My Race May be Cancelled, But I Am Not.
My Race May Be Cancelled, But I Am Not.
The question is what do with all that training, fitness and the giant hole in the calendar.
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| The road goes on and on. |
Last weekend was supposed to be my first mountain bike race
of the year. Unfortunately, it was not to be.
Here was the original plan: Train, train, train all winter
and early spring. Get fast, well, faster anyway. Be ready to start my race
season with the Wildcat Mountain Bike Race in Morristown, TN on April 4th.
Crush race season and take over the world. Okay, slight exaggeration; crush
race season and have a great time may be a bit more realistic.
My early season training went mostly to plan. I made a few
adjustment here and there for a bad idea or two; namely participating in Polar
Roll (I wouldn’t call what I did racing, but I had a great time) and a
fundraiser for Haven House put on by the Capital City Cycling Club (112 miles
and 6 trainer hours later my legs were a bit spent for a while). Other than
these deviations my training was going very well. I was feeling fit and strong.
Then the world got flipped-turned upside down.
(If you didn’t just start singing the Fresh Prince theme
song there may be something wrong with you).
Dirty Bird Events (the crew who put on the race) had no
choice but to postpone the event, which is now rescheduled for October 24th,
and I was left with a lot of fitness and a big blank spot on my calendar. I even
had a day off work so I could drive to the race. I was planning to head out
after work Thursday and drive about halfway to Morristown. I would finish the
drive Friday morning with plenty of time to set up base camp and get in a lap
or two of the course for recon. The race is an 8-hour endurance event, the
object is to complete as many laps of the 7.8 mile course as possible in the
allotted 8 hours plus finish whatever lap you are on. The last lap can start up
to the race clock reaching 7:59:59, as long as you are on course. The person
with the most laps wins. If two or more people have the same number of laps,
the first one to finish the last laps win.
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| The email you expected but still did not want to receive. |
So, the question is, what to do with myself? I could just
work. I could lay around the house and relax (yeah right) or I could come up
with my own “event”.
Choice three it is.
I didn’t really want to drive anywhere to ride, so mountain
biking was out of the picture. I also didn’t want to scramble and have to make
any last-minute changes to my route. With the threat of rain early in the week
gravel was out as an option as well. Road it is. No big deal, eight hours of
race pace riding is eight hours of race pacing riding.
I did some quick math and figured I should be able to do
about 150 miles when I included time to stop back at my house to refuel, change
clothes and any other dawdling I chose to do. I did not really want to ride the
same small loop on the road just because it can be so hard to get into a rhythm
or groove, so I came up with three loops all starting and ending at my house.
At exactly 9:54 am Friday morning (Friday’s weather was much
nicer than Saturday’s forecast) I set out on my first 51-mile leg of the day.
The temp was in the mid-40’s but the sun was coming out and warming things
quickly. The first ten miles were all on roads I ride pretty regularly, but
then I was able to head north in search of one of the few Strava segments than
can pass for a climb in the Lansing area: Barry Road Hill Climb. It is not
really much of a climb so I made a loop within my loop to ride it twice
Part of me wanted to really hammer it on this segment to see
if I could get the KOM, I’ve only ridden it once before, but a much more
reasonable part of me said I was only a little over 20 miles into a 150 mile
day. I split the difference and went fairly hard the first time through and
rather easy on the second attempt. No KOM or PR; on my first effort I rolled
through the segment about 3 seconds slower than my PR, which would have been
good enough for 4th overall if I wasn’t already in 3rd. After this section I had a nice tailwind back
to my house, I was able to push my average speed up to 20.5 mph without burning
too many matches.
Leg 1:
Distance: 52.1 miles
Ride Time: 2:29:59
Avg Speed: 20.5 mph
Elevation Gain: 1,345 ft (yeah it’s flat here)
I stopped back at my house, refilled my bottles with some
Café Latte Perpetuem (my favorite endurance fuel) and took of my base layer
because the sun was out and in full force now with the temp pushing 60 and
rising.
