There's No Fool Like A Gold Fool

But before I could get to the Fools Gold 50 Mile Mountain Bike Race I had a cross country bike race to do.  Sunday a week ago was the Tallahassee round of the Florida State Championship Series.  I love this race.  It signals the beginning of fall (even though it was 93 degrees), plus it's on my home trails.

There were quite a few familiar faces on the line in the 50+ expert class.  I lined up next to Mark who usually finishes way ahead of me (and will today).  Hammy was on the other end of the row, he and I have been racing against each other since we both started in base and my strategy was to hang with him.  Mark and I decided who would go to which side of the trees about half way down the start, then the whistle blew.

I fell in behind Hammy and we passed a few riders going out the multiuse.  He seemed to be struggling so when he took one of the alternate lines on the single track I passed him.  Much to my surprise I could just see Mark up ahead so I managed to get on his wheel, where I stayed, until the last quarter of the last lap.

I (mistakenly) thought I had saved some for the climb up the gun range.  Mark, being the savvy racer he is, had figured that was what I was doing.  So as soon as we hit the climb he stood up and was gone.  And like Wiley Coyote in the old Road Runner cartoons I just watched him ride away.

But I wasn't disappointed, no, not in the least.  I was glad to have gotten to race with someone and had a really good time doing it.  I finished 8/15.

The Kid managed 7th in a very competitive 19-29 sport class while smoking my lap times.  It was a great day.

Fools Gold

Four of us loaded up Friday morning headed to Dahlonega Ga.  After some very poor navigating by Big Jim we finally got to the trails and unloaded.  The first couple of pedal strokes in the mountains, after a summer in Florida, are pure bliss.

We rode the last 10 miles of single track that would be in the race the next day and had a blast.  Until Tim blew out his tire.  Fortunately we weren't far from the truck and he was able to locate a new one for the race.

Saturday morning was cool with a slight breeze.  In the past the roll out has been medium paced behind a car, so I didn't warm up much (first time that day I didn't follow my OMTP instructions).  I lined up in the second half of the start group (didn't follow instructions again).  The gun went off and the car gunned it.  So much for the neutral roll out.

It took a couple of miles for me to loosen up the legs and start to pass groups of riders.  I hit the long road climb later than I had planned but not much I could do about it at that time.  I settled in for the grind.

I ate when I was supposed to, drank when the alarm on my Garmin went off, stopped at the sags I had planned on stopping at, and kept my efforts within what I had trained for.  I had the best Fools Gold ride I'd ever had.  I actually had fun and didn't feel like complete dog crap at the finish plus, I only suffered 2 small cramps which worked themselves out.

In the end I managed to shave 40 minutes off my 2012 time, finishing 12th in the 50 plus class.

That night we hit the same little restaurant in downtown Dahlonega that we'd eaten at Friday night. Pitchers of beer were poured, much food was eaten, and some football watched.  It was truly a great weekend.

I Remember To This Day, The Bright Red Georgia Clay

"And the way it stuck to the tires after the summer rain."  That's a verse from the song "Me and You and a Dog Named Boo."  Do you remember it?  Man that had to be something like 1972?  I don't even remember who did it.

Anyhoo it was running through my head this past Sunday as we tackled a short version of the Sausage ride.  The clay roads were soaked, which made it seem like riding on shag carpet.  We had a pretty big group roll out but it quickly got split up due to a flat on the first section of clay road that had recently been rocked.  I got spit off the back of the lead group (the ones that didn't stop for the flat) before mile 20 and ended up riding solo for the rest of the day.

Well that's not really true.  I did get to ride with Silk and Tim for a brief period as they went by.  I couldn't hold their pace and had to watch them disappear into the distance.  I was shooting for a no cramp ride so my speed and effort was down.  Not that it didn't hurt, a lot.  But, no cramps!  Unfortunately I couldn't eat my sausage dog at the end of the ride, in fact, I couldn't eat anything until later that evening.  I was shattered.  I was still walking around in a daze Monday.  Maybe it was the ride I had done on Saturday that set me up for such misery.

