The Devil Went Down to Georgia

... he was looking for a soul to steal. He was in a bind cos' he was way behind; he was willin' to make a deal. Well, Zeke came along; he knew what was goin' on, and invited him home for a meal. Afer a burger and fries, the Devil began to realize that he was no match for Zeke's faith. In his frustration, he ran off and left his Bandersnatch.

And so that is how Zeke ended up riding a 29'er and since has converted to the Big Wheel. I must say, I was skeptical about Zeke's decision to go big. Especially since his previous bike was a 5 inch travel Epiphany. But after riding with him last week and listening to him rave about its handling and speed, I guess I was wrong. I only hope he continues to enjoy it, especially after our journey to Arkansas next week to race the Ouachita and then ride the Syllamo.

The change is even to my benefit as I got a sweet deal on a set of DT Swiss 190 hubs and Stan's ZTR rims. With this I will even be able to shave some more weight off Stumpy.

Easter Sunrise Ride

I left my family early this morning at 6am, sleeping soundly, while I decided to welcome the day on Starr Mountain. I explored Coffee Branch Trail and Chestnut Trail. As I was climbing up the doubletrack, I was able to watch the moon set and the sun rise. Absolutely beautiful. Listening to the birds singing and watching the trail appear as rays of light came through the trees brought back memories of my 24 hour races in 2006. Those first laps at daybreak were the best.

These trails are horse trails. I had ridden Coffee Branch before, but not its entirety. Today these trails were in good shape. It looked like the USFS had recently done some work on them. Kudos to the Forest Service as I did not have to climb over any downed trees on Coffee Branch and just a few on Chestnut. Chestnut had a technical rocky uphill and a furiously fast rocky downhill. This is a good trail to prep for TransRockies.

Thankfully the worst of my bronchits is over. Not much coughing and definitely easier to breathe. I hope it will be completely gone this week. Ouachita Challenge is approaching fast and I woul really like to be at my best for this one. It is one of my favorites (=lots of rocks!)

Forced Rest

The respiratory bug that I acquired during CRBC really hit me hard this week. What with long hours at work and wheezing/coughing when I would try to get my heartrate in the 150's, I decided to give my bike a rest.

I was excited to see our homegrown, hormone and antibiotic free, black angus arrive this week. Charlie's parents raise angus and each year they butcher a steer for us. It only costs us the kill bill, which, in this case equated to $.40/lb. So now I can work on improving my iron stores.

Tomorrow Stumpy and I are going to see how I fare riding the horse trails and fireroads on Starr Mountain. Looking forward to a sunrise start. Then the family is off to watch 10,000 BC. Carly is all about prehistoric animals. Don't think she will care too much about the love story though. Oh, well, isn't it all about special effects anyway?

Strategy

Danielle, Namrita, and I have been planning a little training camp for the past several months, with a 6 hour race thrown in the mix of riding singletrack and fireroads in Tennessee and Georgia. We have been talking about how hard the 6 hour will probably be after several hard days in a row and that whoever wins amongst us will be the "training camp sandbagger."

So the plans were for Danielle to come down this past weekend and ride the Cohutta 65 route with me. Well, after the unfortunate mishap with Big Red, a Saturday arrival was questionable. Then she tells me something about how the bad weather in Michigan has slowed everthing down and that Big Red was not going to be fixed in time. But her mother was going to let her drive her van down on Tuesday.

Just yesterday Danielle emails me that her mom's van broke a strut, but that she bought a little car to make the trip. A Ford! at that. Uh oh!

So I do another long ride today, 5 hours and 50 miles of fireroads on Kimsey Mountain. I call it the La Ruta route because it has a little pavement, some railroad tracks, a trestle crossing, steep gravel roads, and some mud thrown in.

I come home, clean up, make dinner, and await Danielle's arrival. I expect it to be around 8 pm. Well, she calls around 7:30 pm, saying something about how on her way through Ohio she noticed that one of the tires was splitting and that she had to make a stop at a tire store to get a new one. And that as she was about to leave the mechanic noticed that the other rear tire was mounted backwards!

So now her arrival will not be until after 11pm ... at least two hours past my bedtime. Yes, I am an early bird; I have a 5 year old, so I go by her schedule in order to get a good night's rest.

At last, I see Danielle's scheme. Wear me out before we even get started! Let me put in 2 hard rides, go to bed late, ride hard for 3 more days, then race. Danielle probably took a 3 hour nap somewhere in Ohio so she could be well rested for the next 3 days. Then put an a$$ whoopin' on me at the 6 hour.

But I plan on counter-attacking! Little does Danielle realize that Carly's room is directly above hers. I bet she does not plan on getting up a 6 am ... he!he!he! By the time she reads this it will be too late.

Snake Creek Gap 6 Mountain TT

Yesterday was the final race of this year's series. Prior to the start, I was concerned with just holding on to third in the women's money class. It had rained all day on Friday so I knew the conditions were going to be a little sloppy. However, it was sunny and warm and I was actually feeling good about today. I was also riding Stumpy, trying her out for the first time in a race. Being a half pound lighter than my Epic and having ridden her a couple days ago on the last technical section on the race course, I thought this decision was pretty much a no-brainer.

I was lucky enough to be in the fourth wave off the start so hopefully I would not have to expend too much energy passing people. Immediately my legs felt "snappy." Oh, yeah, today is going to be good! Then I hit a section of doubletrack that the Forest Service had worked on ... just recently. Their idea of trail work usually involves heavy machinery. I bogged down in the thick mud but managed to stay upright and pedal out of it. I was not about to lose a shoe to the goo! Luckily there was only about a 1/4 mile of destruction, but I still used up a lot of energy fighting it.

