As you might imagine, there is quite a bit of testosterone flowing at my office. Because of that a number of athletic challenges have sprung up, encompassing players, coaches, and staff members. The talk about competition is not a joke. There are daily free throw competitions, ping-pong tournaments and my personal favorite, endurance challenges.
Last week I got challenged to run one lap around our facility as fast as possible. I was coming off of the fall and calf issues from the UNG race, but when you get called out by the head coach and general manager...sometimes you gotta race.
One lap around our facility, beginning and ending at the flagpole at the front door is a touch longer than 3/4 of a mile. It starts out flat around the main building then has a gradual downhill behind the indoor facility and around the retention pond. About half way through you hit the dorms - used for training camp - from there it's a grinder of an uphill before a steep downhill to flat in the final 200 meters.
Coach ran it in 9 minutes. I wasn't real worried about that. Our GM did it in 5:30 something on his longboard skateboard. Notice how they don't tell me the actual time? The hill is such a grinder I knew there was no way that he'd be able to beat me on his longboard. Even if he skated the flat and downhills and ran the uphill I still think I'd be able to run it faster.
Tuesday morning I got to work early and ran my five mile route through Flowery Branch to get loose. After that I went right to work with my hot lap around the facility. I took it out hahhd, hammering from the start until I got about 100-150 meters in before settling down and letting gravity do the work on the slight downhill.
I focused on my form and breathing around the pond, trying to keep it together knowing that the climb was going to be tough after getting out that fast. I was 1:55 at the cul-de-suc and decided to go for sub 4. When we talked about it on Monday I figured I'd be able to get under five minutes pretty easily, but since I wasn't sure of the real distance I didn't really know what I could do.
I got up the first part of the climb and then tried to change gears to get through the final 150 meters or so of climbing, knowing that the end is downhill to flat. I think the hill workouts have been working because I got through the climb relatively easy then just tried to bring it home with some "wheels" (31 year old wheels baby!).
I hit the watch at the flagpole, finishing the lap in 3:54.05. You know that's what I wrote on the white board where everyone is keeping track of their times. That point zero five is kind of a middle finger to certain people who don't respect the amount of work I put into my running. It's a fun middle finger. Like, I'm smiling and we're all friends but at the same time...come at me bro.
It's only a matter of time before I get challenged to something on the bike and get worked, so I have to own these while I can.
These endurance challenges started last summer. We have a trail in the back of our facility. It's a tight trail but good for running or mountain biking, but it's not very long. I figure it's a shade over a mile. We have a few coaches that are cyclists and a few that run for fitness. I got challenged to see how fast I could run the loop and whether I could run it faster than our GM (a former Cat 1 mountain biker) could ride it.
He kept chirping at me about it, but when this challenge came about we were in the middle of training camp, which is not the greatest time for my running. I still get my runs in but they are normally short and slow. Oh yeah, it's also elevendy billion degrees here. Anyway, one day I get told that I'm running it after lunch. I jogged a lap easy to get a feel for how it runs and where I could attack. I was not feeling like it was going to be a fast lap. It was hot and I'd been on my feet for pretty much the whole day.
Thomas rode his lap first. He came through in 9:01. Despite not feeling 100 percent into it, I felt like I had a chance to beat him since there are a lot of quick turns and punchy little ups. On the warm up lap I noticed a couple spots where I was able to close on him and a few spots where he was spinning his back wheel.
After he went, I launched into my lap. I hammered it as hard as I could and fortunately, I was still in pretty good form, I guess those track workouts paid off. I finishing my loop in 7:55. What Up. The trail is really tight in some spots and there aren't many areas where you can really power out and make up ground on the bike. On the other had, there are plenty of quick turns and short ups where I could just plant my foot, change direction and go. I think the tight turns also meant it was easier for me to get back on the gas coming out of them. It also helps that I've been racing on mountain bike trails in Georgia for five years now.
The next day I ran it the opposite direction in 8:07, giving me the record in both directions. Both records stand still stand today.
The other endurance challenge we currently have going is the fan bike. It's basically just how fast can you do a half mile on the fan bike. It's brutal. I did it once a couple weeks ago, but it all honesty I wasn't really into it so my time is 1:08 but I know I can go faster. I'm not big on staying late at work to get into the weight room now that it's light out until 7:30 p.m. though. I'll run or ride my bike outside thank you very much. One of the advantages the South has on New England is that spring is a real actual thing. It's 65 and sunny as I type this on a Sunday night at 7.
The fan bike is a torture device from the pit of despair. It's a bike, with a big ass fan for a front wheel and the handle bars pump like an elliptical. When I did it the first time I was putting out 800 watts for 40 seconds, I know that's not good for a cyclist but I was gassed. The current record is 49 seconds by Paul Worrilow, a professional, NFL linebacker who also happens to be the definition of a gym rat. For real. Last year the power went out and home boy was still in there cranking out cleans. The fan bike is one endurance challenge that I probably am not going to win but I actually feel pretty confident that my lap around the facility would stand even if players gave it a whirl.
I know you're wondering about the other challenges. I've actually held my own when I've been called to shoot free throws. I think I'm 3-3, but my ping pong skills have diminished severely. I'm 0-fer on the ping pong table.
