Cohutta 100 and Stuff

This past weekend the Mrs. and I headed down to Ducktown, TN for the Cohutta 100.  Neither of us had ever been to Tennessee, so in addition to the race, I was pretty interested to see what, exactly, part of the "real" south was all about.  Without going too far into detail, it was pretty chill.  The people were nice, things were a bit slower, and overall, the area itself was absolutely gorgeous.  However, I'm sure when the summer comes around things can get downright awful with the heat and humidity.  Still, for our purposes this past weekend, the warm temps and gentle breezes were more than welcome.

I don't have much in the way of an actual race report, but here's what I can tell you: This race is damned hard-14,000 feet of elevation is no joke!  I have to admit, I really didn't expect much from this course. Both Anne and I had been told that it was pretty much a gravel road race, as friends who'd done it before explained to us in the weeks before the race.  Yes, the course if predominantly gravel vs. single track, but in no way did that make things easier on your legs or the rest of your body.

The start of the race climbs up a paved road for about a mile or so before dropping you into single track for what I believe was about 12-15 miles.  After that, you're out on the gravel for probably about 30-40 miles before you hit the turn around loop, consisting of some more double and single track before you turn back to retrace your route back to the start of the race.  The most difficult part of the race comes immediately after that turn around loop in the form of a steep climb on a gravel road you had just descended.  It's steep and at times loose making it pretty darn difficult to hammer up.  You have to stay consistent (or at least "I" had to stay consistent-better riders might not have had to!) in your pedal stroke or else risk loosing traction on the chunky bits of rock and gravel.

After returning on the long ups and downs of gravel, you finally come to more single track about 7 miles from the finish.  This is primarily downhill, but you're so beat down at this point it might as well be up.  Any bike skills and technical ability to ride a hard tail mountain bike smoothly over rocks and roots was severely diminished by this point.  I pretty much just rammed the bike through every obstacle and limped my way home, finishing in just over 9 hours and coming into 22nd place for the Open Category.

Initially I was pretty bummed out about my result.  Had I been as fit as I was in the past, I believe I would have managed at least 45 minutes to and hour faster on this course.  But, with all the events that have happened in the past months, and not being able to amass more than about 10 hours of training a week at most, I have to say I'm actually impressed with how I did.  My hope is that in about a month's time, I can race the Mohican 100 in a much better place and improve my fitness to the next level.

As for Mrs. Pike, she killed it.  I can't give an accurate and detailed account of her race, but what I do know is that even with the limited training time that we both had, she's getting closer to me in finishing time at these 100 mile events.  The first one we did together, Hampshire 100, she finished about an hour and twenty behind me.  On this on it was just over an hour!  I better start upping my game or else the taunts from friends that my wife is faster than I am will be true!  Anyway, she kicked ass and finished 5th overall for the women, collecting a nice prize package from the race organizers.

My first and final impressions of the race could not have been different.  I'm not a big fan of racing gravel roads on my mountain bike because I'm a snob and to me it's not real mountain biking.  In a race like this though, it damn sure is.  We were in the mountains and we were riding bikes.  That's really all anyone needs to know.  Cohutta was a true test of character for me, and I'm happy to say that though I might not have finished where I wanted, I can sleep at night knowing I really did give it my best shot.

In the days since arriving home Sunday, both Anne and I have been back to work.  Physically, for me, the emphasis has been on recovery and allowing my body to absorb the ass-kicking Cohutta laid down.  Because of our limited training time and the fact that we're still settling in to new jobs and a new home, I need to make the most of every minute of training and resting that I can when I'm not at work or doing some other "real life" stuff.  Therefore, I took both Monday and Tuesday completely off from anything.  I got out for a 30 minute trail run yesterday and will get back on the bike today.

As I mentioned before, the next stop for us will be the Mohican 100 in Ohio at the end of this month.  I don't know a whole lot about the course but that it's hilly and smooth.  It will all depend on work, but after Mohican I'm thinking switching my focus for a bit to the shorter stuff and racing a little bit more true XC stuff in and around Virginia.  There is a ton of racing here and I'm excited to get my teeth into it after some longer efforts.  After that I'll probably return to racing the 100's, with Wilderness 101 at the end of July and Shenendoah 100 at the end of August.  Pretty excited for the things to come!

Tons of Changes!!!

Ok, first of all, I'm going to stop making promises to update this blog on a regular basis.  The total truth is that there just isn't enough free time in the schedule currently to do a regular update.  It doesn't' mean that we're forgetting about our 1 or 2 loyal readers, it's just real life.  With that said, I hope that each update is exciting and worth the few minutes anyone who fancies reading it might have spent out of their life!

So the biggest and most important change for the Pike's has been our recent move to Charlottesville, VA.  It is without a doubt everything and more than we thought it would be.  As with any move, the initial weeks can be tough, but things are now seemingly coming around to where they should be.  Our jobs are great, our boss and coworkers have been awesome, and the riding has been equally impressive.

