Marji Gesick 100 / 2022 Year End / Plans for 2023
Marji Gesick 100 / 2022 Year End / Plans for 2023
That’s a whole lot to cover in one blog post, but since I have not written one if far too long I thought I’d go big. Nearly as big as the hernia I left Marji with (hint as to the year end part).
Let’s start with the lead up to Marji Gesick 2022. My training, prep and conditioning were probably as good as they had ever been. I’d been hitting my workouts, a few weeks before race day I did a five day gravel “tour” covering nearly 450 miles (talk about building fitness) and I generally felt good, strong and ready.
The week leading up to the race the weather kept changing, but generally it did not look promising-rain. Rain for days. I will say I am pretty good at flipping off that “self-preservation” switch while riding, but trying to ride the entire Marji race in the rain was not something I was looking forward to. So much so, I told Laurie I was not too proud to pull the plug if I thought conditions were going to ruin, or create great havoc, to my bike. The day before I had nearly convinced myself I wasn’t going to race because the forecast looked so bleak. I’d toe the line, but that was about it.
Boy was I wrong.
I woke up on race day to what was probably the most ideal conditions I’d seen. Things were a bit damp at the start, but it warmed up and dried out fast.
Back on the trail I focused on settling into my pace and riding smooth and efficiently. I rode sections of trail around Harrlow Lake and Freeman Landing that required hike-a-bike in past years, which was very confidence boosting. I rolled back into Forestville for my first meet up with Laurie to swap bottles exactly on the timeline I’d made up for an 11:45 finish.
I set off for what I think is the most technical riding of the day, Pine Knob. Again I rode sections I had not been able to in prior attempts. It probably helped that I was riding by myself instead of in a line with people like I was in 2021. Pace was good, legs were good, fuel/hydration was good. Although this year I was not getting over confident like I did in 2019. You can read all about that HERE
One minor wrong turn and a lot of rocks later I rolled into my next meetup with Laurie at 29.4 miles and less than 3 hours into the day, still on pace and still feeling good. South trails were as fun as ever and the trails behind Marquette Mtn (Gurly, Scary and Zueg’s) were as tough as ever, but I rode smooth, kept fueling and pushed at my pace. My only small issue was dropping my chain while going down Scary trail. It only took a moment to fix, but stopping in the middle of the trial did make it a bit more challenging.
One more meet-up with Laurie, this time in the Mt. Marquette parking lot. About 50 miles complete in 5:02. My timeline was to be there at 5:00, I couldn’t have done that any better if I’d had a pacer. From there to Jackson Mine Park was pretty unremarkable, either that or for once the trail was not actively trying to hurt me and my bike. I rolled into the park at 6 hrs 43 min. I took a couple minutes to drink some coke and eat a cookie before heading out into the dreaded RAMBA trails. (Don’t tell anyone, but I really like riding these trails when I’m not 66 miles into my day).
The beginning of the end!
I’m not exactly sure when, but shortly after leaving JMP I started getting a really bad headache. I just ignored it, thinking it was because I had lost my sunglasses earlier in the day (that’s two pairs lost at 906 events now). I pushed on hoping it would go away. Then my stomach joined the hurt Mitch party. I had no idea what was going on now, but it was bad.
Pedaling hurt. Pushing my bike hurt. Moving hurt. Over the next three hours I managed to ride my bike for a whopping two hours at an average of 121 watts. It was not impressive. I just knew I needed to make it to the bike path in Ishpeming where Laurie was set to meet me.
I rolled up to her. I couldn’t really see straight and was just in a bad way. I stopped, drank water, tried to eat, took some Tylenol and basically laid on the ground for an hour. Nothing helped. I decided I didn’t care and was going to get back at it. Although I did ask Laurie to meet me about a mile away, just in case. I rode to her and called it.
QUITTER!!!!
Laurie drove us back to our Air BNB where I showered and collapsed into bed. No idea what was going on but knowing something was wrong.
The next morning I woke up and my head was better, but my stomach area was still off. I went to take a quick shower (yes I shower a lot) and found out why. I had a giant hernia. There was no question or doubt. I wanted to take a picture, but I was told that might be inappropriate or just a bit TMI.
So that was it, the end of my 2022 season, which otherwise was a pretty great year of riding and racing.
The aftermath:
When I got back home I made a few calls and got in touch with a surgeon. I went in for my appointment and was told I could do most things. I could ride, walk, play with the kiddos, but I shouldn’t lift weights or train hard. I could still ride the trainer, but really only zone 2. So that is what I did from late September until the day before Thanksgiving when I had my hernia repaired. In case you were wondering, the surgeon said my hernia was massive. From there it was a week completely off, a week of super easy, then I was able to slowly ramp back up the intensity over the next 2-3 weeks.
I thought it might be interesting to take a picture everyday from the morning before surgery until a month after to see the recovery progression. It might not actually be interesting, but here it is anyway:
With everything all but healed up I decided I should make one last bad decision in 2022; time for another 24 hour challenge. But extra. Instead of riding 10 miles in each hour I would ride at least 12 miles. Because “Bad Decisions”. On December 29th at 6:00pm (after a full day of work) I started pedaling my bike for the first of 24 sessions.
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| My setup for the day |
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| The start of fueling |
I would go into great depth and description, but honestly, how many times can I use the words boring, tedious and monotonous in one paragraph and expect anyone to read it. It was a very long time. And at 5:34 pm on December 30th I hit 12+ miles for the 24th time. I then messed around for a few minutes before deciding I should add up exactly how many miles I had completed. 290.6 miles. Less than 10 miles from 300. Thanks to some horrible peer pressure from Laurie I jumped back on the bike at 5:39 for my 25th set. Because “Bad Decisions”. 23 minutes and 47 seconds later I hit the goal I’d arbitrarily made up 24 minutes ago. 300 trainer miles. It may have been 6:04pm, but at that point who’s counting, plus the 24 hours was completed well within the time frame.
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| 300 miles later |
I’ll stand by what I said the last time I did a 24 hour challenge, the hardest part is just being awake for that long. I woke up at 6:00am on the 29th and did not go to sleep until 9:30pm on the 30th, or 39.5 hours of being awake.
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| So tired |
So what’s in store for 2023.
First, sponsors:
Hammer Nutrition
SPIN Bicycle Shop
Zevlin
ESI Grips
Smith Optics
Tannus Armour
Pearl Izumi
#League of Garmin
I know I’ll be at Cohutta 100, Mohican 100, Lumberjack 100, Marji Gesick 100 (are you picking up a theme here?). I’ll also be riding the Big Bear Butt Cruise and the Cow Pie Big Sh!t. I’ll be running SAG for the Crusher 100 Mass Start and Moran 66. Lastly I’ll be riding the Maple River Gravel Grinder with one of my sons. I also can’t forget the LumberJunk event.
I do have a few other rides planned, but they are not for public knowledge at this time, just know they will be suitable bad ideas.
For now, back to the trainer.
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