Race Recap + Another Microadventure

Race Recap:
Dirty Spokes Mayhem on the Mountain 5 Mile Trail Race

My first race of 2016 was also the first race of the Dirty Spokes Series. Mayhem on the Mountain was a brand new race on brand new trails at Sawnee Mountain, and now the series will start and end there. I got out on the new trails a week before the race to pre-run the course and I was really glad that I did. It's a straight forward course that follows the ridgeline trail around the mountain. It doesn't have a ton of overall vertical but there is plenty of up and down. I'd say it's the toughest Dirty Spokes or XTERRA course that they have had so far. Everything is steep. There's nothing overly long, but all the climbs are steep and they come at you one after the other.

The course was laid out on the entirely new trail system that's just been finished at Sawnee Mountain. The mountain has two peaks and is bisected by Bettis Tribble Gap road. The old trails at Sawnee, where the final race of the Dirty Spokes series is held, feature a four mile loop that goes up to the summit and has a cool lookout called the 'Indian Seats' where you can see the North Georgia Mountains and surrounding towns.

The new trails are on the other side of Bettis Tribble Gap and run around the mountain, climbing up to near the summit on the backside. Laid out in a counter clockwise direction, the course saw the majority of the climbing spread out over the first three-ish miles. Normally, that would be a good thing, but since it was all short steep climbs and then short drops, it really beat you up by the time you got to the top. Still, that's better than grinding out a two mile climb and then dealing with the short steep up and downs. I guess that's the only way the course would have been harder. Remind me NOT to suggest that.

I fell back into my normal ritual pretty easily pre-race. Pasta party Friday night then, of course, we were late getting out the door on race day. I had every intention of getting to the park at 7:30 to give myself an hour before the race started, but we didn't get there until 7:45 which meant we had to park at the main lot and take a shuttle. I take full responsibility for being late and I'm super thankful that Forsyth county runs shuttle vans so we still made it there in time to get my number and do a short warm up.

When we arrived, I made my way to check-in where Linda from Dirty Spokes decided to ratchet up the pressure nice and early by giving me bib number 1.

I caught up with Mitch Novy, one of my running buddies down here. We both ran for Saucony Hurricanes for a little while before he left to join Reckless Running and now he's running for Honeyy Stinger, which is pretty sweet. I mean they are no Untapped Waffles but Stinger Waffles are pretty good. Mitch and I caught up for a bit and did a short warm up jog on the last bit of the course. Neither of us were big fans of that, since the final mile or so of the course was downhill, which meant we were warming up by running up hill...no fun.

They ended up separating the two races (long course - 5.1 miles & short 3.1) by about 10 minutes to allow for spacing going into the trails. This was a really good idea because the parking lot/driveway area is pretty limited, so there wasn't a lot of space to spread things out before getting into the woods. Fortunately the trail was pretty wide, three to five feet probably. That's wider than a lot of the mountain bike trails in the area. You probably couldn't run side by side he whole way but at least there was enough room to pass.

At the start I got out to the front pretty quickly then settled down to see if anyone was going to hammer early on. I was looking forward to running with Mitch, but since he was in the short race I was on my own. The other couple of guys settled in behind me and we went into the woods single file in a lead group of three with everyone else strung out behind us. I tried to stay relaxed early on, knowing what was in store for me later, and settled into a nice rhythm for the first mile or so. I gave it a little bit of gas at the top of the first couple of short climbs and ended up opening up a little bit of a gap. I kept telling myself to stay relaxed and just get through the climbs. I tried to keep a similar effort and tempo so that while the climbs would slow me down, they wouldn't throw me totally off rhythm.

Side note: For the life of me I cannot spell the word rhythm.

Just before we got to the 1.5 mile split where the 5k took a cut through trail we dropped onto a double track section that looked like an old jeep road. After about 200 yards on the jeep road we hit the first of a couple of nasty switchbacks that felt like they were nearly vertical. Once I crested that and came down the other side I had a gradual climb up to the split. At that point I glanced back to see where the other guys were, and to my surprise they were out of sight. That was a pretty good feeling, knowing that I still had to run the toughest part of the course. I took a deep breath/sigh of relief as I felt like as long as I stayed on two feet and made it too the top in first that no one would be able to stay with me on the descent.

The next mile and a half was a real grind. A lot of short steep climbs then short steep descents, which absolutely hammer your legs. There was one particularly nasty set of switchbacks that I forgot about, which took me a minute or two to recover from before I settled back in. When I reached the top, I felt like I was crawling but I knew once I got over it I'd be able to get rolling. I tried to recover a little bit after we crossed over the lookout tower road then really got on the gas once I started going down. I was hammering at this point. The fresh trail was pretty well cut so the footing was really good despite all the rain we've been having lately. I had a couple of moments where I did't fully trust putting all my weight into the corners, but my LaSportia Mutants were super stable and did a nice job of gripping but staying responsive and quick.

