Don't Let the Pictures Fool You...

So last week my dad, Bill Gardner, Stu Hess, and I headed down to Brevard, North Carolina for a Carmichael training camp. Left on Tuesday after school and drove down to Roanoke, Virginia. Woke up the next morning to continue the drive (Virginia, Tennessee, and NC) and show up in time for a short ride in the rain. Ate a very good lunch and dinner that day, and got to bed excited to go do a field test on a 2 mile climb the next day. I felt a little slow when I went hard in the Mash, but these efforts made me feel good about the upcoming races. Did 2 efforts, rode back, and ate lunch. It was still raining hard by the way. But I really like climbing in the rain. Then we got ready to go out for another 2 1/2 hours on the flatter areas. Worked on paceline skills (yeah in the rain) and got a good, hard 40 mile ride. Then it got interesting...

The next day (Friday) was a 4 hour endurance ride. Started off through the fields and stopped at a gas station for a re-fuel from the support car. Then it was off to the mountains. It wasn't all uphill, but there was no downhill on the 21 mile ascent up to the Blue Ridge Parkway. It was a climb that took an hour and 50 minutes. It got really steep at the top, and it was raining again. The summit was 5,667 feet, and I'm proud to say that I reached the highest elevation I have ever been to...and I did it on a bike. So that was 3,000something feet of climbing on that single climb. But it was almost 10 degrees cooler at the top, and I was shivering badly while waiting for the support car with all the gear. It got there, and no matter how many dry clothes I put on, I was still shivering. So I skipped the 20 mile descent back to the hotel and rode back in the car. After a long time driving around the town trying to find a decent place to eat, Bill stumbled upon Fall's Landing. An amazing seafood restaurant. I got blackened Mahi Mahi and it was really good. The next day was hill repeats. I can say that by this time, I've gotten used to really pushing myself again. So again, I'm feeling good for Marysville. 13 miles to the climb and 13 back, so the ride was about 45 miles. I got a chance to do some homework that night and we went back to Fall's Landing. The Mahi Mahi was really good, but I wanted to try something different on the menu. I decided to go with Orange Roughy. It was still really good fish, but I liked the Mahi Mahi better. Bill had a craving for pizza and beer while we watched the Villa-Nova/Pitt game, so he ordered Pizza Hut (which was next to the hotel). I had a few pieces, and it tasted good after a few days of hard rides. Next morning was the Carolina Crusher, and our final ride. After some rolling flats and a big descent into the valley, we stopped at a gas station in South Carolina and fueled up for a ride up George Hincapie's favorite training climb: Caeser's Head. The climb is a little over 7 miles long from the time it really starts to pick up elevation. It stays mostly in the 8-10% grade range, but at the switchbacks near the top, gets up to 15-18%. It's a really scenic climb with a lot of overlooks over Greenville county.

Michaux Mash

I really wasn't coming into this race expecting much. Sure, I knew I would ride well and probably have a decent time, but I wasn't racing it at all. It was more of a ride in Michaux with a lot of other people there.

So my Rush had been in the shop getting a new derrailleur and chain after it came in contact with a stick. Driving in to pick it up, my dad let me hear the bad news: I also tore my fork boot and that needed replaced, meaning that the bike I planned on riding in the Mash was still going to be at the shop for awhile. My Taurine is getting sold, and I picked up a Scalpel, which I plan on racing a lot this year. On Friday and Saturday, I was able to ride the Scalpel enough to get used to it and to wear the break pads in.

The morning of the race was really cool. It was the closest it's ever been to the weather of my first race (2006 Michaux Maximus), which was foggy, cold, and a big storm the night before. I was a little rushed to get my water bottles and everything set up and get to the line, but whatever. The beginning of the race was tight, Gunnar and I were trying to pass a lot of people in singletrack that wasn't very good for passing. And then we made a wrong turn. Actually our whole group made a wrong turn, and we bombed down a doubletrack to where it deadended. Then we had to turn around and climb back out, and pass all the people we had just passed. Some really nice singletrack to a road, and then a tough climb. Gunnar started to make a move on the climb, and I really didn't feel like chasing him since I was just out riding and I didn't have the motivation to punish myself that much. I already knew I was going to hate that climb later in the day...

The rest of the laps went well. 2nd lap was faster than the first by a minute or two, 3rd was just a bit slower. Then I came to that climb on my 4th lap. It killed me mentally more than physically, because I was feeling great up until then and I got a lot of my energy back after I crested the top. But on this climb, my dad passed me. It was a bit of a shock, and it didn't make me feel too good about how I was riding, but I realized that he is a very strong rider who is much better at a constant endurance pace than any kind of racing. So anyway, I got to the top and immediatly turned on the gas. I knew I didn't have too far to go and I was pretty happy since I liked the trail a lot. Came into the finish with a sprint that felt like I was racing XC, and after a little while to think over the day, I was pretty happy with how I had done. It was the longest ride of the year - only the 3rd one over 3 hours. First hard ride. I'm looking forward to the year, especially because I know that I'll be able to catch up on my training. I got sick 2 times this year when I could've been training, which set me back a lot. But I'm ready for the real races to start.

Update

So these last few weeks have been pretty good. Got to ride outside without much snow on the trails. Last weekend did two 3 hour rides on Saturday and Sunday; recovered pretty well and Sunday's ride was a lot better than Saturday's. Got to go for a ride outside again on Friday, and it was very nice. 60 degrees outside ment I could ride in just knee warmers and a short sleeved jersey. Today, a 3 1/2 hour ride was planned, and I got 3 hours of riding in, but it wasn't exactly how I wanted it to go. We met some people on the other side of the forest for a long ride on the Stoopid course. Rode the first trail of the race out, then came back the direction of the Stoopid. About an hour into the ride, a stick caught my derraileur and pulled it into the spokes, breaking it. We fiddled with a singulator for about an hour, but couldn't get it to work. Since I was riding the Rush, I wouldn't be able to singlespeed it without the singulator, because of the amount of suspention. So we took the chain off and I hiked up to where I could finally coast down the last bit of downhill to the car. We drove back to the house, got something to eat, slept for a bit, and then I got my 29er ready to go for the second ride. My dad and I left from the house, but just 30 minutes into the ride, my dad's chain snapped. This one wasn't so hard to fix, but it was really frustrating. We finally got on our way again, and headed up the road to Bald Knob; an extremely rocky ridgetop trail. Out of all the trails I've ridden on the 29er, this was by far the hardest. I was getting bounced around like crazy, and on those kinds of rocks, 29 inch wheels don't 'float' over the rocks like people claim they do. So that was about 2 hours of riding, putting my total ride/hike time to 3 1/2. We came back out of the forest in the dark, but the second ride was definitely worth it. And tomorrow we're leaving for Disney World. We haven't gone anywhere for spring break (our schools have it here because of Penn State) for 5 years, and this will be our last one. I was a little dissapointed because the weather here is so nice to ride, but it's supposed to get colder so I don't really mind. We're getting back Thursday night and I'll find a derrailleur for my Rush on Friday so I can ride it in the Michaux Mash.