Muncie Endurathon Race Report

The last pre-IM race is officially completed, so now 7 weeks is all that’s left. It’s a little overwhelming to think about, but luckily I’m too busy to spend much time looking ahead. This past Saturday, I completed the ½ IM at the Muncie Endurathon, so now comes the race report…

The Muncie Endurathon is a long running independent half-iron distance race in the Midwest. This year was its 31^st running. As you would expect from a race ongoing for this long, it is run very professionally and had many of the offerings of the 70.3 series races without the crowds and additional costs. Additionally, there was a sprint tri, multiple distance duathlons, and an aqua-bike offering. The city of Muncie doesn’t have a great deal to offer for tourists, but the area near the course, which is SE of town at the Prairie Creek Reservoir, is a pretty nice farm and boating area. Overall, the event is worth doing if you live in the area and are looking for this particular distance…or if you want a bike course split to brag about for the rest of your life, but more on that later.

Race Morning

It seems like most of the chain hotels in Muncie are in the NW corner of the city, likely due to that being near Ball State University and the university being a major part of the city as a whole. However, that made for a longer drive to the reservoir (~30 minutes) and thus an early wake-up. We were not alone on this trip, though since it looked like most of the out of town athletes stayed in the same area. Now, normally triathlons lead to waking up and leaving before breakfasts fire up at the chain hotels, however I have to give credit to the Hampton Inn in Muncie, for not only having coffee and fruit out by 5am, but also having breakfast grab bags that you could snag on your way out the door. They included an apple, special k bar, and muffin. The extra effort to accommodate the race participants was appreciated.

Pre-race

Talking pre-race strategy with Dad

Arrived at the site and had to park about a quarter mile down the road due to the main lot (open field) being full. No big deal though, as I just threw everything on my back and biked to transition. Got everything setup in my designated spot and hung out with the family a bit before heading down to check out the water. I wanted to see if the Tegaderm on my healing road rash would keep the water out…it worked like a charm. Afterwards, I downed my gel, drank the last of my pre-race water and got into the mass of other green-capped starters in my wave to await the swim.

1.2 mile swim (or so they claim)

Being a weaker swimmer, I always tend to think the course looks long when staring out at the buoys. For this race, my dad and I were both discussion how far away the turn buoys looked from the moment we arrived. Turns out, this time we were right. The swim was a single loop triangular course with only 2 turns. The water wasn’t too choppy and with long stretches of straight before the turns there really was no congestion on the course. I felt like I got into my rhythm earlier than ever while swimming and cruised along pretty smoothly. However, I felt like I had been swimming a long time…and I had. I wouldn’t know my time until the end of the day, but the swim took me 7-10 minutes longer than my previous swims of this distance. I don’t know how long the course was, but evidenced by the fact that only 3 swimmers (of 650+) broke 30minutes, I can say for sure it was long. It hurts the overall goal time, but I felt better knowing that I didn’t just lose a bunch of speed in the last 2 weeks.  Either way, eventually I found my way back to shore by sighting off the giant flailing-arm tube creature (that you see at car lots) and headed to T1.

Time: 43:18 (228/663 overall)

56 Mile Bike

The entire bike course here is on totally closed roads, the course starts going around the south of the reservoir, then picks up the Cardinal Greenway (a rail trail) for about 7 miles heading north, u-turns onto a state hwy and is essentially a long out and back on the closed highways until the very end when you return around the north of the reservoir.  It is pancake flat with minimal turns and super smooth roads.  Add to that the fact there was basically no wind Saturday, and the bike course becomes a speedway.  I felt strong from the get-go and paced off another athlete (outside the draft zone) as we navigated the narrow rail trail.  Once we got on the highway, I settled in to what felt like a good pace, but holding back a bit.  I cruised the first hour and a half or so and was well ahead of my goal pace.  I really focused on taking nutrition at regular intervals to practice for the IM.  In the times when I wasn’t thinking too much, I caught myself singing “A Whole New World”.  You know, from Aladdin…I have no idea how that came into my head.  I was still felling strong at mile 30, so decided to push the pace until mile 50 before shutting it down to prepare for the run.  The course ended up being a little over a mile short, so my already surprisingly fast bike split looks even faster, but I won’t complain.