The Day Before

Nobody liked my ride idea when I threw it out Friday night.  So I left the St. Marks Trail Head alone at 9 am.  I do love my forest rides, and while I enjoy company, being by myself has it's advantages.  I got a little turned around (which is part of the fun) but had a good loop down to Trout Pond and back. Yes, the bushes were bad in spots, and it was hot with not much shade, but to have nothing around but trees was nice for a change.

Leaning against a tree at the old Springhill Pit.

Florida XC Race

It's this weekend at Tim Brown.  I'm in for a GM 1 butt kicking.  By that I mean I'm the one who'll get it kicked.  Don't care, I'm looking forward to racing anyway.  

Then it's Fools Gold, followed by Cross season.  Ain't life grand?

Oh, by the way, the song?  It was Lobo, 1973.

Hard Labor

I did the work.  Really, I did.  I had practiced my hydration and feeding during 4 and 5 hour rides.  I had kept my heart rate in the prescribed zones.  I had put in the hours.  Not once did I experience a cramp.

The Race

I got up at 4:00 am, filled the bottles, slathered on chamois cream, and hit the road to Gainesville. They had gotten a huge storm the night before so I didn't want to look at the radar.  Even when it started raining as I got to Tallahassee, I resisted the urge to look.  I was going regardless and worrying about the weather wasn't going to help.

When I got to San Felasco the volunteer at the gate said the road going in was under water but "you shouldn't have any trouble", yea, I had just washed my truck the day before, so of course the road was muddy.  "This trail drains well" I told my self.  "No problem!"

I set up the tent next to the Swift Cycles group and waited to for The Kid to show up.  Dr. S-works had picked up a mysterious malady while he was in Canada and had bailed on me.  This makes twice. As it all turned out he made the smart call.

There wasn't a cloud in the sky and the humidity was off the charts.  I was sweating just getting the tent up.  We had decided to do the race solo since I was really here to test my preparation.  So we lined up in the corral for the .25 run to get to the bikes.  Hmmmm, a 1/4 mile run in bike shoes, in 90 degree heat.  Not quite what I had expected.

Laps

To say the first lap was a zoo would be an understatement.  People crashed, bikes flew into me, riders just stopped in the middle of the trail for no reason.  Still I watched my HR monitor and kept it as chill as possible.  The course was 8.7 miles per lap so we had planned on 6 laps to get our goal of 50 miles.  It as a little slick in spots but mostly in good shape.  The first 2 laps were ridiculously easy.  The Kid and I were just talking and pedaling, I was feeling pretty froggy.  Riders passed me, I passed riders, laps went by, I was enjoying the ride.

At the beginning of lap 5 a rather large lady stopped at the base of the first hard climb, effectively blocking the whole trail.  I resisted the urge to say something and dismounted.  As soon as I got back on the bike and hit the pedals the cramp monster jumped on me.  "You've got to be kidding!" I said. So I stopped (off the trail) and downed the first mustard packet.  

I don't know whether you know this or not but straight mustard on a 98 degree day is not the most pleasant thing to gulp down.  It gets on the water bottle so you get to taste it for the next few swigs. Still, the cramps let up.

Until they didn't.  So packet number 2 goes down, but not quite as easily as number one did.  By this time nausea had set in.  Dehydrated?  Mustard?  A combo is my best guess.

And it went down hill from there.  Not the trail mind you but my race.  With cramps firing at any time and my stomach in bad shape, I rode the last lap at a survival pace.  I had stopped having fun.

Finished

Once we got done it took a half hour to get cooled down enough so we could load the tent.  Even The Kid was suffering. In the end we finished in under 5 hours but it wasn't what I had hoped for.  

Anyhoo, my take on all this is I just went too hard for the conditions, and PB+J is not the food to eat in that type of situation, gels were all I could get down.  I'm going to try another type of mix that has a higher content of sodium.  Plus I just need to stretch more.

This showed me that I don't go as hard during training as I do in a race situation.  Lil Ball had been telling me that but I normally ignore him.  On the plus side I got to spend a day on the bike with The Kid and see some familiar faces from the XC races.

I couldn't eat anything until I got a smoothie back in Tallahassee.  After that I started feeling better. But getting out of bed the next morning was an experience.