The first 6 miles of the race was the sloppiest, but then the conditions improved tremendously. Most of the remaining trail was dry, thanks to the awesome trail work of the NWGASORBA crew. I was setting a good pace and lovin' the downhills. The extra inch of travel was just soaking up the bumps. I even got several compliments by the guys on my descending skills. It has taken several years of practice and better suspension, but I am finally not afraid to go fast.

Looking at my computer as I rolled in to the aid station at the midway point, I saw that I was 15 minutes faster than last month! Holy crap! I knew I was rollin' but ... but wait, my odometer was only reading 12 miles and the midway point was at mile 16. My computer was way off so I looked at my watch and saw that I was only 5 minutes faster. O.K. that is more reasonable.

Now I began to realize that I just might be able to improve my placing. I was the first woman through the midway point, but I knew that superspeedy Jamie Dinkins was somewhere behind me. She currently held first place after the fastest time in January.

Starting the climb after the aid station, my legs still felt great, and I was able to maintain my HR in the 170's. As I topped the climb, I looked back down the mountain and saw Jamie. I estimated her to be about 2 minutes behind. I managed to hold her off until we entered the last technical section. About a mile in she passed on a climb. I knew she had started at least a wave behind me so my chance of a first place was gone. But I stuck to her wheel hoping that I could pull of a second. I stayed with her for a couple miles. I was equal to her on the rocky descents, but she is such a strong climber. This is where she was able to pull away.

The last 2 miles of singletrack I was in oxygen debt. I ended up running a couple tricky sections because I knew I would be faster and less apt to hurt myself. I pushed myself so hard that as I popped out of the singletrack onto the road for the final 1 1/2 mile descent, I hit a pile of rocks and just about went sliding across the asphalt.

I finished with a time of 3:47:10, knocking off 5 minutes off my February time. Good enough for 2nd place. I was satisfied! Jamie improved on her time as well, finishing in 3:43 and some change. The under 23's better watch out for her; she is going to do some damage this year at the national races!

I have been doing this race since its inception in 2004. It just keeps getting better and competition fiercer. The NWGASORBA club works hard to ensure a great race. On Friday, in the rain, they had to walk the course, with chainsaws, and move at least 7 trees that had fallen in Tuesday's windstorm. The post-race food was tasty! They even had homemade peach cobbler!

This is a great winter series training race. You all should come down and see what it is about in '09. You will not be disappointed.

Catchin' My Breath

I have been so busy with non-cycling "things" that blogging was moved to the bottom of the list. Between trips to the doctor (for all of us), negotiating selling my interest in the clinic, helping my avid little reader, Carly, explore the world of books, and income tax preparation, I have had little free time. And when that did occur, I used it up as extra "sleep" time.

We have all been sick this month: Charlie--the flu, Carly--cold and ear infection, and me--mono! Yep, seemed I picked up that nice little virus sometime between La Ruta and Christmas. We all all on the mend now, doing much better. And man, our house is so CLEAN, you could eat off the floor, carpet, couch, door knobs, phone, etc. Lysol's profits are definitely UP!

I am trying to go from business owner to associate. I've come to realize that I would rather play now, while I am young and healthy, then, if I need to, I can always work when I am old and decrepit. There are no do-overs in life and I am not about to let it pass on by. So by selling out (with the option of buying back in later) I will have much more time for my family and cycling.

Carly has picked up reading in the past month. It was like a light switch went on in her head. She is loving it and now she is reading me bedtime stories. So I am spending much more time fostering this newly found interest of hers. I am secretly hoping she can learn how to ride a bike this quickly.

Taxes, ughh! They are so complicated for us now, that we have to hire an accountant to do it for us. Who has the fair tax on their platform? I may vote for them.

With all that has been going on, I did manage to slip away for 5 days ... down to Florida. I got in 24 hours of training and it was all good. Rode 5 different trail systems around Ocala and Tampa. The Floridians know how to make due with what little topography they have. got to hand it to them ... sweet trails.

The final Snake Creek Gap race is this weekend(think I'm ready), and then in 11 days it is on! with Danielle and Namrita. Looking forward to riding with some fast chicks!

Wandering and Wondering

With a beautifully warm and sunny day, Zeke and I headed out for a 5 hour training ride in the Coker Creek area of the Cherokee National Forest. We did most of our usual loop, but then decided to ride some new trails and fireroads. It is fun to ride new places as you are always wondering what might be around the corner. On one trail we came across an old CCC camp. Not much left except what appeared to be a cistern and perhaps the remnants of a still. I am sure the still came long after the CCC camp.

The trail forked and we decided to go right. (Note to self: don't ride ungroomed trails after a windstorm.) Immediately we came to a barracade of downed trees. Zeke took the low road and I the high. After several minutes of fighting branches and doing a butt-slide down the embankment, we made it through. Back on our bikes, we were able to ride about 30 meters before we were off again. Hop over the fallen trees this time, then back on the bikes. We repeated this multiple times on our ride, and I was beginning to feel like a cyclocross racer! On the sections of trail we could ride, it was tight, twisty, and technical; way fun!

Soon, however, we were beginning to wander as we had no idea where we were. Time was getting by us. When I ride, there is always a point in time where I need to begin heading back to the truck so that I can make it in time to pick up Carly from after-school care. Not knowing exactly where we were, I began to worry. After only a few minutes or worrying, I looked up and saw a forest service road. Once we were back on the road, we regained our bearings and started riding back to our trucks. Heck! We made it back with just enough time for me to climb the 5 mile gravel road up to Buck Bald again!