Time: 2:23:02 (23.5mph avg, 23.0 according to Garmin, 43/663 overall)—lots of fast bike splits out there

Returning from the bike

13.1 Mile Run

For Christmas this past year, I got a Garmin 305.  The biggest reason I wanted one was to help me with pacing, particularly on the run since I tend to leave T2 faster than I should, which comes back to bite me in longer events.  However, I haven’t adjusted the data fields for multisport mode, so I wasn’t getting real time pace data.  So, of course, I took it out too fast.  In my head, I kept repeating to myself to be humble and thought I was.  It wasn’t until mile 7 when I looked at my watch, and by that point it was too late to make a big difference… Before going further with my run, though I’ll describe the course a little.  After the bike, I assumed there were no real hills in the area of the course.  While there weren’t big hills, the roads surrounding the reservoir (where the run course was) were constantly rolling one way or the other.  Along with that, the midday sun provided very little shade, so the course was hot as well.  Thankfully there were aid stations every mile where I was able to squeeze ice cold rags out over my head and drink plenty of water.  Now back to the last 6 miles, I tried to pull back on the pace, but walking was already on my mind.  I held on until mile 9 before adding in some walking, but once I started, I decided to add a lot of short walking breaks in the rest of the way.  The finish line was just past the top of the largest hill on the run course, and I walked part of it too even though I was less than a .1 miles from the finish.  At the end, my run pace was still close to my goal since I had gone out so fast, but I need to pace better if I’m going to do the IM run in a time I can be satisfied with.

Home stretch of the run, I can’t tell which if I looked worse than I felt at that point or not

Time: 1:36:28 (7:22/mile pace, 27/663 OA)

Final time (w/ transitions): 4:47:04 (37th OA, 4/29 in 25-29 AG)

I got a new PR by a minute, the goal was to break 4:40, but the swim killed that.  My bike + run time was on pace, so with that I’m pretty pleased.  After the race, I still feel like I’m on pace to meet my IM goals, provided my next 4 weeks of heavy training go well.  I guess we’ll see…

Pre race thoughts and a look ahead

As the weekend approaches, so does my next tri, the Muncie Endurathon Half Iron Distance Triathlon in Muncie, IN. This race has snuck up on me a little since it comes only 3 weeks after my last short course races, and although it is nearly two months before IM Louisville, the ominous presence of the full Ironman has overshadowed it. It is the last race prior to the Ironman as well, so no longer will I be able to distract myself from the end goal of the season with these intermediate hurdles. After Saturday afternoon, I will be staring the Iron Monster straight in the face.

All melodrama aside, I still do have aggressive goals this weekend and am in a recovery cycle of my overall season schedule, so should come into the race relatively rested, although slightly beaten up. This past weekend at the premature end of a long training ride I took a tame spill by most standards (skidded out on a gravel patch at low speed), but it was my first wreck that I can remember and has left its mark with minor soreness and bruising along with a small (about 2 inch diameter) patch of road rash on my right hip. Luckily no damage was done to my BSM team kit. I was able to continue riding (the bike appears fine), but was only about 10 miles shy of the 90 I planned for the day and probably dropped my remaining motivation on the road to melt in the hot sun, so I called it quits a little early.

Anyways, back to the task at hand, the race this weekend. I am hoping to PR on the half-iron distance, but it will take some work since I won’t have the strong current to push me through the swim in record time as was the case in Augusta last year. I’d like to break 4:40 for the distance, and here’s how I see it breaking down…
• Swim: 31 minutes (aggressive, and will depend on if wetsuits are legal)
• T1: 3 minutes, hopefully less
• Bike: 2h30minutes (22.4mph avg…breaking the 2:30 barrier is kind of a sub-goal in itself)
• T2: 2 minutes, again hopefully less
• Run: 1h34minutes (~7:10 / mile pace)
I feel like if I can hit close to these splits, particularly bike and run, I should be about where I would like to heading into the final push before Ironman taper.

Speaking of the final push, I made a list last week of the remaining key workouts to be completed before the taper. There’s a lot to be done in a month, but I think the speed is where it needs to be; now I need to finalize the long workout nutrition and get in some of the longest training days to finalize my pacing strategy. I came up with 12 remaining key workouts, one of which I completed with my crash on Sunday…the remaining 11 are as follows with approximate timing.
• 7/10 – Muncie Half Ironman
• 7/13 – 100+ mile bike ride (no time for post-race recovery)
• 7/17 – 18.5+ mile run
• 7/18 – IM course scouting ride in Louisville (w/ Kelley and Dad, distance TBD)
• 7/20 – 100+ mile bike ride w/ short t-run
• 7/24 – 20+ mile run
• 7/27 – 100+ mile bike ride w/ short t-run
• 7/28 – 4000m steady-state swim
• 8/3 – 100+ mile bike ride w/ 30+ minute t-run
• 8/7 – 20+ mile run
• 8/8 – 4000m steady-state swim
All these are long aerobic efforts for the most part (disregarding the race this weekend). The taper begins August 9th with a 3 week gradual step down in volume injected with some speed work.

