2015 AOTC Recap
The day finally came, and to be honest, it kind of snuck up on me. I knew that the Assault on the Carolinas was scheduled for April 11, but for some reason when I signed up for it in October, it just seemed so far away. I was steady training for it throughout the winter months on the stationary trainer, and then when the weather started getting warm, I made it a point to go out in search of some different climbs near the house to really test my legs in a real world setting. All of this was designed primarily to get me ready for the AOTC, but also was going to give me a jump start on the training for my other long rides later in the Summer. The Assault was first on the list, and was happening right at the beginning of the typical riding season. I knew that going in when I registered. The odd thing was as March came to a close, I really didn't realize that April 11, was just around the corner. By the time I really sat down and thought about it, I had about a week left to train. Fortunately, I had been training since September, so that wasn't a big deal at all. It was just the mental shock that hit me...."My first test of my return to cycling was in just a few days!" Was I ready for it?
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| Obligatory picture at the top of Caesar's Head from 2013 |
For 2015, I wasn't riding for the same reasons I did in 2013. This time around, I wanted to prove to myself that I still had it in me at 41 years old. I also wanted to have a tangible yardstick by which to measure my training program with the stationary trainer. Ever since Toni bought it for me in 2012, I have learned that it is a valuable training aide and one that I think has some very unsung benefits. With a comparably short amount of time on the trainer in 2013, I was able to accomplish some big performance gains. Since getting back into cycling at the end of 2014, I have done a great deal more time on the trainer than ever before. I was trying to lose weight, which was going to be important for a climbing ride like AOTC. My goal was to get down to around 180 before the ride. Somehow, I managed to weigh in at 170 a few days before I went to Brevard. I also wanted to invest the time on the trainer to get my legs back. They had been more or less unused for about 10 months straight, and I had lost a lot of what I had worked to achieve. I also needed to get my endurance back. After 142 sessions on the trainer, I had accomplished every one of my goals. I can honestly say that I prepared for Caesar's Head an hour at a time without leaving my office. To put it in perspective, to complement those 142 trainer sessions since September, I have only ridden on the road a total of 27 times.
So, I felt ready for my second attempt at the Assault, and was actually looking forward to the big climbs of the day. With just a few days to get my mind wrapped around the fact that I was going to be doing them again, I was almost excited instead of nervous. Now, the night before, I have to admit I was nervous. This nervousness, however, wasn't for the reasons you would think though. I wasn't worried about the ride itself, I was worried that I would forget something important which would prevent me from riding, or that I would suffer a mechanical failure with the same result. It had been about 18 months since I had last packed for an event ride, and I wasn't sure I would remember everything.
To make matters worse in regards to the packing, I had purchased a jersey with my registration that I was wanting to wear. I was not going to be able to pick this up until the day of the ride though. Then, after they posted the pictures of the bibs that went with the jersey, I decided I wanted the full kit. Due to a glitch with the ordering software, I was unable to add these bibs to my original registration. Of course, there would be no guarantee that they would have any left by Saturday morning, since they would be selling them at Friday's check-in. My wardrobe choices were wild cards. If I were to wear the AOTC kit, I would have to get dressed up there, and would have to do it in a place where I could wash my hands thanks to the Chamois Butt'r I use. Just in case, since I was planning on getting dressed up there anyway, I decided to pack my own kit as a standby. This was new for me because I typically get dressed at home for the ride, but that would serve me no purpose if I was going to wear a kit that was going to be picked up at check-in.
With the clothing issues settled, I moved on to stressing about the bike and my equipment. After my last training ride on Wednesday, I had noticed a slight clicking in the rear of the bike. When I was getting it all cleaned up afterwards, I took that opportunity to tighten things up. Based on previous experience, I started with the rear cassette. that was in good shape and did not need any tightening. I then moved to the crank and checked for play. It was tight with no movement. The spokes were checked, and all seemed to be fine. I did a quick tune on the rear derailleur just because I was back there, and tightened the quick release. Between that day and the day I loaded the bike up, I went over every system in my head and made more and more checklists of things that I wanted to look at before I loaded it up. It was a very good thing that I did this, because I did find an issue that could have been problematic.