When I came up on the short course again I went to work on catching as many of the short course runners as I could before the finish. I ran into a little trouble on a short false flat where I was expecting things to stay gradually downhill. I was a little worried that I over cooked it but the trail dropped back down shortly after and I was able to let gravity do most of the work. With about 300 meters to go I set my mind on catching one last 3 miler but he must have heard my foot steps thundering down the mountain behind him because he took off. We were both all out sprinting down this rocking trail toward the finish. He held me off and I congratulated him on a great finish after I crossed the line.

I ended up running 35:11 for 5.1 so I was a shade under seven-minute pace. On that course, I will certainly take it. Since it was the first race on those trails and technically the first time they were open to the public that's the course record. Next year I'll have to shoot for sub 35. I was really happy to get the win and run pretty well on a tough course. I wasn't quite sure what to except with it being the first race of the year, but it was a good solid way to start the year off.

After the race Amanda and I continued our search for good donuts with a trip to Dutch Monkey Donuts. I went with the maple vanilla swirl and it was excellent. We decided to take a day trip up to Chattanooga since we were already out that direction. We really just walked around downtown and did a little window shopping then headed over to Buffalo Wild Wings to watch the Patriots game and eat wings. Two nice back to back weekends to start the offseason.

mmmmmm...donuts

I'm not 100 percent sure what I've got next on the docket. I'll definitely be running all the Dirty Spokes and XTERRA races this year, so Heritage Park will probably be the next race. Right now my first big goal race will be River Gorge and then probably Peach Jam after that. I am also kicking around the idea of doing a 55 mile 'gravel grinder' on the bike in February. We shall see.

Almost forgot...here's what the race looked like on Strava (go easy on me New Englanders. I didn't decide it was a mountain!)

A Weekend Away: Asheville, NC

I'm a little behind on my 2015 recap & 2016 plans but Amanda and I decided to get an early jump on our adventures with a trip to Asheville, N.C. last weekend. That's the freshest thing in my mind so here we go.

I've wanted to check out Asheville for a while now but for one reason or another had never made the journey up there. With the cyclocross national championships at the Biltmore Estate, it seemed like a perfect time make the trip. It ended up being a little closer than I thought it was going to be, just under three hours. Amanda and I jumped in the car early on Saturday morning and drove up through north Georgia into North Carolina and then east to Asheville. We drove over Tallulah Gorge in some crazy fog (probably should have taken a picture) which was super creepy early in the morning. That was my favorite part of the drive. Amanda's was the fact that each tiny town we drove through had it's one unique, and ridiculously named, Mexican restaurant.

Our first stop was downtown. We actually made pretty quick work of the downtown area. We walked around and checked out all the small shops. It was impressive to see how invested in local businesses and arts the city was. I think we saw three different independent book stores, which was definitely different since we live in the definition of suburban sprawl.

After walking around for a bit and grabbing lunch we headed to the Blue Ridge Parkway. We took a short drive on the parkway and stopped by the Visitor Center to check out the Mountains to Sea Trail. The Visitor Center really cool. It had an interactive map of the entire 469-mile roadway and a bunch of other informational stuff. It seems like it would be an interesting drive, especially during the fall when all the leaves change. The Mountains to Sea Trail runs right past the visitor center and features a short loop trail. The weather was pretty nice so we decided to check it out. The trail was about a mile and a half with a mile of it traveling on the Mountains to Sea trail.

After checking out the visitor center and the trails we headed over to the Highland brewery try a few adult beverages. Breweries are what Asheville is really known for and Highland seemed to be the most popular. We ended up spending a couple hours there and tried a couple different brews. We had a few other breweries circled on the map, but we ended up deciding to save those for another day. Amanda settled on the Leggo my Lager, one of their seasonal/specialty brews. I enjoyed the Highland IPA and the Gaelic Ale. One of the best parts about the Highland brewery, and this is super dorky but fitting for this blog, was that they had a running shirt in their shop. It said 'Run Your Ale Off' which is silly but it had the Highland logo on the back so I pulled the trigger.

Because we are 100 years old we headed to the hotel and ended up getting take out and watching football. We're not really about that nightlife, life. The positive side of not doing much at night was that I got up early to get a run in before we went to the Biltmore. I scoped out a few spots to run and ended up settling on the Bent Creek Experimental Forest. The forest is part of Pisgah National Forest and features a seemingly endless maze of trails and gravel roads. I didn't have a ton of time, I figured I would give myself an hour to explore some trails but I wanted to make sure I didn't get lost and didn't leave Amanda stranded at the hotel by herself without coffee for too long.

It's hard to see all the trails, but I promise there were a ton. I parked at the Hardtimes Trail head and started out linking a couple of the forest service roads until I came across a trail that looked interesting and dipped into the woods. I linked together a few different trails and ended up popping out at the Lake Powhatan Recreational area, which is link a state park. From there I kept exploring the rolling hills. I ran across a local Sunday morning trail running group a few times. This is kind of funny because I was just running out and back but they kept popping up in different places because of the number of trail crossings. It was probably a good idea to try and limit the number of trails I used. It would have been easy to get turned around without a map.