The steps are in place…now to follow the path

St Peters RecPlex Sprint Tri Race Report

Sunday, I was back at it with another race, a sprint tri in St Peters, MO (near St Louis). My family and I have been doing this race 6 years in a row now, as it provides a good excuse for us to get together near my sister who lives in St. Louis. The race itself is the St Peters RecPlex triathlon, which consists of a 500m pool swim / 20.5 mile pancake flat bike / 4.4 mile run on an undulating path through the nearby neighborhoods. One notable feature of the race is that it always tends to be about 90 degrees and sunny on race day. Always uncomfortably warm by the finish. This will be the last short-course race of my season before ramping up the distances for a HIM in July and Ironman Louisville at the end of August.

My goals going in were pretty aggressive, hoping to break 1:31 and finish top 10 overall…now, on to the report.

Race Morning / Prerace

Woke up early and decided to forego the breakfast banana. The Mexican pizza I had for dinner the night before was still talking to me a little, so I decided to limit pre-race intake. It wouldn’t be an issue for this short of a race. The family and I packed up and left the hotel at a little after 5 AM to arrive at the race site by 5:15. The transition area here is a little messy and unorganized due to the variable starting times of competitors. There are no assignments for rack position and the area is never technically closed since late starters arrive well after the race has started sometimes. Also, the transition area itself is not designed to be fair to all competitors, using the same layout as last year.  I was able to snag a good spot, just inside the swim entrance and bike exit area and right on the end. The transition area was setup quickly and we were off to get marked, then to the pool to wander around until ~6:19, my assigned start time.

500m long course pool swim

Early in the swim

Like most pool swim triathlons, this race had the serpentine layout where you snake your way across the pool. The first 2 lanes are subdivided, requiring you to swim up and back in both of them. After that it opens up for the last 6 lanes. Passing early on can be tricky, but this year I was able to do it pretty smoothly. I worked past a couple people in the first 200m and a handful more the rest of the way. I felt smooth from the get-go on the swim and I thought I was moving at a pretty good clip. There were no real highlights, especially with such a short distance. After the race, I was a little disappointed with my time, but I think I had not taken into account the difference b/w short course yd pace and long course meters pace. Either way, I still PR’d by about a minute and a half, so the improvement is definitely evident.

Time: 9:17 (4/23 in AG, 57/330 OA)

Glad to be off to T1, and suprised to see the wife snapping photos

T1: ~1:30, no chip timing and splits for this race…times are worked into bike…I estimated based off pictures my wife snapped

20.5 mile bike

The bike course here is a speedway. The only notable hills are a short one climbing and interstate overpass and another on the return toward the interstate about 3 miles from the finish. Neither is difficult. Otherwise, the course is super-flat and fast and most of the roads are recently repaved or low-traffic country roads in good condition. I got my race wheels inflated properly for this race, but rain the day before limited my ability to test ride, so this would be their first real ride. Also, I didn’t think about switching over my speed sensor from my training wheels, so the bike PC was out of commission. However, I did have my Garmin305, but the fields weren’t setup to give me instantaneous speed. I could general tell how fast I was going, but the ride was basically all based on perceived effort. My goal was to really crush it and just see if my legs could survive the run. I think I may have held back some because I felt pretty fresh when leaving T2. Either way, it was a fast bike split and a new PR. I think I represented my new race wheels well and it was a fun ride on the rocket ship.

Time: 50:45 according to Garmin (24.2mph avg, 2/23 in AG, 8/330 OA)

Preparing to dismount at T2

T2: I felt a little unorganized here, and took much longer than I needed to. ~1:00 according to photo evidence

4.4 mile run

Starting the run

The run here is enjoyable, an out and back with a short loop at the turnaround. Almost the entire run is on multi-use paths and it winds through a couple small parks and the surrounding neighborhoods. It does have some short, steep climbs thrown in that can throw off your tempo. I got into my rhythm quickly and just basically even split it as far as I can tell. I haven’t looked at the Garmin data to confirm this, but it felt pretty steady. Before I knew it the home stretch had arrived and I did have pretty good kick through the line. I was tired to be sure, but not totally exhausted, so maybe left some time on the table. Once I settled down a bit I noticed it was really starting to warm up. I was glad we signed up early to get 6ish start time to avoid the bulk of the heat.