You see, one thing that I hadn't thought to check since the bike only had about 1300 miles on it was the headset. I really didn't expect this to be loose at all. However, when I locked the brakes down and rocked the bike back and forth, there was noticeable play between the headset and the head tube. This might have been the source of the noise, but more importantly, it could affect handling and wear. I broke out the tools and did a last minute adjustment and tightened things down. I got rid of the play, and everything still worked smoothly. I can only guess that a couple of jumps over bad pavement had pulled the headset loose. The last thing I needed was for the bars to come off of the steer tube. Whether or not this fixed the noise was irrelevant. It was an issue all unto itself.
The newly inspected bike was loaded into the bed of my truck and was secured in my locking cleat. My bag was packed with my alternate kit. I also decided that despite the warm temperatures forecasted for the morning, I would go ahead and throw in a pair of arm warmers and my long finger gloves. I recalled my last AOTC where the morning was supposed to be just below 50, and it turned out that my bike had frost on it from the drive into Brevard. Hey, I learn from my mistakes. I was going to be prepared for colder than expected weather.
Let's forget about the part of the story where I went to sleep before my 10 year old and fast forward to 3am when I had my clock set. Well, actually back it up just a bit to 2:30 when I woke up this morning. Without the aid of an alarm clock, storm, or even snoring, I was wide awake, and there was no way I was going back to sleep for the last 30 minutes. I did lay in bed though and run through all the mental checklists of everything that I needed, and everything that I had already packed. I'm obsessive, I know. Just before the alarm rang, I went ahead and got up to get the day started. I had a three hour drive ahead of me just to get to Brevard, and I wanted to be there at 7 when check-in started in hopes that they had one more bib for sale. I decided to have oatmeal for breakfast because it would be a slower release of energy, and possibly last me longer than my typical bagels. I finished loading up the truck with cold water, food, and a recently checked cycling bag that had everything I could think of I might need. I aired the tires up, and while I was doing that Toni came home from work. Yeah, we have an odd schedule. At 3:30 she's coming home from work, and I'm getting ready to drive to the mountains for a bike ride! But I digress...
I was all set and ready to go. I couldn't think of anything else I might need, and I knew that the time had arrived to head West and see if the confidence I had placed in my training program was well earned. I was a little nervous, but not like the first time I did this ride. I wasn't really worried about not finishing the ride, I wasn't even worried about how fast I was going to be. My worry was that my bike would fall apart, or I had forgot something major, like shoes, preventing me from doing what I had set out to do. I did remember shoes? Right? Yeah, I packed them in the bag. For the next three hours, I would quiz myself on what I packed trying to find a loose end. I couldn't figure out anything that I missed, so life was good, except I was getting sleepy on the long ride out to Brevard.
Somehow, I managed to pull in with both eyes open at 7am and found ample parking because there were only a handful of people like me that didn't value sleep on a Saturday morning. I parked, and went straight for check-in with hopes of getting the matching bibs for my jersey. I went through the assembly line of goodies where I picked up my swag bag, rider number, t-shirt, jersey, and even a pair of socks! Then it was time to ask about the bibs. There were some left, and lucky me managed to find the last pair of mediums. Well, this day is going pretty good so far! I went ahead and purchased them and took my now complete kit back to the truck to get what I needed to change. Fortunately, The building where we were checking in had rest rooms, and I was able to change in more privacy than the towel around the waist method in the middle of the parking lot. Yes, I was prepared for that, but wasn't happy at the prospect.
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| Does this mean I'm in "Almost Beast Mode"? |
In all of the back and forth, I hadn't really noticed, but it was actually quite cold! There was no frost or anything, but it was enough to make me shiver. I was very glad I had packed the arm warmers and long finger gloves. That was going to be a mandatory addition for the morning. After getting it all put together, I realized that I had, in fact, remembered everything. That was one worry off my back. I then rode my bike up to the starting area and found that it didn't fall apart, and everything was still lined up correctly as well. It would seem that another worry was gone. All that was left was the mass start which I have never liked, and the fast descents, which I don't really care for in unfamiliar territory.