My favorite parts of the run were the rhododendron tunnels. I ran through two or three sections where they bent over the trail and completely closed it in. Despite the fact that I forgot my Nathan pack, I decided to just suck it up and carry my phone and I am glad that I did. I got a couple of really cool pictures of the tunnels.

I ended up running 3.5 miles out, mainly on the Homestead trail, Pine Tree Loop, and Deerfield Loop, then headed back to the car. When I got back to the car, the lot had filled up with runners, bikers, and hikers. I talked to one guy that was heading out for a hike and he gave me a couple of pointers that I filed away for next time. He told me he was heading out on a seven or eight mile loop that climbs up Grassy Knob, a 3000+ foot mountain on the southeastern edge of the park. He also told me about a race called the Shut In Ridge run that follows the Shut In trail 18 miles up to Mount Pisgah. It sounded like a cool race, but that's a long way and it takes place in November, so probably not a realistic one for me. Still thought, it sounds like a badass race. Apparently it's called the Shut In trail or Shut In Ridge because of the rhododendron tunnels, so the scenery is probably pretty cool.

After finishing up my run, I drove back to the hotel to shower and gather up all of our stuff for the day. It turned out to be a little bit of a nicer day than we anticipated, so we headed back to downtown Asheville to get coffee and breakfast. Amanda has officially turned me into a coffee guy. I still prefer a good cup of tea, but I'm all about finding cool coffee shops now too. I feel a little bit like an impressionable youth. Coffee just seems so cool! I want in! Anyway, we went to High Five coffee, which is (according to Gear Patrol) one of the best coffee shops in America. It was expensive as balls. That's all I really got out of it. The coffee I had was solid, but for my money I'll take Mean Mug in Chattanooga or Jittery Joe's in Athens over them any day (or the Honey Dew on 114 in Danvers back home).

After grabbing a coffee we decided to try and find something to eat. That's when we ran across a true gem, Vortex Doughnuts (I still always spell it Donut on the first go around). This place was fantastic. I wanted to eat one of everything. Amanda and I both went with cinnamon & sugar with nutella dark chocolate. Amazing. One of the best doughnuts I've ever had and I am a man who loves a good doughnut. I need to sample more at a place like this, but I'm taking a page out of Phil Gaimon's book and starting to cook up a top 5 doughnuts list.

I'm a traditionalist, so you can keep your cronuts and reeses peanut butter filled diabetes bombs. Without putting them in any order (that comes later) I would say my top doughnuts would be the Maple Bar (TopPot - Seattle, Wash.), Maple Vanilla swirl (Dutch Monkey Donuts - Cumming, Ga.), Sugar Raised (Downy Flake - Nantucket, Mass.), Carmel Apple Fritter/Red Velvet (Sublime Doughnuts - Atlanta, Ga.), Honey Dew (Honey Dew Donuts), Chocolate Glazed (Dunkin Donuts), and the Cinnamon & Sugar Nutella swirl above (Vortex Doughnuts - Asheville, NC. I have some work to do, but that's a start.

To work off a little bit of the sugar high, we walked around downtown a little more an stumbled on Diamond Brand Outdoors which was a cool little outdoor outfitter store. We always love checking places like that out. I'm a sucker for a sticker to throw on my water bottle or something like that and those places always seem to be the best place for that. They had a sweet pair of mitten/gloves that I really wanted but they didn't have them in men's...bummer. After checking out Diamond Brand we made our way to the Biltmore to catch the women's and men's elite CX races.

The Biltmore area was really cool. Clearly they had a historic ordnance in play because all the buildings in the area were built with Victorian looking decor. We grabbed our wristbands for the race and scoped out the area before heading into the Biltmore Estate. The wristbands were a really creative touch. They served as your ticket and I was expecting something like you'd get a club for a concert, or what you get at a stadium when they are checking your bag. You know, the paper strip with adhesive that sticks to your skin and tears your flesh off then you try to take it off. Instead, they gave us rubber wristbands that said Asheville CX 2016 on them (like a livestrong bracelet). I'm a yokel, so I thought that was awesome. Made the admission fee feel a little better since you got a souvenir with it.

We drove onto the Estate and were in awe of how big it was. After making our way to one of the many, many parking lots, we jumped on a shuttle bus that took us to Antler Hill Village where the race course was. Two things about how big the Biltmore is, one - we never actually saw the house - and two - Antler Hill Village was three miles from the front gate. That place is absolutely massive. We bundled up once we got off the bus because the temperature was rapidly dropping. That changed our plans from checking out the course to making a bee line for the food tent. Chili & pizza rolls where huge. We filled up and more importantly warmed up, then made our way to the course to watch the women's race. We wanted to check out the VW tent and sponsor expo but ended up skipping it in favor of watching the race. The expo area had died down a little bit by the start of the race anyway.  