I'm usually much more self deprecating, but I was kind of stoked about the lap around the facility so I thought I'd share. It was a nice little confidence booster after being a little down last weekend.
Sunday, March 20, 2016
Race Recap: Dirty Spokes UNG Trail Race
Editor's note: It's been a busy last month of work. I traveled to Indy for a week, we had a few PR nightmares, and then free agency opened up so I've really been slacking on my blogging. I'm going to do a race recap of last week's race because that's freshest thing in my mind, but even now I'm a week behind that.
Race Recap: Dirty Spokes University of North Georgia 5.3 Mile Trail Race
UNG has become one of two courses that I consider to be a home race for me. It's about 15 miles up the highway from my house and about five minutes from my office, so I've spent a good amount of time on the trails there. It is one of the faster trail races on my calendar due to its shorter distance - between 5.3 & 5.5 miles depending on where the start is - and the fact that the course has a solid two miles of flat and fast dirt/gravel road.
It's a very fast start with 1.5 miles on the wide hard-packed trail. After that things slow down when you hit the mountain bike trails. There isn't a lot of land at the school so they've really tried to get as much distance as possible by filling the trail with a ton of twists and turns. Around about 3.5 miles things open up a little more. The turns are more sweeping than slalom but it's still a mountain bike trail. Shortly after hitting the four-mile mark you see the only real elevation change on the course, a quick up-and-over before you drop back down onto the fast stuff again for the finishing stretch.
A good bit of this race is right in my wheel house, so I've been chasing a sub-30 minute run for about six years. Spoiler alert, I didn't get it this year. I think it's doable but the course has changed a little bit since I ran 30:18 a few years ago. I think Ferenc ran 30:15 a few years ago when he came down for it. The start used to be in an open field - cross country style - now it's straight onto the hard pack. While the new start is definitely quicker, I think it adds a little bit to the course. I'd have to check what Tim wheeled it at but I'd venture a guess that with the old start it was 5.3 and the new one is 5.5. It almost certain adds a little bit now that we don't cut across the field. That's kind of an excuse, but whatever. I'll be back next year chasing that sub-30 run again.
Okay, on to the race.
I woke up on Saturday morning feeling confident after getting back on track with another hill workout earlier in the week but by the time I got to the race I felt flat. I did a two mile warm up while searching for an open building/bathroom and told myself that it was just prerace angst that was making my legs feel heavy and sluggish. I switched my shoes and headed over to the starting line where I ran into Mitch Novy and a couple of the other usual suspects. Mitch told me he had to take some time off with tendinitis so he wasn't going to be taking the race out hard like he normally does. Instead he'd hang back and run with me until I broke off into the woods for the long course. I was totally fine with that since in the past we'd been able to run away from the chasers over the first 1.5 miles and that's set me up really nicely.
When the gun went off we both got out clean, which was a concern since there was a narrow bridge about 50 meters in that could have been troublesome if you didn't get a clean line. Once we got across the bridge I settled in an fell into a comfortable rhythm with Mitch running right on my shoulder. My plan was to stay smooth and relaxed through the mile then put in a surge until I went into the woods where I'd ease off a little and focus on getting through the tight sections and opening it up on the more runnable ones.
Things went according to plan for the first mile with Mitch and I controlling things out front. We clipped off the first mile in 5:40, which I felt was perfect, at that point I started to ramp it up a little bit and ended up falling into rhythm behind Tim on the four wheeler. That might have been a little bit of a mistake. I ended up really dropping the hammer and almost instantly opened up a substantial gap. I felt good rolling it out, but after glancing at my watch and seeing 5:05 pace I figured I might be in over my head. I eased off a little bit but I still wanted to do as much damage as I could before getting into the woods.
That worked. I had around 40 seconds to a minute lead by the time I went into the woods, but for all the damage I did to the field, I did plenty of damage to myself. As soon as you go into the woods you have a couple of tight turns in succession and I felt completely gassed. I told myself to breathe and take whatever time I needed to recover then use the parts of the course that I felt comfortable on to get back to racing. It took me a little while get back into the race but eventually I started to feel a little better. My third mile was a little bit soft and I let the second and third place runners bring back too much ground. Ultimately that probably helped me. It made me feel like I had to stay in the race and I couldn't just fall into cruise control.
With so many twists and turns there are a lot of places that you can see the runners ahead or behind you. That didn't do a whole lot for my whole 'don't worry about what other people are doing' thing, but like I said, it put plenty of fear motivation into me. By the time I reached the four-mile mark I felt like I was back in control. My legs still didn't feel like that had a ton of pop, but I knew exactly what I had left in terms of the course and I felt confident that I was going to get the win and turn in a solid time.
Inside the final mile and change I started to push things a little harder. I was driving out of the turns and was starting to pass some of the short course runners, using them to keep the focus on what lay ahead of me.