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| An empty parking lot now, a bustling mecca of vendors in just a few hours. |
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| It was just me and the volunteers for a while |
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| Another early arrival |
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| You can't tell it, but I'm freezing here! |
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| When the sun finally hit me, I started to feel better |
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| Slowly but surely, more riders started to appear |
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| See, I'm not the only one that stresses over last minute adjustments |
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| Some riders even started to line up near the start line |
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| Lots of room yet to be filled, but real estate is getting slimmer by the minute |
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| This was the view behind me |
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| This was right before the start. The start line is that green banner! |
With the road pretty much packed, it was time for the opening announcements and the count down for start. Unlike last time, I had turned on my Garmin when I was well away from the others which allowed it to pair with my heart rate monitor, speed sensor, and cadence sensor. All of these I did without last time because the computer couldn't determine which sensors were mine in a sea of Ant+ devices. This time, I had all my sensors paired and I was ready to go. This was a mass start, so as the cyclists up front cleared the start gate, the rest started to slowly roll forward. It was more like riding a skateboard than a bike. When time came to get in the saddle and clip in with the other foot, I was already moving which was not my normal state. I tried to make things as smooth as I could, but I became very unsteady. Thankfully though, I was able to recover enough grace to avoid creating a problem for other riders and managed to get on the saddle and get my left foot clipped in. We were on the move!
This was a rough start, and as we rolled out of town, it didn't get much better. Everyone was all clumped up and I was a prisoner to their pace which seemed to be very sporadic, like an accordion which usually happens in large groups like this. I tried to slow down to let them get ahead, but I would be overtaken by another group from behind. I would try and pass, but would be cut of on the left by another passing cyclist, or the double yellow line. This was how things went for the first 8 miles or so. I just resigned myself to being in this group until Walnut Hollow when the steep ascent would break the group up for sure. This was also the first major climb of the day, and has been compared with the six mile climb up Caesar's Head because of how steep it is.
Walnut Hollow starts out rather gradually, but then moves up to about an 8% grade, and then pitches up at the end to nearly 15%. It is just over a mile long in duration which keeps its classification relatively low, but if you aren't ready for it, that last bit will darken your spirits. The last time I climbed Walnut Hollow, I ran out of gears and had to struggle to get to the top. Everyone passed me, and there was nothing I could do about it. I was too busy trying not to stop before completing the climb. I was hoping to do a little better today.
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| Somehow I manged to move past all these other cyclists during the climb Courtesy Hank Birdsong |
An interesting side note, as I was climbing, I heard a cyclist yell out "is that Greg?" Well, since that is my name, it caught my attention. I had remembered passing a familiar jersey, one that I had seen Brian Lube wearing in pictures from last year's A Ride to Remember. I responded "is that Brian?" He confirmed, and I said something to the effect of "I'd love to stop and chat, but if we stop, we might never get going again." We both pressed on with the climb.
I crested the hill in much better shape than I had expected. OK, that was a huge confidence booster, and one that I needed. I knew the bike was up to this ride, and I knew that I was as well. Not to mention, the large group I was in had started to break down. I was free at last!
I continued on and found myself gaining on another large group which I managed to get bogged down with as well. I had the same plan as before because we had another big climb in the near future. While not as steep as Walnut Hollow, it was still a big enough climb that low gears were on the menu, and again the group broke up, allowing me to pull ahead a little bit. Hey, this was working pretty well, and I was apparently doing well with the climbs today!
I was faced with smaller and smaller groups as we proceeded on, and I was looking forward to that moment when I would be in my solo rider world. I recall that happening after the midpoint rest stop last time, and I knew that was not too far away. We just had to do the descents into the SC lowlands first. I was doing very well up to the descents and figured that I would probably maintain my position as we dropped a couple thousand feet...WRONG!
I learned something about me, my bike, and my training going down the descents. I'm not good at twisty descents at full speed, that became glaringly obvious. The bike feels stable, but I know that a gust of wind in the right direction will cause an alteration in course and stability. I'm still getting used to riding a 14LB bike with aero wheels. Because of that, I constantly wanted to keep my speed in check. Maybe, I just have a new respect for mortality in my old age. Either way, I'm glad I kept the speed reasonable because the road conditions were not all that great and there were several hazards I had to avoid along the way. There was also a crash where a cyclist overcooked a turn and hit the guardrail. He was fine and being tended to it appeared. I also realized, that my training had been dealing with power output, and climbing efficiency. At no point did I put much emphasis on speedy, twisty descents. that lack of training showed, and every passing cyclist proved that I wasn't in the same class as they were. They would whiz past me like I was standing still. For the first time in my cycling life I caught myself saying "that's OK, I'll get you on the next climb." Huh, who was that? Can't be me, because I'm not a climber. But today, I was a climber, I was in my element churning the cranks. That was where I was doing my best work.