The women's race was a fun one to watch. We got to see Katie F'n Compton win something like her 12 straight national title. She was chased the whole way by Georgia Gould and Kaitlin Antonneau, but it was all Compton. We walked around the course trying to find a good spot. We checked out the barriers and the barn then settled on heckle hill, a viciously steep climb that pretty much had to be run up. It was a good spot because people weren't flying by. I was determined to find a perfect spot for the men's race so with a couple laps to go we started to move again, making our way back towards the finish. Out of nowhere I hear people yelling 'Hey stop!'. After a few shouts I realize that Amanda has stopped, so I look back at her then over at the people that are yelling. To my surprise, I see Ted King trying to find a trail through the woods to come over to where we are.

"Is that an Untapped Maple hat?"
"Yes. Yes it is."
"Did you buy it on the internet?"
"Yes. Yes I did."
"Well, I'm Ted King!"

I forget the rest of the exchange because I was trying not to "fanboy" and embarrass Amanda. Ted was super cool. He was really stoked to see someone wearing the hat so he gave me an Untapped Waffle and we took the picture above. He ended up posting it on the Untapped Instagram and on his blog IAmTedKing. I am definitely killing it at the pro cycling events. At road nationals we got to hangout with Tim Johnson and ride the GRC Beetle and at CX nationals we met Ted King.

After spending a couple minutes with my new best friend we ended up finding a great spot for the men's race. We were right next to the giant flyover and were in position to see the race come by four times each lap. The main event definitely lived up to the billing. After some early fireworks, Jeremy Powers took over at the front and it morphed into a three-man race between him, Stephen Hyde, and Logan Owen. A couple laps in Owen hit out with a big attack but Powers and Hyde pulled him back in and from there the trio battled back and forth until Powers finally broke free with two (maybe three) laps to go. He was relentless. It was really impressive to see him power away and see just how fast these guys go.

We ended up moving around a little after about 30 minutes because it was getting cold. It actually started snowing (flurries but still). We moved to a spot were we could see the finishing straight, a wicked off-camber corner and then where the riders came out of my favorite feature, the barn.

While the heavy hitters up front were the main attraction, the race for the rest of the podium was exciting too. It was cool to see a bunch of the guys I'd see on Behind the Barriers racing up close. It was really cool to see Anthony Clark out there too. He's an interesting dude, definitely an inspirational story and someone who shows that you can do some pretty incredible stuff. I was really happy to hear that he got selected for the Worlds team. For more on this dude check out this video.

Sorry for the detour. Once the race hit the final lap we made our way to the finish in time to see Jeremy Powers seal his fourth national title. We stuck around to see the top three finish then made our way to the bus. This was a great plan. We got to the car and made our way out of the estate fairly quickly then jumped on the highway and headed back to Georgia. Our original plan was to stop in Greenville and grab dinner but we made pretty good time getting out of Asheville, so we drove straight back to the house and settled on pizza and beers at home.

Asheville turned out to be a great trip and a city I'd like to head back to sometime. I think overall I prefer Chattanooga but I'd like to do a little more exploring in Asheville, and hit a few more breweries. I've been pretty enthralled with the idea of microadventures lately and this was a great way to kick off the 2016 slate of them.

CX Nats

The Cyclocross National Championships where held in Asheville, NC this year, so Amanda and I jumped in the car and made the three hour drive up through the mountains to check it out. I'll have a longer post about the overall weekend, what doughnuts I ate, where I ran, etc...

For now, here's a quick video from the elite men's race. Jeremy Powers, Stephen Hyde, and Logan Owen battled for most of the race before Powers dropped the hammer with three laps to go. He was super impressive to watch in person. I was really impressed with Hyde's performance as well. He went down at least twice and kept fighting to finish second. Oh also, I was rocking my Untapped Maple hat and Ted King called me out then came rambling through the woods to take a picture. It was awesome!

Summer turns to Fall and Fall turns to Winter

Fall has always been and will always be my favorite of the seasons. Unfortunately for this blog, and sometimes my running and outdoor enjoyment, the Fall is always the busiest time of year for me. This year was no different, between work and moving into the new house things have been pretty crazy over the last couple of months since my last entry. I managed to meet some of my goals for the fall season, including racing cross country, cyclocross, and XTERRA, but the hopes of running the Thanksgiving half marathon went out the window.

I'll take you through some of the highlights.

I got absolutely worked in the cross country race I entered, which would have bothered me but then I remembered that I'm 31 and running a 4:55 opening mile is not a precursor for success anymore. I was near the front early on, but then I dropped like a rock for most of the rest of the race. Despite that, it was really fun to get out there and mix it up with a bunch of college kids. Amanda came and watched so my pride was hurt a little by not being upfront, but I was happy that I went out and gave it a shot. 