Time: 29:42 (6:44/mi pace, 2/23 in AG, 9/330 OA)

The home stretch

Total: 1:31:55 (2/23 in AG, 9/330 OA)

So, I hit my top 10 placing goal, but missed my time goal, although not by much and I can see where I could have grabbed seconds here and there. After the race I waited around for the rest of the family finishers and grabbed a breakfast burrito, one of the highlights of this race is the post-race breakfast burrito. We wanted to shower before hotel checkout and grab lunch so we could make the trek back to Cincy, so no hanging around for the awards ceremony was in order. For the family, we saw PRs across the board, and my sister’s BF also completed his first ever tri in a very solid time. Now, it’s a couple long training weeks, then back at it long-course style with Muncie Endurathon on July 10.

Deer Creek Olympic Triathlon, Way too long Race Report

Finally, the 2010 tri season is officially under way for me. I completed my first race, the Deer Creek Olympic Tri in Mt. Sterling, OH, on Sunday. It was a C race that I actually approached more like a B since it happened to fall on a recovery week in my training cycle. This is a race I did last year on the same course, so would be a good benchmark to see my improvement.

Background on the race

The Deer Creek triathlon is a part of the regional (Cincinnati/Dayton/Columbus) races put on by HFP Racing, the same people that do Triple T. It is the first race in a point series called the Wheelie Fun Race Series. Each event in the series offers a short girls only tri on Saturday (new this year), along with a sprint (750-20k-5k) and Olympic tri on Sunday. The course for Deer Creek is pretty basic, a double loop rectangular swim, a double loop (and slightly long) bike course that is mostly flat but open to wind, and an out and back (slightly short) run that is pancake flat with a short off road section (~.5 mile) but also susceptible to wind especially when running across the levy.

Finish Line, pre-race

As with all HFP racing events I’ve competed in, it was run very professionally and I would highly recommend their races to anyone in the region. The only complaints are that they are a little slow in getting accurate results posted at the race and their morning of packet pickup is slow and has threatened to delay the race both years.

Race Weekend/Morning

My family and I picked up our packets on Saturday and spent the rest of the evening relaxing in Washington Court House, OH, a city I probably never need to return to…just not much to see there and a lack of good food options. We also seemed to be the only people in town not attending the truck pull at the local fairground. I just recently acquired a front race wheel (Hed Jet 6) to go with my Jet 90 and (also new) wheel cover, so I went to work prepping my race wheels, only to be frustrated with my apparent inability to inflate the “disc” wheel and to get the Jet 6 past 80psi. After about an hour’s frustration, I decided I’d visit the support tent race morning, and if they couldn’t help me quickly I’d go with my training wheels. The dinner that evening consisted of a ham and cheese sandwich, curly fries, and UDF ice cream… nothing like a healthy pre-race meal, right.

Race morning came and it was wet, it had rained overnight and was supposed to be rainy throughout the AM. I decided to heck with the race wheels at that point and just opted for the trainers to eliminate some of the morning stress. I downed a banana, loaded the car and it was off to the race. We got our transition areas set up had plenty of time to warm-up, which turned out to consist of hiding under the pavilion from the storm / downpour that rolled through right around 8AM (scheduled start time). It passed quickly, and the sun followed, so things were back on with a slight (~30minute) delay. Before heading to the start I ran back to check my now soaked transition area and rang out or poured out whatever accumulated rain I could…everything was still soaked.

Did anyone call for rain?

1500m Swim

First wave of the Olympic Tri – I’m in there somewhere

Side effects from the pre-race downpour included a substantial increase in the wind and churning of the water in the lake, so we were now swimming on a murky (could not see my hand in front of my face) and choppy course. I have taken a couple swim lessons and joined a master’s team this off-season, so was hoping to see big improvement here, but it was also my first OWS of the season, and it showed. I took off aggressively, but was unready for the chop and body churn, so drank more of the lake than I needed to. By the turn at the first buoy, I started to panic a bit, so switched to breaststroke to get my bearings and relax. Finally, once I had fallen back in the pack unfortunately, I was able to get my freestyle rhythm going. It was smooth sailing on rough waters from there. In the second lap, I was rolling along pretty good, but definitely got tossed about some by the waves. Still I worked my way back through some of my competition and exited the water mid-pack.