Riding and race-wise, we've secured some great bikes for the year.  Both Anne and myself will be on Raleigh Bicycles for this upcoming race season of 2014.  Our weapon of choice is the Talus 29 Pro, a full carbon hard tail 29er with a badass XTR build.  Ours both come in at around 21lbs stock!  We're super happy and thankful to be on such awesome rides this year!

So all in all things are shaping up to be a pretty good season.  We had two XC races lined up, one in Virginia and the other on Long Island, in the month of March, but unfortunately, because of a family issue and the crazy weather (can you say snow!?) we've had, they both had to be missed.  In one regard it was a good thing as I don't think either Anne's or my fitness is where we want it to be.  BUT… it would have been nice to gain a bit of race experience, and therefore fitness, from the two.  Oh, well…  Up next will be the Cohutta 100 at the end of this month.  This will be our first real test of the year and hopefully in four weeks time our fitness will come 'round.  Here's hoping to get in some long rides in the beautiful Virginia countryside!!!

So that's it for now.  Can't promise when the next update will be, but let's hope it's soon! (and perhaps from my better half!!!)  Later skaters!

Damnit

Injuries have a funny way of sneaking up on you when you don't want them to.  I've been running "kinda" steady for the last week or so.  Nothing more than really about 40 minutes at a time.  I've been taking things fairly easy (for me) and have been careful not to do too much too soon.  I've even gone as far as to limit my running to 2 days on, 1 day off.

Everything was going along swimmingly until yesterday.  About 3/4's of a mile into what was only going to be about a 30 minute run, my calf seized up and forced me to hobble back home.  It's not the first time I've dealt with this same injury, and it's equally as frustrating as the first time it happened about a year and a half ago.  At that time I was SUPER irresponsible with my volume, and begged for the injury. This time though, even being decently careful, it snuck up and bit me in the ass.

Oh well, such is the life of an athlete I suppose.  The good news is that I did come back home and get a wicked workout on the rollers.  Nothing fuels a hard, "kick your own ass" indoor bike ride like being angry that you can't do something you wanted to.  For me, running is not the end goal.  It was a cool thing that I was enjoying in order to gain some different fitness and loose some lbs without having to change too much of my human trash can diet.  Now though, I'll really have to batten down the hatches a bit more when it comes to what I shove in my mouth (something I really should have been doing all along!) and get to work on pedaling the bike to nowhere inside the house until the snow and ice subsides.

Another positive note about this injury is that it took place a couple weeks out from our trip to the UK and Spain.  While it doesn't' bother me much when cycling, this will allow it ample time to recover so that it's 100% gone (hopefully) from my cycling when we touch down in Spain.  That's going to be a great opportunity to build something for the coming season, so I absolutely don't want anything to come in it's way.

That's it for now.  Off to conquer the day and hopefully find some kind of inspiration to get on the trainer a bit later.  Nothing says awesome like riding your bike inside...

Time to move the ball

Time to get the ball rolling.

Been a bit of a down time here in terms of writing on the blog I'm afraid, but for that we've got tons of fun stuff happening!  First and foremost is our move to Charlottesville, Va. coming up in March.  Both Anne and I have been offered jobs at Blue Ridge Cyclery and accepted.  We'll both be working in the shop as full time employees, and happy to know that we'll have full medical insurance too!  Finally we won't have to worry about getting patched up after crashing our bikes!!!  :)

Also going on, before we more down to Virginia is a trip over to the UK to see family, combined with a mini training camp/friend visit to Southern Spain.  It'll be great to get over to the UK to see family (of which Anne hasn't had a chance to see in nearly a year!) and it will of course be AWESOME to get out and ride bikes in the sunshine of SPAIN!!! Getting a chance to get into the sun and warm temps on two wheels will be a welcomed thing, especially after all the snow and cold temps that have been thrust upon us here in New York these last few weeks.  I think at this point our only concern is going to be how much it's gonna hurt "earning" fitness there…those mountains are plenty bigger than anything we've ridden in a while!

In the mean time things are just moving along.  We're putting our heads down to work and get as much done before our trip and our move, so being efficient (Anne's strength!) is of great importance.  Training has been a bit hard lately with the snow, but for me personally, I'm enjoying a bit of running time and a break from pedaling.  It's always a good idea to challenge yourself in different ways, and running usually helps me keep off any additional weight I gain as a result of being a human garbage dump.  My feeling is not only does it keep the body fresh, but the mind as well.  Heading out for a run in sub freezing temps is often a lot easier than strapping the bike to the indoor trainer and pedaling nowhere for hours on end.