My two race cyclocross season actually went pretty well. I'm not a very good bike rider, but I had an absolute blast at these races. The first one was at the Lake Lanier Olympic venue, where they held the rowing events for the 1996 Olympics. It rained for roughly 20 straight days beforehand so the race was a complete mudfest. This actually played to the strengths of my mountain bike and made it an absolute blast. I passed a few guys about half way through the first lap but after that I was kind of in no mans land. Since I have absolutely no clue what I'm doing, I have no idea if I did well or not but it was fun as hell.

Like I said, I was covered in mud. I don't really have goals for these races, I just want to try and ride the best I can. I think that's what makes it so fun. There's no pressure or anything. I'm just out there having fun and acting like the 12-year-old that I am on the inside. I even took a doughnut hand up on one lap coming out of the beach sand pit, which got a big cheer.

My one issue with this race was the organization. It was the first one of the year and there were a lot of race day registrations, so I gave them the benefit of the doubt when it took more than an hour to get registered. Unfortunately, when they got behind schedule they decided to trim the Cat 5 race from 30 minutes to 20 minutes. I thought that was kind of crappy. I appreciate that it was a difficult situation, but I didn't like that our race had to suffer to keep all the other races on time. If there's anything I learned running events at the end of track meets, the start time usually isn't as advertised. All in all that was a small gripe and probably not worth the 200 words I just wrote about it.

My second CX race was the Georgia State Championship, which drew a much larger field. I finished a bit further back (12th or 15th I think) but ended up battling it out with a few of the women, which was kind of fun. It was the day after we moved into the new house so it was fun to be able to get out and push myself after all of that stress and anxiety.

The course was different from the Lake Lanier one, no mud, and it was a much longer loop. I struggled through some of the tighter sections, especially after I got buried in the back of the pack at the start. I've found that riding a mountain bike is good for some sections but on the faster hard packed or even grass sections it doesn't work so well. I also need to remember to use the lock-out on my front shock next time. I think that probably would help. I'm a noob sorry.

Overall, I liked the course, it had a little bit of everything, fast sections, off camber stuff, a decent climb, tight twists and turns, and a few rail road ties for good measure. The best part was Amanda and my mom tagged along. Amanda comes to a lot of my races, but since most of them are trail races she doesn't get to see much of the action. Same goes for my mom. She probably hasn't seen me race since I graduated college, so that was cool to have her out there cheering me on and trying to get me to pedal faster. She even tried to act as a first responder when one of the women went down on the railroad ties.

I definitely think I'm going to invest in a CX bike in the coming months. I'm in the market for a new road bike, I like the versatility that they provide with the ability to fit wider tires. I'm a little hesitant about the limited gear range that they feature, but it's not like I'm entering road races or time trials. Even if I did use one for a Tri it would probably be better than my current road setup. I am also intrigued by the idea of gravel and dirt road races and I've always wanted to commute more. I literally have that exact conversation in my head every time I look at bikes online or in shops.

XTERRA Georgia
Harbins Park
The Harbins Park 10k went pretty well. I got dropped after a couple miles by Matt Johnson who went on to win, but I hung on for second place. He's 25 so I took the 100 points for the age group win, which is the goal during all these fall races.

Ft. Yargo 8 Miler
Winner, winner chicken dinner. I took the overall Yargo on a sloppy muddy course. It was pretty satisfying to get the W since Yargo was the site of one of my worst races last year. I was feeling really good through about four miles before I started to fall apart. It was bizarre, but I think it had to do with the humidity. I talked to a few other people that had similar experiences with feeling dead in the middle of the race. I rounded a corner and had no juice. My legs felt heavy, I was burning up, and my stomach felt off. It was like I had the flu for four miles. Super weird. I ended up being fine afterward, but the second half of the race was an adventure.

Battle at Big Creek 10+ Miler
Big Creek is never going to be one of my favorite races. The trails are cool but it's hillier than it looks, the weather is always weird and 10 miles is usually too far for me to be racing the first week of November, but it's an XTERRA race so I do it every year. This year the weather actually turned out to be pretty nice and Mitch Novy showed up so it was easily my favorite edition. I hung back at the beginning of the race but eventually caught Mitch and the other guy up front around a mile in. I rolled with Mitch for almost the entire first lap, distancing the guy that was in third (he ended up running the short race, so I basically escorted Mitch to the five mile win). I pulled away from Mitch a little bit at the end of the first lap and then just went into cruise control. I had built up a nice cushion from running with Mitch so I was able to cruise through the second lap comfortably. I still tried to push the more runnable sections but overall I stayed pretty mellow on the second lap. I ended up winning it in 1:07:40, but I was stoked to see that Stefano Rieppi took second overall. He runs almost all of the Dirty Spokes and XTERRA races and he's been breaking into the top 3 lately, so I was psyched to see him grab his first second-place finish.