With about a half mile to go I was rolling down the final section of mountain bike trail before dropping back onto the gravel road for the push to the finish when I came up on a short course racer. I announced "coming up on your left" and he moved off the trail to let me buy. I got by him clean and the grimace on my face was turning into a smile. I started thinking about the hill workout I did on Wednesday. I set a new KOM on the Carriage Road climb at Little Mulberry. That climb sucks, but I grinded my way through a solid workout. I said to myself 'if you can do that this should be easy. It's dead flat!' Then boom. All of a sudden I was slidding into second base and I was out by a mile.
I clipped a root with my right foot. One of those ones that you catch with your toe when both feet are off the ground and went down hard. I nearly caught myself by I was going down so fast that I couldn't right the ship and ended up doing a head first slide. I was pissed. "Ahhh SHIT!" I grumbled as I scrambled to get back to my feet. I knew I'd opened up some distance but if I wallowed and took to long to get going again getting caught was a possibility.
The initial shot of adrenaline helped me get to my feet and try to get back into the race but after a minute or so I started to realize that I was dealing with more than just a raspberry on my right hip and bashed up hands. After the adrenaline wore off I noticed that accompanying each step was a sharp shot of pain in my left calf. Fortunately, I didn't have far to go at that point and I was able to hold on for the win. I felt like my mind and body were totally separate in the final 400 meters or so. My body was stuck grinding away as my mind was sprinting to the finish.
I limped across the line in 32:16, so not only was I disappointed in the time, but I was pissed at myself for hitting the deck. I've been pretty fortunate in that I haven't fallen in a race in a long time. There have been a few slip up and 'oh shit' moments but no full on crashes for a long time. I stuck around the finish to see the second and third place guys, who ran really strong. Both guys averaged right around six-minute pace, 6:02 and 6:03 I think. With a lot of these trails being mountain bike trails, averaging six-minute pace is good enough to win a lot of them. Major kudos to those two guys.
I hobbled my way to the car to clean myself off and change shoes before heading out for a 2+ mile cool down with Mitch. I was hoping that if I kept moving my calf would loosen up. It loosened up a little bit on the jog but as soon as we finished I felt like I had a softball lodged in my calf. I hung around the awards ceremony for a while, trying to keep moving around to stay loose. It didn't work.
I had a short ride back home from the race venue, but when I tried to get up out of the car I doubled over and fell into Amanda's car in the garage. I hobbled into the house and went straight for an ice pack. It was a gorgeous day, so we had hoped to enjoy it outside but after struggling to maneuver from the car to the counter at Jimmy Johns I decided I needed to shut it down for the day. I spent the rest of Saturday on the couch, alternating between ice and a compression sleeve.
I was not happy on Saturday afternoon. I was really nervous about how long it would take for the pain and swelling to abate. Fortunately, when I woke up Sunday it felt better. I could still feel the tightness, but I was back to walking normal. The original plan was to get in a long run (14-15 miles) on Sunday but I figured it would be better to just take the day off from running. Amanda and I checked out Leita Thompson Park in Roswell, walking around two miles, but other than I it was a zero.
I think spending Saturday icing and taking Sunday off were smart decisions for the long run. It was certainly a bit of a set back, but if I can be back to running normal by the middle of the week then I should be okay going forward. I'm still chasing that sub 30 time at UNG but overall it was a decent race. I didn't feel great about it. I don't know if I just went to hard early on or if I was a little flat from trying to build up my mileage, but I just kind of felt meh about it. Sometimes that's just how these races go until my training starts to come around in the spring.
Here's what it looked like on Strava. Can you tell where I ate it?
Recovery Beer of the Week: Kennebunkport Blueberry Ale
This is something I've wanted to add to my race reports for a while. I've been doing it on my snapchat (mattmhaley) but I'm adding it to the blog. I'm not a big drinker, but I do enjoy a good beer. After the race and spending Saturday as a debbie downer we were able to do a little exploring on Sunday. On the way home we stopped at a Trader Joe's to check out their selection of beer/coffee and stumbled on Kennebunkport Brewing Company Blueberry Ale. Light and crisp, it was a perfect pairing with dinner on a nice spring-like Georgia night.
I'm pretty much willing to try and beer once, but I get pretty excited whenever I find New England beers down here in the South. We always keep something New England based in the fridge. It's usually Woodchuck, but you're bound to find Hahhpoon or Sam in our fridge at any given time.
Update: The good thing about taking so long to finish this is that I can update everyone with how the week went. I took things easy Monday and Tuesday to be safe, but I was pretty much back to normal by Tuesday morning. I got the long run I was looking for in on Saturday and would have hit 60 miles again had I not run out of time on Thursday morning. I lollygagged getting out the door and ran on some trails that are slow going. I got in five, but had to cut things short so I would be late for work.
Race Recap: Dirty Spokes University of North Georgia 5.3 Mile Trail Race
UNG has become one of two courses that I consider to be a home race for me. It's about 15 miles up the highway from my house and about five minutes from my office, so I've spent a good amount of time on the trails there. It is one of the faster trail races on my calendar due to its shorter distance - between 5.3 & 5.5 miles depending on where the start is - and the fact that the course has a solid two miles of flat and fast dirt/gravel road.