Time: 25:10 (4/12 in AG, 49/191 OA…~3minutes faster than last year!)

Heading to T1

T1: Socks, shoes, watch, helmet, etc…thrown on, and away I went

Time: 1:44

40k Bike

The wind was apparent from the outset, and although I felt like I started into somewhat of a headwind, my speed was still good and I didn’t feel like I was over-extending. I got into my rhythm quickly, and started my nutrition rotation of sports drink (310cal/serving Infinit custom blend) and water every ~10 minutes A lot of the sprint participants were on the road in the first lap, so there was traffic to navigate, but nothing too terrible. With the course being more or less a rectangle, the wind effects changed periodically. When travelling north/south, there was a gusty cross-wind that made me thankful I didn’t decide to break in the disc at this race. A highlight of the bike course was a ~.75mile stretch that was aligned perfectly with the wind. I was able to hit 36mph on a pancake flat road…insane! At around the 10mile mark, I went for my Infinit to find that my behind the seat bottle cages (profile design…I’m not a fan of this system and will be changing soon) had come loose at the pivot and were flopping around, which had launched my sports drink. The rest of the bike would be water only. From there, I decided to ride a little more conservatively since my speed seemed pretty good already and I didn’t want to blow up on the run. The second lap was quiet, nothing too exciting. Pulled back into transition and my Garmin had the bike at 25.25miles, a tad long.

Time: 1:04:44 (23.0mph avg, 1/12 in AG, 5/191 OA)

Heading out for lap 2, notice the dangling water bottle

T2: Shoe change, grabbed my Trifuel hat, and onto the run

Time: 0:57

   Transitioning

10k Run

As I left transition, I was surprised how fast my legs were turning over. They felt great. Compared to last year, the wind was a little worse, but he clouds and lower temps made it much nicer conditions overall. I got passed early by another competitor and tried to match his stride, but gave up on that quickly…he was too fast. My new goal was to just keep him in sight. I carried 2 amphipod bottles, 1 w/ Infinit (1/2 serving) and 1 w/ water and alternated them until mile 5 when I ran out. I evenly split the run and was surprised how easy it felt. When discomfort set in, I just focused on shortening my stride and picking up my cadence and it seemed to get me back on track. I passed 1 other racer in the last mile and a sort of kicked it in, but didn’t have much of a sprint in me. I crossed the line and knew immediately it was a PR, just had to wait for results to make it official. The Garmin read 6.12miles for the run, so it was slightly short to counter the bike.

Time: 39:57 (~6:27/mile, 2/12 in AG, 7/191 OA)

    The stretch run

Final Results

Time: 2:12:33 (~8min PR from same race last year)

12/191 OA

1/12 in AG

Much success

My next race is a sprint in St Louis in 2 weeks where I can hopefully iron out my race wheel issues…then the ramp up to long course in prep for Ironman Louisville. Glad to be in season again.

KY Derby Festival miniMarathon Race Report

The racing season is officially started. Granted, I have participated in a couple bike races before this past weekend, but they were more of an “on a whim” high intensity workout since there was no dedicated training for them. Instead, this past weekend brought my first planned race of 2010, the KY Derby Festival miniMarathon, a race I have run multiple times before and that is a favorite of mine.

After busting out a new PR last year with 1:32:07, I was hoping for big things again this year. Obviously, the next obvious goal is to break 1:30, but back in the fall when I was goal-setting, I decided that sub 1:27 would be my target…a reach for sure. I don’t remember how I came up with that number now, but it’s been in my season plan for some time now.

In the past few weeks, I had been focused more on bike racing and had been doing my training runs on tired legs. Until the week of the race, I had serious doubts if I could even break 1:30, and 1:27 was simply off the radar. I hadn’t lost the extra few pounds I was hoping to over the winter, so that was also a limiter. However, some days off in the past week and a half and a major reduction in biking to prep for this race was the refresher my legs needed. I hadn’t run on fresh legs until the week before race-day for months, so it was quite a rush to have the spring back in my step. I took things pretty easy race-week to ensure they stayed fresh and ready. My confidence in sub 1:30 was back, although 1:27 was still pretty doubtful…so I decided to race conservatively and negative split the run. My rationale was if I were to go for 1:27 and “blow up” I’d likely miss 1:30 as well, but if I started at 1:30 and worked down I may not catch up to 1:27, but would still be safely in the 1:20’s...Enough rambling, on to the race report.

