Death March Round 1

This Sunday was the first of 2 pre-death march rides before the Cohutta 100 or 65. The upgrade is still yet to be determined. Big J and I rolled out at 5:45 so we could make our ritual stop at Cracker Barrel for some pancakes and what ever else I could cram in. Being the first ones in the lot was quite surprising, but we were not feeling to eager at that point. A few minutes later, Tab and Jamie pulled up and a short time after Davey Boy rolled in too. This was the first time I have ridden with these guys, except for Jason of course. We started off and the weather was not too nice...misty with slight spurts of rain was how things kicked off. The weather was supposed to be in the high 60's and sunny. It did not seem like we were ever going to see the sun.

The death march began with some of the single track that I am familiar with and we were cruising along nicely. When we came to the first forest service road, we made a quick stop for some adjustments and food organization before we started climbing. We must have been working our way up that road (FS221, I think) for several hours. At one point, I asked when we were going to get off the gravel and everyone looked at me like I was obviously confused. They proceed to fill me in on the fact that we were going to be on a series of fire roads all freakin' day. We continued up to the top of the first major section of the climb and Big J and I took a break for a few minutes to eat and regroup.

We began the decent which made me happy. The best part was trying to see how fast you could go into the blind corners and not become some redneck's hood ornament. The traffic was minimal but all it takes is one car to come around the corner on the inside. Fortunately, no incidents t0 report and when we made it to the bottom, there were several miles of flats. This was the part that I just tuned out. Single speeds and flat roads are not too fun, yet it was nice to spin the legs...little did I know that would be the last time. I was once again informed of some not so pleasant news...the flats were the indicator that we were going to have to climb back out of the valley. I think that I must have known this and decided not to acknowledge it. A few more miles up the road and the pitch continued to increase. Just when I thought we were near the top, we went back down for a while. And this crap went on for at least another hour until finally we started marching up and up and up. At mile 67.9 I was over the entire thing. I did not want any more of this. No more fire road, no more mountain bike and sure as hell no more single speed. But we still had more to go, how nice. I sucked it up as always and marched on. When we hit the last climb I had just enough in the legs to crest the hill and bomb down the last section of road back to the lot.

I felt terrible pretty much all day. I think that the vacation to the beach was killer for my mind and soul, but it wreaked havoc on my fitness. I will be riding all week long trying to get some kind of form back. One more pre-death march this weekend and then the real deal next weekend. After a pre-ride, I don't care if I get in the 100 or not. It's not that I am not up for the challenge, it's more that riding on gravel roads for 90% of a mountain bike race is not really a mountain bike race. This will be a fitness geeks wet dream...nothing technical at all about this one. We finished up the day with 72.4 miles, 7:05 and 11,200 ft of climbing and that was not the entire course. The boredom will be more epic than the race itself...that may just be my opinion.