It's a very fast start with 1.5 miles on the wide hard-packed trail. After that things slow down when you hit the mountain bike trails. There isn't a lot of land at the school so they've really tried to get as much distance as possible by filling the trail with a ton of twists and turns. Around about 3.5 miles things open up a little more. The turns are more sweeping than slalom but it's still a mountain bike trail. Shortly after hitting the four-mile mark you see the only real elevation change on the course, a quick up-and-over before you drop back down onto the fast stuff again for the finishing stretch.
A good bit of this race is right in my wheel house, so I've been chasing a sub-30 minute run for about six years. Spoiler alert, I didn't get it this year. I think it's doable but the course has changed a little bit since I ran 30:18 a few years ago. I think Ferenc ran 30:15 a few years ago when he came down for it. The start used to be in an open field - cross country style - now it's straight onto the hard pack. While the new start is definitely quicker, I think it adds a little bit to the course. I'd have to check what Tim wheeled it at but I'd venture a guess that with the old start it was 5.3 and the new one is 5.5. It almost certain adds a little bit now that we don't cut across the field. That's kind of an excuse, but whatever. I'll be back next year chasing that sub-30 run again.
Okay, on to the race.
I woke up on Saturday morning feeling confident after getting back on track with another hill workout earlier in the week but by the time I got to the race I felt flat. I did a two mile warm up while searching for an open building/bathroom and told myself that it was just prerace angst that was making my legs feel heavy and sluggish. I switched my shoes and headed over to the starting line where I ran into Mitch Novy and a couple of the other usual suspects. Mitch told me he had to take some time off with tendinitis so he wasn't going to be taking the race out hard like he normally does. Instead he'd hang back and run with me until I broke off into the woods for the long course. I was totally fine with that since in the past we'd been able to run away from the chasers over the first 1.5 miles and that's set me up really nicely.
When the gun went off we both got out clean, which was a concern since there was a narrow bridge about 50 meters in that could have been troublesome if you didn't get a clean line. Once we got across the bridge I settled in an fell into a comfortable rhythm with Mitch running right on my shoulder. My plan was to stay smooth and relaxed through the mile then put in a surge until I went into the woods where I'd ease off a little and focus on getting through the tight sections and opening it up on the more runnable ones.
Things went according to plan for the first mile with Mitch and I controlling things out front. We clipped off the first mile in 5:40, which I felt was perfect, at that point I started to ramp it up a little bit and ended up falling into rhythm behind Tim on the four wheeler. That might have been a little bit of a mistake. I ended up really dropping the hammer and almost instantly opened up a substantial gap. I felt good rolling it out, but after glancing at my watch and seeing 5:05 pace I figured I might be in over my head. I eased off a little bit but I still wanted to do as much damage as I could before getting into the woods.
That worked. I had around 40 seconds to a minute lead by the time I went into the woods, but for all the damage I did to the field, I did plenty of damage to myself. As soon as you go into the woods you have a couple of tight turns in succession and I felt completely gassed. I told myself to breathe and take whatever time I needed to recover then use the parts of the course that I felt comfortable on to get back to racing. It took me a little while get back into the race but eventually I started to feel a little better. My third mile was a little bit soft and I let the second and third place runners bring back too much ground. Ultimately that probably helped me. It made me feel like I had to stay in the race and I couldn't just fall into cruise control.
With so many twists and turns there are a lot of places that you can see the runners ahead or behind you. That didn't do a whole lot for my whole 'don't worry about what other people are doing' thing, but like I said, it put plenty of fear motivation into me. By the time I reached the four-mile mark I felt like I was back in control. My legs still didn't feel like that had a ton of pop, but I knew exactly what I had left in terms of the course and I felt confident that I was going to get the win and turn in a solid time.
Inside the final mile and change I started to push things a little harder. I was driving out of the turns and was starting to pass some of the short course runners, using them to keep the focus on what lay ahead of me.
With about a half mile to go I was rolling down the final section of mountain bike trail before dropping back onto the gravel road for the push to the finish when I came up on a short course racer. I announced "coming up on your left" and he moved off the trail to let me buy. I got by him clean and the grimace on my face was turning into a smile. I started thinking about the hill workout I did on Wednesday. I set a new KOM on the Carriage Road climb at Little Mulberry. That climb sucks, but I grinded my way through a solid workout. I said to myself 'if you can do that this should be easy. It's dead flat!' Then boom. All of a sudden I was slidding into second base and I was out by a mile.
I clipped a root with my right foot. One of those ones that you catch with your toe when both feet are off the ground and went down hard. I nearly caught myself by I was going down so fast that I couldn't right the ship and ended up doing a head first slide. I was pissed. "Ahhh SHIT!" I grumbled as I scrambled to get back to my feet. I knew I'd opened up some distance but if I wallowed and took to long to get going again getting caught was a possibility.
The initial shot of adrenaline helped me get to my feet and try to get back into the race but after a minute or so I started to realize that I was dealing with more than just a raspberry on my right hip and bashed up hands. After the adrenaline wore off I noticed that accompanying each step was a sharp shot of pain in my left calf. Fortunately, I didn't have far to go at that point and I was able to hold on for the win. I felt like my mind and body were totally separate in the final 400 meters or so. My body was stuck grinding away as my mind was sprinting to the finish.