Little Mulberry 10k
One of the greatest things about running is randomly popping a great race. It always seems to happen when I'm not expecting much or not feeling great. Then, out of no where you roll. That was Little Mulberry. I'd been kind of winding down, running but not running that much, no workouts, just kind of going through the motions. I showed up thinking I'd be able to run okay, but secretly hoping I'd have another cruise control situation, even if it wasn't for the win. I just wasn't feeling it. Amanda and I were leaving for Chattanooga for the bye week right after, I just gotten back from California. It didn't seem like recipe for success going in. Then I rolled. The race started like most, a few high school kids got shot out of a cannon and I was 10-15 yards back. As we got onto the cross country course, I started to pull the lead group back and by the mile I was neck and neck with the leader.

I strung things out on the long paved downhill then hit the next XC section hard. I was feeling it. I pressed the XC section then coasted down the next long hill before PRing on the equestrian trail climb. I've run this roughly half mile climb a hundred times and I've run it in better shape but things were just clicking on this day for some reason. Once I crested the climb I probably could have let off the gas but I kept this old refrain from college in my head the whole time, "racers race" and that keep me pushing. It's funny how something like that from Pete or Josh or Mark will pop into my head and I'll just keep repeating it over and over to get me through a race. I finished in 37:04, just under six-minute pace. That was exciting to get under six-minute pace for a trail race in November. I've run faster there, on a slightly different course, but the fact that I was sub six minutes, won, and PR'd on the big climb may have made this race my best of the year.

Victoria Bryant 10k
Remember all that stuff I was saying about how I didn't expect much and wasn't feeling it at Little Mulberry...well that showed up big time at this one. Victoria Bryant was my last race of 2015 and it showed. I had no juice for this one. I made the hour drive, went through the motions (still taking second so I'm not complaining) and then made the hour drive back before hopping on a plane for work. This course is a killer. It's all up and down and everything is short and steep. The whole thing just saps your energy. It's a grind and I just wasn't into it. I let the eventual leader get away from me and just never had the urgency to go try and chase him down. It was a little bit of a bummer to end 2015 like that but at the same time, I think mentally I needed a break and that came through in the race.

Obviously it was a pretty successful fall results wise. I'm leading the points by a wide margin, taking the full age group points for each race, so I'm sitting pretty with three races to go to win another XTERRA Georgia title.

Wrapping it Up
After Victoria Bryant I took a few days off to give my body a chance to recuperate. I slept in a bunch and at food that I probably shouldn't have. I didn't take any time completely off. I limited my running for two weeks. Took two days off then ran then took two days off kind of stuff. I also took advantage of the nice weather an got out on my mountain bike a couple times. I'll have a 2015 wrap up post in the next few days but I'm ready to turn the page. Work has been draining lately and I'm looking forward to getting a few more hours to myself as well as getting back to the off-season adventures that Amanda and I enjoy. 

Next Up

With the arrival of training camp and the NFL season, my running is typically reduced from training to maintaining fitness. I have done a better job over the last couple of seasons of maintaining my fitness level to at least be able to race a few times between September and December. A lot of the races that I’ve have run have been a struggle, but I’ve at least lined up and been somewhat competitive, which is not something I could have said three years ago.

The last two years I’ve focused on running the XTERRA Georgia races in the fall. Those races have given me goals to shoot for, even if the goal has been to finish, and that’s helped me stay motivated to run five and/or six days a week. It’s funny looking back to when I first moved down to Georgia. That first fall, I probably ran two maybe three times a week and racing was the furthest thing from my mind. Now I’m writing a blog post about my race schedule for that same period. Live and learn I guess.

Goals are the key to getting me through this part of the calendar. I don’t want to sound like I’m complaining because I know everyone deals with their own challenges when it comes to finding the time or motivation to train. Goals have been huge for me personally. It’s easy to chalk not training up to not having time, but I’ve found that if you set a goal and that goal is something that is important to you, then it’s easier to stay motivated. It’s not easy and there are still times that it’s a struggle, but at least the goal gives you a reason to push through that.

Okay, after that long winded intro here’s what I actually wanted to get into. What’s up next for me? Once again XTERRA is a goal of mine. I’ve won my age group for the last three years and that’s the goal for me again. The cool thing about the XTERRA series is that is stretches from September to August, so it’s a real test of being able to keep yourself in shape year long. Like I said above, I’m not always in race shape, see Ft. Yargo, Battle at Big Creek, or Thrill in the Hills last year, but it at least I kept myself in good enough shape to run.

XTERRA
The series starts in late September with the Harbins Park 10k and has one race per month (two in December before taking a break until February. This is a fun series, run on some of my favorite course in the area and it’s become something that I really look forward to. I’m hoping to be able to run a little bit faster this year, but I’ll get a little more into that in a bit.

Cross Country
I’ve been itching to run an XC race for the last couple of years. I really miss racing cross and I get super jealous whenever I see anything from the USATF New England XC series. Last year, my buddy Mitch Novy ran a race at a local college, so I looked into that, but none of the races matched up with home weekends for me. Fortunately, this season I’ve found one that doesn’t conflict with XTERRA or football at the University of North Georgia. It’s 20 minutes from my house so even though it’s a road weekend I can (hopefully) rip 8k and then make it down to the airport. The course is pretty familiar, utilizing some of the UNG Dirty Spokes course and I think it actually suits me pretty well so I am starting to get excited to go and rip it up with the college kids.

