire garage several degrees, and take my main work area into the 60s! I was able to work on bikes a lot easier after that, and it made the insulation work more comfortable as well.
Light snow at home
Snowy trails
Muddy bike. All the snow melted during my ride. This was taken the same day as the picture above of the snowy trail.
Barrel heater in the garage
When the second snow melted, water began coming down our chimney into the house. We had a leak on the roof that I had to tend to the week of the Chickasaw Trace Classic race in Columbia, TN. I got it fixed, but it cost me some valuable ride time that week.
Besides the roof fixing, we were also in the midst of serious car shopping. All those long work hours were finally paying off! We were close enough to our savings goal to be seriously looking at cars. We needed two vehicles and we got two vehicles by the end of March. My Dad decided to get a new car and asked me if I wanted his old car. It was a 2006 Taurus. I already drive a Taurus so I know they run well. He takes great care of it and it only had 110,000 miles on it, which is super low for any car in our family. He usually gets 225,000+ miles out of a car before getting rid of it. But he had eyes on a new Camry so he was motivated to replace it early. He gave me a great family deal and the car was mine. I had planned on getting a van first, then look for a car, but the car opportunity came up first so I had to jump on it. That set me back from my van goal, so I had to use some of my bike money to finish getting us to the van goal.
We then found a van in Kentucky and set up a test drive. The van was a super clean 2017 Dodge Caravan with only 20,000 miles on it and a great maintenance record. It was the one I wanted with the black aluminum rims and roof rack rails that keeps it from looking like a soccer mom mobile. We took it for a drive and were able to go over it inside and out before taking it back to the dealership. The price was low so I couldn't pass. The van hunt was over! I can't wait to get it on the road to some races! No more packing two road bikes in the trunk of a car!
Thanks for the van Mike!
With all that behind us, it was time to try to salvage some sort of prep for Chickasaw. I didn't get to ride much that week, but I did what I could. They say luck favors the rider on good form and it seemed to hold true for this race. My cleats came loose before the start and I was scrambling on the start line to get them tight and realigned. It seemed so weird for both cleats to suddenly come loose, but I didn't have much time to inspect them. I tightened them up and hit the start line with five other Pros and about that many more Cat. 1s. There were more than 10 of us on the line on a cool, wet morning. The temps stayed in the upper-40s for most of the race. We had some rain before the race that made the trail slick and a bit on the muddy side, but it was completely rideable. The conditions had me licking my chops. I knew I was not in good enough shape to contend for the win, but mud helps level the playing field. We were very fortunate to even be racing as this place was under water just over a week before the race when the Duck River flooded its banks. I believe both of the photos below came from Duane Leach. Thanks to all the Columbia Cycling Club members who worked so hard to get the trail ready for the race after the water receded.
All water over this portion of the trail. This is the short field before the ramp jump heading toward the boat ramp crossing. There's a tabletop jump under that water somewhere.
The main trailhead was also significantly flooded.
I only beat two riders to the woods on the start so I was way back in the group. My cleats weren't straight and it made clipping into the pedals a bit more difficult than normal. I survived the opening section, then began to have more cleat issues at the first climb. The group bottled up and most of us had to run the climb. My shoes just swiveled around and I couldn't unclip easily. Once the cleat did come out, it would be turned and I would have to match my foot to that same release position to clip back in. It was quite difficult, especially on a muddy day when you need to dab a foot here and there.
Carson Beckett grabbed the hole shot and cleaned the first hill while everyone else bobbled. He had a nice gap just a mile into the race.
Drew Dillman and Harrison Klapheke in pursuit of Carson.
Jaron Wood and Simon Lewis enter this rock garden.
The slick rocks took Jaron down for a moment.
Bobby Jones
Me and Grant Wilson
Jeff Barber
Craig O'Neil and David Rush leading the Cat. 1 40+ race.
Sanford Webster
Craig Battinelli
Dillman running 2nd at Rick's Trail.
Despite my issues, I quickly moved up through the group as others were struggling in the slick conditions. I got held up behind some crashes and had to use some legs to cross gaps, but I did make it to the main group and was up to 5th about four miles into the race. On the next climb, I began to feel the front tire soften and it was flat as I entered Rick's Trail. I had to stop and give up all the spots I had made up. I only had one CO2 so I went for the tube instead of just adding air. If it hadn't sealed yet, the odds of it sealing after adding a little air were slim. I got the muddy tire off, but then couldn't get the valve stem to loosen. It was stuck. I tried using everything I had to help me grip it, but it wouldn't loosen. I didn't want to quit so I waited on the side of the trail, asking every rider that came by if they had some pliers. No luck. Dina was in the woods spectating and ran all the way back to the parking lot, grabbed pliers and ran back. I was able to finally get the stem loose, insert the tube and got back on the trail. I was moving, but I lost over 28 minutes. I was almost 3/4 of a lap behind the leader. The tire was full of thorns. I don't know where I got into them, but I found a whole thorn bush in the tire. If I hadn't had the extra time to check the tire thoroughly while I waited for help, I probably would have flatted again when a thorn poked the replacement tube.
Harrison in 3rd on the first climb of the Trail of Tears section of the course.
Me back going after the flat, over 30 minutes behind the leader at this point and still only halfway through the first lap.
Lap 2
Grant Wilson and Bobby Jones together on lap 2.
David Rush leads the 40+ class.
Dustin Burkeen
Cayce Tiesler
Finally made my way onto lap 2.