I limped across the line in 32:16, so not only was I disappointed in the time, but I was pissed at myself for hitting the deck. I've been pretty fortunate in that I haven't fallen in a race in a long time. There have been a few slip up and 'oh shit' moments but no full on crashes for a long time. I stuck around the finish to see the second and third place guys, who ran really strong. Both guys averaged right around six-minute pace, 6:02 and 6:03 I think. With a lot of these trails being mountain bike trails, averaging six-minute pace is good enough to win a lot of them. Major kudos to those two guys.
 |
| The look on my face sums up how I felt about the fall |
I hobbled my way to the car to clean myself off and change shoes before heading out for a 2+ mile cool down with Mitch. I was hoping that if I kept moving my calf would loosen up. It loosened up a little bit on the jog but as soon as we finished I felt like I had a softball lodged in my calf. I hung around the awards ceremony for a while, trying to keep moving around to stay loose. It didn't work.
I had a short ride back home from the race venue, but when I tried to get up out of the car I doubled over and fell into Amanda's car in the garage. I hobbled into the house and went straight for an ice pack. It was a gorgeous day, so we had hoped to enjoy it outside but after struggling to maneuver from the car to the counter at Jimmy Johns I decided I needed to shut it down for the day. I spent the rest of Saturday on the couch, alternating between ice and a compression sleeve.
I was not happy on Saturday afternoon. I was really nervous about how long it would take for the pain and swelling to abate. Fortunately, when I woke up Sunday it felt better. I could still feel the tightness, but I was back to walking normal. The original plan was to get in a long run (14-15 miles) on Sunday but I figured it would be better to just take the day off from running. Amanda and I checked out Leita Thompson Park in Roswell, walking around two miles, but other than I it was a zero.
I think spending Saturday icing and taking Sunday off were smart decisions for the long run. It was certainly a bit of a set back, but if I can be back to running normal by the middle of the week then I should be okay going forward. I'm still chasing that sub 30 time at UNG but overall it was a decent race. I didn't feel great about it. I don't know if I just went to hard early on or if I was a little flat from trying to build up my mileage, but I just kind of felt meh about it. Sometimes that's just how these races go until my training starts to come around in the spring.
Here's what it looked like on Strava. Can you tell where I ate it?
Recovery Beer of the Week: Kennebunkport Blueberry Ale
This is something I've wanted to add to my race reports for a while. I've been doing it on my snapchat (mattmhaley) but I'm adding it to the blog. I'm not a big drinker, but I do enjoy a good beer. After the race and spending Saturday as a debbie downer we were able to do a little exploring on Sunday. On the way home we stopped at a Trader Joe's to check out their selection of beer/coffee and stumbled on Kennebunkport Brewing Company Blueberry Ale. Light and crisp, it was a perfect pairing with dinner on a nice spring-like Georgia night.
I'm pretty much willing to try and beer once, but I get pretty excited whenever I find New England beers down here in the South. We always keep something New England based in the fridge. It's usually Woodchuck, but you're bound to find Hahhpoon or Sam in our fridge at any given time.
Update: The good thing about taking so long to finish this is that I can update everyone with how the week went. I took things easy Monday and Tuesday to be safe, but I was pretty much back to normal by Tuesday morning. I got the long run I was looking for in on Saturday and would have hit 60 miles again had I not run out of time on Thursday morning. I lollygagged getting out the door and ran on some trails that are slow going. I got in five, but had to cut things short so I would be late for work.
Monday, February 15, 2016
Race Recap: Heritage Park 7.5 Mile Trail Race
Heritage Park marks the second race of the Dirty Spokes Trail series and it's typically a bit of a ball buster for me. At, roughly, 7.5 miles it always seems like it's just outside of my comfort zone this time of year. Going into the race, I'd been logging good mileage in the mid-40s to 50s as part of my typical steady build up and I even threw in a hill workout to try and start working on some strength.
I felt like I ran pretty well at Mayhem on the Mountain, but I figured Heritage park would be a better litmus test for where my fitness is right now. The course is a little more rolling and doesn't have the same short steep climbs as the last race. Things start out on a gravel road that loops around the park's large open arena, through the parking lot then past the barn and onto the trails. The majority of the course is run on well worn mountain bike trails with a couple of sections using wider, double-track equestrian trails. Like I said before, it's a rolling course with a good mix of flat, up, down, and turns before hitting decent climb in the final 3/4 of a mile back up to the arena where the race finishes.
My plan was to stay relaxed early and work my way into it letting the short course (2.8 miles) guys go out and just run my own race. I didn't really have much in the way of expectations. This is a weird race where sometimes you'll get a UGA guy that comes down from Athens, hell one year a guy from Australia that was teaching up there showed up and destroyed. Of all the Dirty Spokes races this one is the one that has the highest wildcard factor in terms of competition.
For once I actually got out the door on time. I was in the car and moving at 6:30 to make the hour drive out to Watkinsville and made it out their with plenty of time to get situated. I checked in and grabbed my number then continued my tour of the bathrooms of the lower 48 states - that's what my mom and dad used to say whenever my brother or I would have to go to the bathroom when we were driving cross country as kids.