Once in the lowlands, I found myself bogged down with large groups again. I would pass when I could, and hold my place when I couldn't. We were approaching the 30 mile mark where there was a rest stop. I didn't really need to stop, but I wanted to fuel up before the big climb of the day, and it was getting to be a good idea to take the arm warmers off. I pulled over at the edge of the rest stop and took care of business.
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| Thanks to Brian Lube for this picture of the rest stop |
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| Brian and I finally got to meet face to face |
When it was time for me to get rolling, I once again found myself faced with a large group. It seemed that they were getting ready to roll out at the same time, and there were still groups coming in for breaks. I positioned myself where I thought I could get rolling easy enough and I pushed off. As I was getting stable and about to clip in, another rider came in close and forced me to slow down. This got me unstable again, going uphill, with not enough forward momentum to clip in, but going too fast to just put my foot down. Fortunately, I was in the seat and was able to power my right pedal up to accelerate (thank you one legged pedal drills on the trainer) and get the left foot clipped in. I was off!
It seemed that for the rollers I was again in the same position as I was before with groups ahead of me, and more approaching from the rear. I just don't remember it being quite this crowded for quite this long last time. I do remember eventually breaking away from the masses and starting to chase down other riders. I saw two ahead of me and as I was approaching to pass, I saw a large yellow lab sprinting from a yard to the right. This was odd for the AOTC as I don't recall seeing any unsecured dogs along the route before. Anyway, there we were, three cyclists on the road with a 70lb dog rushing toward us. I was already in the motions of passing so I just upshifted a gear and did a quick sprint to outrun the dog. The other two also managed to get by without incident as well. Dogs and bikes just don't mix.
I was so happy to make it to the turn into Caesar's Head. This climb would thin the heard for sure. I settled into my comfort zone and began my ascent between 8-10mph so I didn't burn out too quickly. I found myself in the same position I had been in all day long when it came to climbing. I was passing more than my share of other riders. This is not to say I wasn't working hard. It seemed that for the 45 minutes I was climbing, my heart rate stayed around zone 4.4 with is my functional threshold. Any more, and I would explode before reaching the top. If I went lower, I could go much longer, but the torture would last longer. I split the difference and stayed at or near my threshold for the duration of the climb. Oddly enough, that seemed to work just fine. I kept steady all the way to the top, and actually upshifted in the last tenth of a mile to crest the hill. that meant that I still had energy left, and apparently did something right.
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| Top of Caesar's Head, and still smiling Courtesy "Eye on Brevard" |
This was my ride. I set the pace, and I controlled just how hard to push it. In the last 15 miles I had finally found my element. This was the ride I had been looking forward to, and I finally had it. I was enjoying it so much that I didn't even bother to stop for water or food. I had only consumed about half a bottle of water at the 30 mile mark, and one waffle/Nutella sandwich. By all rights, I should be bonking, or at the very least cramping due to dehydration. None of that was the case, I was feeling strong and fast. Again, the trainer has taught me how to actively recover while still in motion.
As Brevard, and the finish line crept closer and closer, I was monitoring my average speed. At the top of Caesar's Head, I was at 15.7, which was OK, but not quite as good as I was hoping. As I took full advantage of my solo ride style, I fought the wind and watched my averages creep up into the high 16's. My goal for today was to break 17mph and I was starting to see that as a possibility. I hammered when I could, and dug deep in the last minor climbs of the day. When I crossed the finish line, my average speed was dead on 17mph. In my book, that was a win! Not bad at all considering I have only been on the road 27 times since November, 2013.
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| The best bike taxi in the world! |
After calling Toni and Sierra to tell them that I had made it, and had a good ride, I loaded up my bike and started to secure all of my cycling junk in the truck so I could go and get something to eat...and something to drink! While I was loading the bike, I happened to think back to all my worries about mechanical failures before the ride. They were all unfounded. I had been all over the bike and addressed any areas of concern before the ride. It performed flawlessly through the entire ride. No noises, no complaining, just doing everything I asked of it. I lost track of the mechanical issues I saw others experiencing along the route. They ranged from dropped chains, broken cables, flats, etc. In addition to those issues, I saw no less than three crashes, one of which almost took me out early on. I'm constantly reminded how dangerous this hobby is, and how fortunate I am that I've been able to avoid as much of that danger as I have.
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| From my recovery ride the day after, showing off my new kit! |
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| Elevation Profile With Speed Overlay |