It was obvious I wasn't going to catch anyone at this point, but I wanted to finish the race and get in the workout. My legs were junk after the long stop and they never came back around. I pushed on though and was able to finish all three laps. Race winner Carson Beckett nearly lapped me. My climbing sucked, as to be expected when you are overweight. I know I was fat and slow, but I think I could have nabbed a solid top 5 overall with the muddy conditions, but I guess we will never know. I finally got to examine my cleats after the race and found out it was actually a shoe issue. Both of my shoes had broken around the cleat plate. Bad timing and now no shoes. Things just keep getting financially more difficult this year.
Dillman clicked off a fast final lap, but the gap to Carson was just too much.
Christie Brinker, the lone Pro/Cat. 1 Woman today.
Simon Lewis on the final rise, coming in to take 4th.
David Rush topped the Cat. 1 40+ class.
Coming out to end my day. Glad this one was over, though the trail was getting much faster and more fun as it dried out.
My cleats were pointed off to the side. Once I got the mud sprayed off, I could see it was the bottom of the shoe that was cracked and letting the cleat plate move. RIP shoes. I was fortunate to make it through a full race without the cleats coming off.
The trail dried a little during each lap of our race and some sunshine began to peak through before the next set of races began. The Cat. 2 and Cat. 3 races are held in the early afternoon at Chickasaw, which has treated them with better conditions the past few years. That trend continued as it was warmer, a little sunny at times and with a perfect trail in many sections that were slick earlier in the day. We hung around to watch, cheer on friends and take pictures. Plenty of pictures are posted below, but that is far from all of them. See the full album here. There's also a short video clip of the 50+ class hitting the first climb.
Scott Marx shooting off the line at the Singlespeed start.
Singlespeeders had to dismount for the first rocky climb.
Zdenek Fiebinger
Andy Moore showing off his great run form.
Video: The 50+ class reaches the first climb.
Juniors underway
Presleigh Jennings hitting the top of the rocky climb.
Jeff Kauppi and Scott Marx nearing the end of lap 1.
Ben Briton, always smiling.
Michael Edens smiling as he runs this climb that was still slick.
Rick Harmon won the 50+ category.
James Waller getting some tree assist.
Michael Watts
Meredith Sierpina
Z about the take the Singlespeed win.
Jean-Paul McNeely on his way to the Cat. 2 40+ win.
This section of the loop seems to be different every time I ride at Chickasaw.
James Waller heads towards the finish.
Sean Barnes
I was very happy to see my Kentucky friends at Chickasaw. Several of them currently attend, or are alumni of, Marshall County High School. There was a terrible school shooting there back in January and it was great to see that they were safe and carrying on after such a tough, tragic event. Several of them were at the school when it happened, but thankfully they were outside. Presleigh Jennings' brother was in the room where the shooting happened and was fortunate enough to come out unhurt. I can't imagine what it must have been like for everyone at that school and it was just good to see every one of them again and do with them the thing we all love so much, riding bikes.
I managed to get a new pair of shoes quickly. They were a low-level shoe that would be perfect for training and get me back on the trail quickly where I focused on getting my speed back and losing weight with laps on my home trail. MOAB managed to get my race shoes warrantied and I ended up with a new pair of Pearl Izumi mountain bike shoes a few weeks later. They didn't make that shoe anymore so I had to upgrade, which made me have to pay the difference in price, but that is fine as the new shoes are much better than my old ones ever were. You don't realize how worn out your shoes are until you get a new pair.
Evening rides at home
Speaking of my home trail, it is now much shorter. I wrote previously that the neighbor that has the biggest plot of land we use for the trail had sold his house and was moving. Well, the new neighbors haven't been very into bikes just yet. We didn't get to ride for the first two months, then finally got to talk with them. We exchanged phone numbers and they said we could text them anytime we wanted to ride and if they weren't doing anything then we could use the trails. They seemed nervous about all of us using the trails at the same time. They said they like to hike and we tried to explain that hikers and mountain bikers can use the trail at the same time, but I don't think they feel the same way.
The first few texts were good and we got to ride. Then it became a hassle as they wouldn't text back for a day or said no. I missed too much ride time sitting by the phone waiting for a text reply. It just became easier to go out on the road and make sure I got my ride time in. The first storms made things even harder as we weren't allowed to go in and clean the trails up before we rode, which turned into your afternoon ride being a stick-clearing session. It just wasn't worth it anymore. So I gave up on that section and rerouted some of the other parts to make a shorter loop. The biggest thing with losing that land was not the length of trail, but the fact that it is the middle property that ties everyone else's property together. Suddenly, our two ends were disconnected.
Fortunately, the road connects the two ends. I began to ride the road back and forth to make a lap, but nobody else in the family likes it. The road is a big hill so they don't want to climb it and they are worried about wearing out their tires on the pavement. So basically, nobody wants to ride on my section of the trail anymore. I actually like the road climb and think it will help me work on one of my weaknesses, and I'm not that worried about tires. I usually cut one before it gets worn out anyway. All I know is I need the 2.4 miles to keep from going insane. If we don't use the road we have only 1.4 miles. That's a lot of laps when you are doing 3-4 hours rides a couple of times a week. It sucks to lose this big portion of the trail. I have worked really hard on this thing for many years. It is a great training tool and a lot of fun. I highly doubt I would be racing Pro without this trail. But I also knew this day would eventually come. Shannon and I talked about this before we moved here. We asked ourselves if we would still want to live here if the trail was gone. The answer was yes, and now just over two years after moving here a big chunk of the trail is indeed gone. But we will adjust and do the best we can to keep on riding. I still have hope that maybe the neighbors will come around and see that having a family maintain all the trails for you in exchange for riding bikes on it a few days a week is totally worth it.
That does it for March. The race season began to ramp up in April. More on that in the next post.