It was a cold morning with the temperature hovering in the mid 20s. That wouldn't be bad for early February under normal circumstances, but earlier in the week it was in the mid 50s and low 60s, so the 30 or 40 degree temperature swing made the cold a little more biting. With the cold and the long drive, I wanted to make sure I got nice and warmed up, so I headed out for a 15-20 minute warm up on the opening section of the course. As I was heading back to the car I ran into Mitch Novy as he was getting ready to head to the start. In true Keene State, ragamuffin fashion I was grabbing gloves, arm warmers, and my jersey all while tying my shoes with about 10 minutes to spare before the gun.
When we made it to the start we both exchanged pleasantries with the usual suspects. It's really cool to see how competitive the series is through all the age groups for men and women. There are some serious battles that really heat up as it goes along. I love talking with those guys before and after the races. There are some guys and gals that are killing it in their 40s, 50s, and 60s and I hope that I am still out there getting after it like they are.
I told Mitch that I wasn't planning on going out hard and I was focusing on just settling in and trying to ease into things. Since his race was 2.8 miles, he was prepped and ready to go out hard, XC spikes and all. And go out hard he did. At the guy, my man was gone. He instantly had a 10 meter lead, with a young kid - maybe 12 or 14 - trailing behind him. I was a little behind the young gun while everyone else settled in behind me. As we worked our way around arena on the gravel road, I gradually started pulling the two leaders back in. I was a little conflicted because I glanced down at my watch and we ran about a 75 second first quarter, which was much, much quicker than I wanted to go out. However, I was sitting in no mans land and I've always enjoyed running on gravel roads, especially, flat, fast gravel roads.
Roughly a half mile into the race I realized that Mitch had settled in and I decided to try and pull him in and run with him until the split. I pulled up along side of him and we ran side-by-side before dropping onto the singletrack. I pushed ahead to take a slight lead figuring I would be better off keeping the the pace higher and trying to separate myself from the pack early. I was little surprised that Mitch let me open up a little bit of a gap but he kept it pretty close for the first two miles. I think we both realized that we had a nice early cushion and settled in shortly after the mile mark. Just before 2.5 miles we had to cross a small creek (or crick as they say down here). There was a photographer there and after the race I was all jacked to see the picture because a bunch of people put theirs on facebook. Mine did not come out so hot. I felt like I looked so smooth going over it, but that was not the case.
Seriously, what is that? I look like I'm afraid of a spider or something. Embarrassing. Ferenc is going to be pissed that I'm making the jersey look bad, but stay tuned it gets better. Anyway, after the crick we went through the split where I raced deeper into the woods while Mitch made the turn to head back to the finish. From there on out I was pretty much on my own. It's always hard to tell how far up or down you are on some of these trails that double back on themselves, so each time I caught a glance of someone else I tried to put my nose to the grindstone and get rolling.
Once I made it through four miles, I had a pretty good feeling that I was well in control. I have been trying to take some of the things that Coach Quinn talks about to the team into my running, with the main theme being that 'it's about us'. It doesn't matter what the other team does or what anyone else does as long as we/I do what I'm supposed to do. My goal in that is to stop worrying about what's going on behind me and just focus on the road/trail ahead of me. It's probably not a coincidence that I run my best when I'm focused on what I need to do versus what the people behind me or in front of me are doing.
I tried to stay focused on racing, but I ended up just kind of settling in and going into cruise control for the second half of the race. I felt like I was doing a good job of pushing the pace on some of the flat sections, but I was feathering the brakes a little on the downhills. We've had a good amount of rain down here over the last month or so and a lot of the downhills were pretty washed out which had me a little worried about rolling an ankle.
Heritage Park has a ravine/gully type feature to it with creek, sorry crick running along the bottom. The course runs down to the crick in the first half of the race, crosses it, then works its way along side before crossing again and then climbing back out of the gully. By the time I reached the base of the climb back out I knew I had the win sown up. To try and get myself going again I wanted to finish under 50 minutes, which meant I needed to make the final climb and finishing stretch in under five minutes. This stretch is a little more than a half mile, so I felt like it was doable, but I ended up cresting the climb and coming out of the woods right around 50 minutes and finished the 7.5 mile race in 50:21.
I was happy to get the win. I don't think I've ever won at Heritage Park before. Like I said, it's a tough race for me fitness-wise and a lot of times you get one or two guys that are just straight up faster than me. I thought I'd be able to run a little bit quicker, as I've run in the 48s on this course before, but I'll chalk that up to trying to shake people and/or chase people down the last couple of years. I entered the race hoping it would give me a better idea of my fitness early in the year, but came out of it just as unsure as I was before. I feel like I'm set up better than I was last year though.
I spent a ton of time during December and January trying to get my hamstring right. It's still tight every now and again, but I'm in a better spot than I was at this time last year. I'm still working on it, but my mileage is much better this year. I'm probably not quite were I was going into 2013 but I feel like I'm closer to that than where I was last year, which is a good thing. My first goal race is still more than a month away, so for now I just need to stay course and keep working.