So that's the haps for now.  We'll try and keep the blog updated as and when time allows.  We've got a lot of exciting things planned for the coming months, so surely there will be some interesting content here in the near future.  For now, stay fit and get ready to hold on-it's gonna be a hell of a ride!

To Train or NOT to Train...

Dave here…

One thing that I think is a HUGE factor, particularly as the season winds down to and end and a long season of training takes its toll on a body, is training when you're not feeling well.  There's a fine line between benefit and taking a turn for the worse when a slight illness arrives, and you've got to think with your head over your heart.

Today I'm sick.  It's been brewing for a few days and I'm not at all surprised it's got to this point.  Anne and I did a long ride this past Sunday, and I put in a lot of threshold work toward the end (in the 5th and 6th hours).  It felt great at the time and I'm sure I've benefited from the effort, but I didn't allow enough time for my body to actually absorb the training.  Monday I hopped back on the bike for a recovery ride, which was all well and good, but Tuesday, still not feeling up to it, I got back onto the road bike for some hard, steady-state work.  I knew from the get-go that the body wasn't feeling up for it, but I pushed on anyway.  All my times were off, my heart rate was probably way too high (I don't know for sure because I wasn't wearing a HR strap), and I just generally didn't feel like being out there.    Looking back, of course, hindsight is 20/20 and I can see that had I just chilled out a bit, I wouldn't be in the predicament I find myself in now.

With the final race of our season coming up in a little over a week, it's time to shut things down for today.  I'm being pro-active in NOT being active and hoping that my body will come back around in time for a training session tomorrow.  At this point in the season, the cards are already pretty much in place.  Not a whole lot will happen in the time left before the race, and my only hope is that I'm smart enough to realize that for me, it's probably better to go into it being a bit more rested than trying to be a hero right now.

Nevertheless, even with this little illness, I'm feeling overall strong on the bike and looking forward to racing.  Getting back into endurance mountain biking this year has been great, my only wish being that I'd planned it over last winter instead of hopping on the wagon mid race season.  Still, it's great to be back doing something I love, and I'm super excited for what's to come next season.  There's a lot in the plans and when it's finally cemented, things are going to be lots of fun next year.

Maintenance Time!

Loyal readers (I know there is SOMEONE out there), as you can tell, we're doing a bit of upkeep on the blog.  Not sure what the final format will be, but this space will be changed to accommodate our most newest thoughts, ideas, and generally anything related to what it is we do-most notably, endurance mountain bike racing.

Both Anne and I will be posting here on a consistent basis.  Hopefully having a "partner in crime" on this blog will keep things up to date a bit more than they have been in recent past.  

Anyway, we're both looking forward to sharing some of our adventures and we hope that whoever is interested in reading about a crazy and wacky couple will enjoy it!

So this is what it feels like...

Training hard on the bike(s) for the first time in I can't remember when.  It's not like i've been unfit in my time away from endurance training.  I've done plenty of strength training and trail riding.  I wasn't off the bike for anything more than a few days, but still, it was not focused, "time in the saddle" type training.

It feels good to be back. I'm still a bit hesitant though as I don't want to give up my (to me) much more fun trail riding, full of jumps, drops, and technical sections.  I will say though, there is an aspect to feeling very fit that drives me to push a bit more and scratch the itch of longer distance XC racing.

So the race schedule, even though small, looks right now that it will include 2 Xterra races (the first of which is next weekend), and a 6 hour endurance race in late November.  The Xterra's will be nice little tune ups, nothing overly long, just more for fun, with the 6 hour race being the focus.  The last time I did said race I came in fourth.  With the way things are going, I'll be disappointed with anything less than that.  My technical skills have grown in leaps and bounds, and by the time late November comes around, I'll be just as strong if not stronger from a fitness point of view than I was years ago when I raced.

One of the oddest things, from a training standpoint is how quickly my body has adjusted to riding for extended periods of time.  I've lost a pretty substantial amount of weight in the last few weeks, and I'm looking "skinny" like an endurance racer again.  When I last raced seriously, I was 168lbs.  This past spring I was tipping the scales at about 205lbs.  I'm not about 180lbs 'ish, and feeling faster by the day.   Fun to see that my body is following in line.  Almost as if saying, "Ok, if this is what we're gonna do..."

Equipment wise I'll be rocking a Niner Air 9 29er XC hard tail for my adventures.  It's odd riding such a big bike after being used to the long traveled, 26 inch wheeled variety for the last couple years.  While I enjoy the smaller wheels and the more cushioned ride much more (not to mention I feel like I ride those bikes much better), there is nothing better suited for XC riding and racing that a 29er, hands down.  I'm not going to say I love the big wheels, but it's a necessary evil for what I'm choosing to do.

So that's about it for now.  I've just been stuck into my training, working as much as I can, and trying to keep my wife happy. :-)  Hopefully the future will hold more time for writing and sharing some of my adventures as they happen.  Time to head into work!