Race morning, I woke to drizzly, high 50’s weather…warmer than I was hoping for 6AM, but the rain kept it cool enough. I got to the start line and in the corral about 15mins early, and other than not being able to make a pre-race bathroom break since the bathrooms were hidden away somewhere, all was well. I had my Forerunner 305 with me to help with the pacing. I took out the first mile at about 7 minute pace, intentionally slow, but also attributed to the crowds at the start. At mile 2 the race enters Iroquois Park, which is where the hills are. It’s a loop with a bigger climb at the beginning and the end, then 2 smaller climbs in the middle. All of this is over the course of 3 or so miles. I focused on small steps and high cadence on the uphill sections and used momentum and gravity to my advantage on the downhills. Before I knew it, the park was gone and we were on the long straightaway to Churchill Downs.

At this point I was around 34minutes at the 5 mile mark and everything seemed pretty solid. However, I was still uncertain in how I’d hold up, so kept the pace around 6:40-6:45 per mile. Somewhere along the way I just kind of settled into this pace. After leaving Churchill Downs and passing mile 8, my legs were hurting to the point where I knew taking the pace up would not be smart, but I could still maintain well enough. Then, I began the math game…calculating at every mile how ahead of 1:30 I was and if I could still make it if I slowed to x:xx pace for the remainder. Each time I had nearly decided to slow down, I convinced myself to try for one more mile to increase the margin for error. Before I knew it, I was in the last 1.5 miles and was passing people. This, and hearing the upcoming finish line, created its own momentum and pushed me to the finish.

I turned onto the finishing stretch, which was slightly downhill, and got hit with a rush of adrenaline I haven’t felt in a while. I put a pretty solid kick in and enjoyed my finishing stretch. I crossed the line in 1:28:32 (6:45.5/mile, top 100 OA of 10000+ finishers). Not the original goal, but I’m completely satisfied with it.

Post-race, I addressed the growing need to use the restroom that had been giving me some cramping throughout the race then headed back to the chute to watch my dad, sister, wife’s friend, mom, and aunt all come in. The rainy weather had cleared, so it was enjoyable to hang out at the finish for a bit.

All told, it was a successful kick-off to the season. No more official races for another month, then tri-season kicks in for real on June 7th. In the meantime, I need to get some long rides and runs in to prep for this August IM.

Asheville Days 2 and 3, and a bike race

Well, not off to a good start keeping up with trip and race reports, but here comes a bit of both to catch things up. First, the final 2 days of the Asheville trip from a week or so ago.

Day 2

The weather looked like it was going to be rainy and mild, and we had the goal of completing a century. We wrote up the cue sheet and got on the road around 10AM from Liberty Bikes. We were doing the French Broad River ride from Rapha Continental’s website. However, we found out quickly that intersections out in the farmlands to the SE of Asheville are not marked well, so we got lost almost immediately. The scenery however was awesome and the roads were in very good condition for the most part. After winding around (somewhat in the direction of Chimney Rock) for an hour or so, we picked up a highway. After following this in the rain for a while, we discussed heading back toward Asheville ASAP and picking up the Blue Ridge Parkway. Just as this was discussed, we happened to stumble on an access ramp to the parkway…what luck. We hopped on, heading east toward Mt Mitchell. It was mostly climbing, so very slow going and we soon realized in the drizzly conditions a century probably wouldn’t be possible. The plan changed to turning around at 50 miles and heading back to town (we were at about 43 at the time). No more than 4 miles later, we were turning since the fog had descended on us (or we climbed to meet it) and visibility was scary low.

Now begins the suffer-fest. Considering the original route and the weather forecast, I had dressed for rain, not cold. So, while cautiously trying to navigate through the fog on the wet roads that we were descending for about 45 minutes, I started to get cold…more like freezing. My hands and feet had been numb for a while when I started to shiver. Shivering (aka shaking the handlebars) while descending at an avg of 30mph is scary, but I was pretty numb to that as well since the only thoughts going through my mind were the warmer clothes I opted not to wear and the possibility that I may develop hypothermia. After what seemed like the longest, loneliest ride I can remember ever being on, we made it back to Liberty bikes. Luckily, we had brought a change of clothes so I was able to get dry before returning to the cabin for a hot shower. The rest of the evening was relaxing and staying warm until an early bedtime. I was more exhausted that night than I have been in a long time. Total ride for the day was 63.25 miles in 4hours15min w/ approx 4700 feet of ascending.