I’d love to run a few more XC meets, but the only one that would be realistic for me would potentially be the USATF Georgia championship race. Unfortunately, I haven’t been super impressed with them and in the past it’s been 1.5 hours away and only 5k while falling on the same weekend as a XTERRA race. If that trend continues, it probably won’t be worth it to go.

Georgia State Parks Trail Series
The Georgia State Parks series is put on by Dirty Spokes and two of the four races overlap with XTERRA races, so it’s a no brainer to do if I’m able to. I missed the first race due to training camp, but I should be able to make the rest of them, so I’m thinking ‘why not?’ Also, it’s sponsored by Barberitos and if free burritos are on the line then I’m in every day of the week and twice on Sunday.

Georgia Cyclocross
I’ve really taken a liking to cyclocross over the last couple of years and I should be able to jump into a few races this fall on home weekends and the weekend after the Thursday Night game (mini bye!!!). My CX goals are really just to finish, not hurt myself, and not look like a total moron. That last one is going to be tricky. The one race I’ve done, I rocked it over the barriers and on the run up, but the whole riding the bike part needs some work. Secretly, I’m hoping to do well enough to justify buying a CX bike and trying a gravel race or two in the spring. We’ll see how that goes.

Atlanta Thanksgiving Half Marathon
It probably seems like I’ve buried the lead a little bit listing this last, but I’m still up in the air about this race. I said at the start of camp that I would see how the month of August went and then make decision about whether or not I’d run it. I feel like this is a race I could do well in. It’s a tougher course, but I’d like to at least test myself and see what I can do. Now that we’re nearly through August, I feel like my training has gone well. I’ve made it to all of the track workouts that we’ve had and they’ve been solid. I could use more long runs if I’m going to train to race a half, but I think that’s one of those things that falls under the whole ‘setting goals’ thing. If my goal is to race and do well, then hopefully I’ll make time.

Right now I’m still up in the air and I should probably just suck it up and register, but I want to give myself a little more time before I sink 100 bucks into it. Hell, I’m not even sure if I can get out of work in the morning to make it to the race. I would like to get a fall half in one way or another though. I’ve got a eye on a marathon in 2016, so I’d like to take real shot a half before I decide to take that leap.

Looking at that list, it sure seems like I have a lot of irons in the proverbial fire this fall. I don’t know what that means right now, but I do know that I am excited to see how it goes. Having all of these different dates circled on the calendar definitely makes it easier for me to get out of bed and get my runs in. It also gives me something to look forward to in my free time, and if you know me, you know I’m all about maximizing every minute of the free time that I have during the football season.

Video Race Recap: XTERRA Georgia Allatoona Creek 15k

This is how I look after running a 15k on 4 hours of sleep.

Catching Up

Time to catch up on the last few weeks of running and racing. If you actually read this regularly, then first of all thank you very much. You are awesome. Also you know that I was not too pumped about my performance at the Peachtree Road Race. In retrospect, I went out too fast and that's why things went "south". If I would have just run the splits that my workouts suggested, I probably would have been fine. Maybe I wouldn't have run as fast as I wanted to, but I would have easily finished inside the top 50, which was my goal at the beginning of the year. Instead of running smart, I decided to go for it and I paid dearly in miles 4 and 5, running nearly six-minute pace for the hilly section of the race. Oh well. It is what it is.

Fortunately, the weekend after the Peachtree debacle Amanda and I made our annual trip back home which meant that I got to spend a week road tripping around New England hitting up some of my favorite spots. We flew home on Saturday morning and Amanda jumped on the train to head down to Providence to spend some time with her dad and sister. I headed home and kicked off my vacation by jumping on my dad's bike for a 38 mile tour of the Tri-Town.

I rolled out on some Middleton back roads heading north into North Andover before hanging a right into Boxford. The virtually car-free roads were great and it was nice to be able to ride for miles without spending much time on main roads. Down in Georgia nearly every road is some kind of main thoroughfare unless you are really out in the country. I cut through Boxford and into Topsfield where I hit the rail trail. The rail trail made for some awesome riding, crushed gravel and dirt where super fun even on my dad's road bike. I let a pinch of air out of the tires and had a nice cushy ride. I followed the rail trail from downtown Topsfield to 97 in Wenham where I jumped back on the road and swung around into Danvers. I rode up to St. John's Prep where I got momentarily lost before getting back on track and heading back through Topsfield and into Middleton for the sprint finish behind Howe-Manning school.

This ride was a great way to kick of the vacation and really made we wish we had more non-paved greenway trail in Georgia. Don't get me wrong we have awesome greenways, but the dirt and gravel sections were a blast. After Saturday's ride, I ventured to York Beach with my parents for a family beach day. I ended up getting around eight miles in, running a loop from short sands beach up past the Nubble Light and along long sands then around and back to short sands. It was nice running along the water but warmed up quickly once I turned inland. I ended up cooling off in the water, which is a testament to how hot it was. The Atlantic in Maine is always frigid.