For leg number two I went in search of a nice rolling
road west of Lansing. Again, this is an area I don’t ride too often, but need
to ride more. The first 15 miles was uneventful with a bit more traffic than I
expected for an early Friday afternoon when everyone is supposed to be home,
but oh well. I eventually made it to Otto Rd and the rollers began. The next
10 miles were so enjoyable I decided to make a slight change to the route and
ride that section of road back instead of doing the loop I had planned. It was
more enjoyable and there was basically no traffic, a win-win. The last
15 miles was the same as the first except I was fighting a slight
cross-headwind. I did manage to keep the pace up as I surpassed 100 miles for
the day in about 4hr 55min of ride time. When I made it back to my house my mileage was at grand total of just over 108 miles for the day and there was lots of time remaining for
one more leg.
Distance: 57.2 miles
Ride Time: 2:50:48
Avg Speed: 20.1 mph
Elevation Gain: 1,572 ft
Ride Time: 5:20:47
Overall Distance: 108.43
Time for leg #3, here I go again
on my own, riding down the only road I’ve ever known. Scratch that last line, I
already used a song lyric.
Anyway, I was feeling pretty worn; I could tell I had
well over a hundred miles on my legs for the day, but I don’t know how to quit.
I do, however, know how to ride smart and choose routes that help with the
mental aspect of a long day in the saddle. That is why loop number three was a
very familiar one, it is the same route we use for out Tuesday Night Rides.
This was a good choice for three reasons: 1 – it was the right length to get me
just over 150 miles for the day, B – I would never have to ride for that long
straight into the headwind, and 3 – I would know exactly where I was and what I
had left to do.
Again, to compare this to if I were actually racing; the
race is over a less than 8-mile loop, in 8 hours I would probably manage 10 or
so laps and by lap 3 I would have it all but memorized. On the last lap I would
definitely know where I was and how much further I had to go.
So I set out, pushing the pace as much as I could for the
final 42 miles, but not near as fast as I was going earlier in the day. More
headwind, but the sun was out and I was smiling. About halfway through this
loop I stopped to take a quick picture for no other reason than I could. I did
not stop for long though, letting my legs cool down would be a bad idea. My
last 5 miles were with a nice tailwind on a decent road and I couldn’t help but
think how great of an idea this ride had been.
Leg 3:
Distance: 42.3 miles
Ride Time: 2:00:09
Avg Speed: 19.5 mph
Elevation Gain: 948 ft
Ride Time: 7:30:56
Overall Distance: 150.74
Elapsed Time: 8:18:48 (No I would not have had as much
down time if I were racing)
I’m not trying to motivate anyone or set an example, we
all know I am not someone anybody should emulate, but sometimes we all have to
find a way to make ourselves smile, if just for a minute. Or in this case, a
bit over eight hours. Right now, my days are long and often stressful. I’m
working a full-time job (from my basement, not the office) trying to teach my
kids-or at least help them get some schoolwork done and trying to be a decent
parent all the while. Often, I’m trying to do all three at the same time. But
on the bike. This is my place. My chance to free my mind. My escape from
reality and responsibility. It helps keep me sane in an otherwise insane time. Pushing
those last few miles hurt, my legs and lungs were burning, but it was exactly where
I needed to be and exactly what I needed to be doing.
There was no race, no real finish line, no mildly bemused
spectators but it did not matter. I tested my legs, put in a great effort, saw
the results of all the hours I’ve spent on the trainer and best of all I had a
great day. Maybe not the day I had originally planned, but a great day none the
less.
My second race, the Cohutta 100, has also been postponed
and you can bet I will be doing something equally as ridiculous, if not more so
and loving every minute of it. So, if you have any great, or really bad, ideas
I am open to suggestions.
And I almost forgot to mention, I got the start of some
much needed tan lines!
Fuel: Hammer Nutrition Perpetuem, Fizz, BCAA+ Caps and Anti-Fatigue Caps.
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| This may be a picture from a different ride, but it was exactly how I felt. |
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