 

Day 2 route

Day 2 elevation profile

Day 3

My last full day in Asheville, and the plan was to ride early from the cabin. Well, we actually had to drive down the mountain a bit to get to paved roads, but close enough. It was supposed to be cold and overcast with a chance of snow in the afternoon. After the lesson learned the previous day, no warm weather cycling clothes were left behind. We took off, and descended the first 5 miles down from the ski resort area. After a short climb, we hit the real descent…2 miles at ~9% grade. I was more than aware of the steep grade of the descent due to the continuous signs warning trucks of the steepness. I hadn’t had much of a chance to work at this point, so was a little cold from the descending. Also, I couldn’t enjoy the free speed since I was already thinking about having to climb back up the same hill to finish the ride.

Once down, we had lost 1750 feet of elevation over the first 7.5 miles of the ride, but then hit flat to rolling terrain as we continued to head south and east. We passed through the Mars Hill area and then more due east into smaller towns. Once getting rolling, it was a pretty comfortable ride for a while and we found ourselves on one highway for a long while. After some pace-lining, we noticed the pace start to drop off and a burning in the legs. No one wanted to admit they were having a rough go of it and may just not have the legs today, so we silently pushed on. It was only a few miles later, once our pace had dropped to under 16mph (in a pace-line) that we realized we had been climbing on the longest false flat I’ve ever been on. We had ascended over 500 feet before even realizing it. This discovery was a relief since it provided an excuse for the slow pace, but short lived since the road stopped hiding the grade and showed its true nature while steadily getting steeper. We trudged along for another few miles until the once busy highway had become a dirt road before deciding to turn around and head back to the cabin. We needed to make haste if we were going to beat the incoming snow, especially since we had to contend with a mountain top finish.

After some success with backtracking, we arrived at the base of the climbs to the finish. Our group of 4 would all be going it alone here due to the different levels of fitness/climbing prowess. We split apart immediately upon hitting the grade. I put aside any dreams of attacking the hill immediately and sat up into a (relatively) comfortable spin). This continued slowly, with some standing climbing to stretch out thrown in every few minutes, for the next 25 minutes or so. I arrived at the top to catch up with the waiting riders ahead of me and discuss the effort. We had gone up about 1250 feet in the past 2 miles…I rolled along the climb somewhere around a 6.5mph average. By the time the last of our team arrived at the top of this climb, the snow had arrived and was falling steadily. We decided to tackle the remaining climb to the cars together (for the most part). One of the stronger climbers of our group paced me and Tim, the stragglers, through the snow the rest of the way. Today’s effort totaled ~61miles in 3hours55min w/ about 3900 feet of ascending.

Day 3 route

Day 3 elevation profile

The bonus of riding from the cabin was a short trip back to the warm showers. We were warmed up and rested by the middle of the afternoon. This gave us the opportunity to go play tourist in downtown Asheville. A couple of my teammates are vegetarians, so they scoped out a vegan restaurant called The Laughing Seed. I got to branch out a bit with a Tico burrito, which included wild rice, black beans, tofu, avocados, peppers, and a variation on a ranch sauce drizzled over top. Branching out is delicious. Post dinner, we checked out a local brewery known as The Lab and sampled a couple of their offerings. The tourist trip was short lived since there was a basketball game of interest on, so we bought a couple growlers of our favorites and returned to the mountains.

All told, the long weekend trip to Asheville was a success, despite the weather not playing nicely. I did not get the distance in I had hoped, but considering the climbing involved; I was pleased with the amount of time in the saddle I was able to rack up. Asheville makes a great training ground with a variety of terrain, normally mild weather, and a biker-friendly atmosphere. I would like to return later in the spring/summer and take more time to check out the city itself, but that will have to wait.

To finish the update of recent activities, I raced in a cycling road race this past Sunday. The first time I’ve been in this type of race in 3 years or so, the Germantown (OH) Road Race. It’s the first part of a multi-race regional series. My goals going in were: to hang with the main pack for the entire race, to avoid trouble, and to get a good high intensity workout in. Being geared toward triathlon, I just don’t have the skill-set to entertain the possibility of winning cycling races. The weather on race day was (of course) chilly and wet, which seems like a theme lately. At least it should be toughening me up mentally.