After knocking out Maine on my New England road trip, I headed up to the wilds of Vermont to meet up with  the 'last hero and only hope' Josh Ferenc. I got up to his version of the ATL (Athens Town Line) late Sunday night and we woke up early Sunday morning (thanks to his A-hole of a roster) to rendezvous with fellow Wild Endurance runner Greg Hammett and made our way to the White Mountains.

After driving to the bottom of Josh's driveway in his old Toyota Tercel, or whatever the hell it is, Greg and I both agreed it would be safer if we took my German engineered VW. Josh protested a little bit but I've hitchhiked twice in my life and both of those times I was with Josh. I don't view that as a coincidence. We drove up north towards St. Johnsbury then crossed over in to New Hampshire (state four if you are keeping track) and made our way to Franconia Notch near the base of Cannon Mountain.

I posted the video of our excursion, so I wont go to deep into it, but we started out at the Lafayette campground and run up the Falling Waters trail to where it meets with the Appalachian trail at the summit of Little Haystack. The way up was miserable. I was on the struggle bus early in the run since we went from the car to climbing nearly 3,000 feet in less than three miles. Despite my struggles on the ascent, I managed to claw my way up to the top using the cycling tactic of taking the lead when we stopped so I could drift back over time.

We took a short break at the top of Little Haystack, which was about an hour of running, all up hill I'll remind you, to refuel with some UnTapped and then continued on the AT along Franconia Ridge. We were treated to awesome views of the White Mountain National Forest and some really cool light clouds that rolled over the top of the ridge throughout the run. The views and terrain we awesome. Nothing but green mountains and rocky outcroppings as far as you could see.

We ran from Little Haystack up and over Mt. Lafayette (5,249 feet) and continued on along a spur trail before deciding to turn back and head down to the Green Leaf hut. We originally were hoping to continue on to Mount Garfield, but what appeared to be a short distance on the map, ended up being more like three miles, so we decided to make it a three hour run instead of a five hour one. After turning back we headed down to the AMC Green Leaf hut. For some reason the fact that these are called huts always made me thing they were small building that were kind of like a mountain side snack shack with a bunkhouse, but I was surprised at how big the hut was. It had a full kitchen and two bunkhouses with all kinds of cool stuff. I kind of wanted to just camp there for the rest of the day.

Free pancakes!

We stopped at the hut to refill our bottles for the final decent down the bridle path back to the car and I had to take advantage of the perfect mid run sack, free pancakes and UnTapped! After milling around for a bit and eating too many pancakes we got back on the trail to finish the run out. I was feeling pretty good when we stopped. My legs were obviously tired from the climbing, but I was running comfortably along the ridge and down to hut. That all changed after we started going again after our final stop. My quads were toast from descending and the last couple miles were a little rough. Fortunately, it wasn't long until we were off the mountain and I was able to keep it together until we got back to the car. After the run, we headed down to Lincoln to grab some pizza and swim in the Moosilauke Brook. The water was glorious and I could have hung out in the little spot we found all day, but after about an hour we decided to call it a day and head back to Vermont.

On the drive home I showed Josh how to view all the footage he got from the GoPro on my phone and he and Greg went through it all trying to figure out what was good and what was Josh's thumb covering the camera. When we got back to the house Josh broke out the vintage Cannondale that he had somehow picked up for 100 bucks. The thing is in great shape and probably actually worth 200-400 dollars. Since I was jealous I rode it every time that we hit out on the bikes for the rest of my stay.

The next couple days we got meh weather so that killed some of our plans to hit the local swimming holes, but we made up for it with a couple of really fun rides on some dirt roads around Vermont and a couple of nice and easy runs. We got to check out one of my favorite running spots in the area at Grafton Ponds, which is a biking, snowshoeing, and Nordic skiing spot in Grafton. I am planning on making a trip back up there in the winter and getting Amanda out on some of the snowshoe trails and hitting one of the local mountains for some downhill skiing as well. 

Last but not least, we made sure to stop by my absolute favorite VT spot to grab some ice cream. I went with maple walnut and maple cream because, Vermont. After three great days in the Green Mountain State, I made my way back home to Middleton to spend a little more time with my family before hitting the road again to spend a day on the beach in Narragansett, RI. After all of the driving around it was nice to park on the beach for a few hours. I ended up hitting five of the six New England state on the trip, all apologies to Connecticut, but I was happy with those five. It's kind of a weird way do a vacation when Amanda and I split up for most of the week, but we both had fun and got a chance to do some of the things we really like with some people that we rarely get to spend time with. 

Unfortunately, we had to cut our trip a little short again this year so I could make it back for a Dirty Spokes race, but as always it was great to be home. This trip always makes me miss New England big time. 

I almost forgot...here's what the Franconia Ridge run looked like.