Overall Heritage Park was a success. It was a solid run at a good tempo and most importantly it was on singletrack. I need all the practice I can get on singletrack and technical trails going into River Gorge. Next up is the Thrill in the Hills half marathon on February 20th. I'm not viewing that as a race, more of a long workout. Obviously, I want to perform well, but I know I'm not quite ready to race that distance. That being said, it will be a really good tune up a month out from River Gorge.
Here's what the race looked like on Strava
After the race I drove over to Watkinsville proper and stopped at Jittery Joe's for a nice hot cup of coffee to refuel for the ride home. I went with their Tour de Force dahhk roast and dropped a spoonful of Untapped maple in it and munched on a maple waffle. Jittery Joe's is a really cool coffee shop based in Athens, in fact I think there is only one outside of Athens (I could be wrong). I started drinking coffee during training camp this past year and we have a few of their varieties at the office so I've really come to enjoy it (always with a shot of maple syrup of course). They have also been long time supporters of the cycling community, which I think is pretty cool.
After my post-race snack I headed back home and met up with Amanda for some lunch before we headed downtown to check out Ponce City Market and walk around on the Beltline. There were a ton of people out walking around, which I was little surprised by since it was cold for Georgians. After we we worked up an appetite walking around we headed to Mellow Mushroom for pizza and beer which was long, long overdue.
Sunday morning I decided to go for a recovery ride on my sweet new Cannondale CAAD10 instead of running. I rode nearly 40 miles due to a slight miscalculation of distance from home. It was a really fun ride, probably a little hillier and further than I should have gone, but I really enjoyed rolling along on my new ride. Apparently buying a bike the day after a "snow storm" is the way to go since I got a good deal on her.
I rode over to the Buford Dam, which is a really cool spot to ride. There's an awesome stretch of rode that goes over the top of the dam, overlooking Lake Lanier to one side and the Chattahoochee River on the other. The dam is one of those earthen Army Corps of Engineer dams like Otter Brook or Surry in New Hampshire, so I enjoy the few minutes of nostalgia.
I felt like I ran pretty well at Mayhem on the Mountain, but I figured Heritage park would be a better litmus test for where my fitness is right now. The course is a little more rolling and doesn't have the same short steep climbs as the last race. Things start out on a gravel road that loops around the park's large open arena, through the parking lot then past the barn and onto the trails. The majority of the course is run on well worn mountain bike trails with a couple of sections using wider, double-track equestrian trails. Like I said before, it's a rolling course with a good mix of flat, up, down, and turns before hitting decent climb in the final 3/4 of a mile back up to the arena where the race finishes.
My plan was to stay relaxed early and work my way into it letting the short course (2.8 miles) guys go out and just run my own race. I didn't really have much in the way of expectations. This is a weird race where sometimes you'll get a UGA guy that comes down from Athens, hell one year a guy from Australia that was teaching up there showed up and destroyed. Of all the Dirty Spokes races this one is the one that has the highest wildcard factor in terms of competition.
For once I actually got out the door on time. I was in the car and moving at 6:30 to make the hour drive out to Watkinsville and made it out their with plenty of time to get situated. I checked in and grabbed my number then continued my tour of the bathrooms of the lower 48 states - that's what my mom and dad used to say whenever my brother or I would have to go to the bathroom when we were driving cross country as kids.
It was a cold morning with the temperature hovering in the mid 20s. That wouldn't be bad for early February under normal circumstances, but earlier in the week it was in the mid 50s and low 60s, so the 30 or 40 degree temperature swing made the cold a little more biting. With the cold and the long drive, I wanted to make sure I got nice and warmed up, so I headed out for a 15-20 minute warm up on the opening section of the course. As I was heading back to the car I ran into Mitch Novy as he was getting ready to head to the start. In true Keene State, ragamuffin fashion I was grabbing gloves, arm warmers, and my jersey all while tying my shoes with about 10 minutes to spare before the gun.
When we made it to the start we both exchanged pleasantries with the usual suspects. It's really cool to see how competitive the series is through all the age groups for men and women. There are some serious battles that really heat up as it goes along. I love talking with those guys before and after the races. There are some guys and gals that are killing it in their 40s, 50s, and 60s and I hope that I am still out there getting after it like they are.
I told Mitch that I wasn't planning on going out hard and I was focusing on just settling in and trying to ease into things. Since his race was 2.8 miles, he was prepped and ready to go out hard, XC spikes and all. And go out hard he did. At the guy, my man was gone. He instantly had a 10 meter lead, with a young kid - maybe 12 or 14 - trailing behind him. I was a little behind the young gun while everyone else settled in behind me. As we worked our way around arena on the gravel road, I gradually started pulling the two leaders back in. I was a little conflicted because I glanced down at my watch and we ran about a 75 second first quarter, which was much, much quicker than I wanted to go out. However, I was sitting in no mans land and I've always enjoyed running on gravel roads, especially, flat, fast gravel roads.