My teammates and I started at the very front of the Cat. 5 race and two of them took the early pacing duties. I dropped back to get out of the wind, but soon felt a little squeamish with the tight pack riding. I haven’t ridden in this large a group in some time, so it took me most of the first lap (it was a 4 lap circuit) to relax. By that point, I had fallen to mid-pack, but was still in no danger of being dropped. Starting near the front helped me avoid the only wreck of the race that took place right behind me midway through the first lap, so luckily I hadn’t dropped too far by that point.

I hung out mid-pack, trying to work myself forward when I could for the next couple laps. The pace wasn’t too taxing most of the time, with there being limited breakaway attempts. The pace was pretty variable throughout, which made it easy to regroup as well. By the time we hit the bell for the last lap, I was back up with my two teammates about 10 back from the front of the group. However, the ringing of the final lap bell led to a more frantic pace and aggressive positioning maneuvers. My less aggressive nature pushed me to near the rear as we approached the final turn. The sprint was essentially up a false flat that was setup by a sharp corner and short, relatively steep climb about a ½ mile out. My poor positioning and lack of burst acceleration caused me to lose contact on the steep section prior to sprint. I wouldn’t be in the field sprint, but was hoping to regain contact. I slowly worked toward the peleton at my own sprint pace, but ran out of room. I finished just off the pack, less than 10 seconds back. Not great, but the best performance I’ve ever had in a bike race.

The race was a great time. It provided a good, high intensity workout and was a lot of fun. Most importantly, though, it reignited my competitive spirit and got me excited for my training again. I’d been in a little bit of a drag since I haven’t competed in any event since October of last year. Now, I’ve been reminded of what all the winter training has been for and it has refocused my future training. I was feeling the rush of competition for the rest of the day.

Next week is my birthday and Easter weekend, and then I’ll be bike racing again the following weekend, possibly with a double-dip (TT on Saturday and road race on Sunday).

Whew…I think I’m all caught up, for now.  Reading all that was a workout in itself.

Asheville Training Trip, Day 1

After a lot of travel over a day and a half, the training trip finally began in earnest.  We arrived in Asheville around lunchtime and grabbed a bite before hitting the road for the first training ride.  Since we just arrived and haven’t had a chance to evaluate one another’s relative fitness, we decided to go ahead and plan to climb Mt. Pisgah to get ourselves warmed up.  In retrospect, this route is more than warm up material, but we felt pretty confident, so away we went.

Before we get into the pictorial account of the short, but taxing ride, I’d like to comment on one bonus of making a spring trip to the area.  With the threat (or reality) of rock slides, a portion of the Blue Ridge Parkway climb was closed to traffic.  So basically, we had the roads to ourselves (other than a good amount of broken trees and debris) for the majority of the ride.  This was a pretty good deal since we could converse and do more cruising without worrying about being run down by tourists. 

Anyways, without further ado…the climb to Mt Pisgah:

Early in the ride, we came across our first lookout point.  There would be a lot of these.  They are essentially areas for cars to pull off and take pictures of the scenery.  However, I liked them for giving us photo op plus the ability to track our relative progress up the climb (notice, elevation).

A little while later, we came across a road block…road closed due to danger of rock slides.  Luckily, the 2ft barrier was not enough to stop us…so onward we went.

 

Along the route, we noticed (among the other beautiful scenery) this tower.  We decided the goal would be to make it to the tower, although we had no idea where it actually was relative to the route.

Also, along the way, you pass through about 9 of these tunnels.  They’re terrifying for many reasons.  First and foremost, they’re clearly most likely the home of zombies although we managed to avoid them.  Second, some of them are quite long and it’s impossible to see the road while travelling through a tunnel.  And the worst part of all, there is no warning to remove your sunglasses before entering, which only makes them more terrifying.

One redeeming quality of the tunnels were the unique ice structures.  Take for instance this column.

Eventually, we made it to the top of Mt Pisgah, which was so memorable I forgot to get pictures.  The trip up (from Liberty bikes) took close to 1.5 hrs and we descended to the main road in about 20 minutes from there.  It was memorable being the first time I’ve ever climbed what could be considered a mountain, but there’s plenty more to be done in the next few days.  Hopefully tomorrow will bring a century ride (and better pictures), but we’ll see how the weather cooperates.