Roughly a half mile into the race I realized that Mitch had settled in and I decided to try and pull him in and run with him until the split. I pulled up along side of him and we ran side-by-side before dropping onto the singletrack. I pushed ahead to take a slight lead figuring I would be better off keeping the the pace higher and trying to separate myself from the pack early. I was little surprised that Mitch let me open up a little bit of a gap but he kept it pretty close for the first two miles. I think we both realized that we had a nice early cushion and settled in shortly after the mile mark. Just before 2.5 miles we had to cross a small creek (or crick as they say down here). There was a photographer there and after the race I was all jacked to see the picture because a bunch of people put theirs on facebook. Mine did not come out so hot. I felt like I looked so smooth going over it, but that was not the case.
Seriously, what is that? I look like I'm afraid of a spider or something. Embarrassing. Ferenc is going to be pissed that I'm making the jersey look bad, but stay tuned it gets better. Anyway, after the crick we went through the split where I raced deeper into the woods while Mitch made the turn to head back to the finish. From there on out I was pretty much on my own. It's always hard to tell how far up or down you are on some of these trails that double back on themselves, so each time I caught a glance of someone else I tried to put my nose to the grindstone and get rolling.
Once I made it through four miles, I had a pretty good feeling that I was well in control. I have been trying to take some of the things that Coach Quinn talks about to the team into my running, with the main theme being that 'it's about us'. It doesn't matter what the other team does or what anyone else does as long as we/I do what I'm supposed to do. My goal in that is to stop worrying about what's going on behind me and just focus on the road/trail ahead of me. It's probably not a coincidence that I run my best when I'm focused on what I need to do versus what the people behind me or in front of me are doing.
I tried to stay focused on racing, but I ended up just kind of settling in and going into cruise control for the second half of the race. I felt like I was doing a good job of pushing the pace on some of the flat sections, but I was feathering the brakes a little on the downhills. We've had a good amount of rain down here over the last month or so and a lot of the downhills were pretty washed out which had me a little worried about rolling an ankle.
Heritage Park has a ravine/gully type feature to it with creek, sorry crick running along the bottom. The course runs down to the crick in the first half of the race, crosses it, then works its way along side before crossing again and then climbing back out of the gully. By the time I reached the base of the climb back out I knew I had the win sown up. To try and get myself going again I wanted to finish under 50 minutes, which meant I needed to make the final climb and finishing stretch in under five minutes. This stretch is a little more than a half mile, so I felt like it was doable, but I ended up cresting the climb and coming out of the woods right around 50 minutes and finished the 7.5 mile race in 50:21.
 |
| That Untapped hat looks good on the top step |
I was happy to get the win. I don't think I've ever won at Heritage Park before. Like I said, it's a tough race for me fitness-wise and a lot of times you get one or two guys that are just straight up faster than me. I thought I'd be able to run a little bit quicker, as I've run in the 48s on this course before, but I'll chalk that up to trying to shake people and/or chase people down the last couple of years. I entered the race hoping it would give me a better idea of my fitness early in the year, but came out of it just as unsure as I was before. I feel like I'm set up better than I was last year though.
I spent a ton of time during December and January trying to get my hamstring right. It's still tight every now and again, but I'm in a better spot than I was at this time last year. I'm still working on it, but my mileage is much better this year. I'm probably not quite were I was going into 2013 but I feel like I'm closer to that than where I was last year, which is a good thing. My first goal race is still more than a month away, so for now I just need to stay course and keep working.
Overall Heritage Park was a success. It was a solid run at a good tempo and most importantly it was on singletrack. I need all the practice I can get on singletrack and technical trails going into River Gorge. Next up is the Thrill in the Hills half marathon on February 20th. I'm not viewing that as a race, more of a long workout. Obviously, I want to perform well, but I know I'm not quite ready to race that distance. That being said, it will be a really good tune up a month out from River Gorge.
Here's what the race looked like on Strava
After the race I drove over to Watkinsville proper and stopped at Jittery Joe's for a nice hot cup of coffee to refuel for the ride home. I went with their Tour de Force dahhk roast and dropped a spoonful of Untapped maple in it and munched on a maple waffle. Jittery Joe's is a really cool coffee shop based in Athens, in fact I think there is only one outside of Athens (I could be wrong). I started drinking coffee during training camp this past year and we have a few of their varieties at the office so I've really come to enjoy it (always with a shot of maple syrup of course). They have also been long time supporters of the cycling community, which I think is pretty cool.
After my post-race snack I headed back home and met up with Amanda for some lunch before we headed downtown to check out Ponce City Market and walk around on the Beltline. There were a ton of people out walking around, which I was little surprised by since it was cold for Georgians. After we we worked up an appetite walking around we headed to Mellow Mushroom for pizza and beer which was long, long overdue.
Sunday morning I decided to go for a recovery ride on my sweet new Cannondale CAAD10 instead of running. I rode nearly 40 miles due to a slight miscalculation of distance from home. It was a really fun ride, probably a little hillier and further than I should have gone, but I really enjoyed rolling along on my new ride. Apparently buying a bike the day after a "snow storm" is the way to go since I got a good deal on her.
 |
| My sweet new wheels! |
Friday, January 22, 2016
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.
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!)
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 |
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!)
Monday, January 18, 2016
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.
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.
Tuesday, January 12, 2016
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!
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!
Wednesday, December 30, 2015
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'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.
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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)