Hadley Park

Stopped by the Hadley Park Community Center today. I've been looking for a place to swim and the HPCC is a short 5 mile bike ride away and it's free. I had no idea Nashville was hip enough to create FREE facilities like this. It was clean, everyone was nice, there was no one there. The lap lanes are short, but they're long enough and they're FREE. All the machines and weights are brand new, no one was using them and they're FREE to use. I couldn't believe my luck.

After swimming a half hour (easing back into it) I decided I would celebrate by buying some new swim shorts. I've lost about 15 lbs since I got the board shorts I've been using and I pretty much can't keep them on. My dad always swam in a speedo, which I thought was a little tacky, banana hammocks don't really have any place in a community center. I opted for some something slightly less revealing but just as tight. When I bought running shorts I went all the way and it gave me a false sense of commitment which translated to me working harder, an acceptable by-product. First few times in the pool, I'll probably wonder what I was thinking, but I choose to rock the lycra on the bike, out in the open, why not in the pool, eh? While I was in the store, I got to looking at running shoes. I was thinking this morning during my run that I probably needed an upgrade from my Nike Free's if I was going to start putting in more mileage. The Free's are supposed to only be good up to somewhere around 5 miles and I'll be doing longer days than that. I'm also hoping to save them for travel since they pack up so small. Anyway, got to looking at shoes and ended up with these sweet little numbers from Asics. I'll give them a whirl tomorrow on what will probably be my longest run since my accidental 11 mile run out in Washington last summer.

I'll recount the tale: The band was playing a festival in Cashmere, WA and our hotel was right next to the river and a bike/running path. I headed out for a short run, thought I'd maybe do 3-4 miles. Started up the river and crossed over on a bridge. Stopping at a map, I noticed another bridge down the river. Without taking the time to add up all the little mileage markers, I decided I'd just go ahead and run down there, cross over and run back. There was a kids fun ride going on and I was leapfrogging several families. They'd come by then stop at the rest station where I'd pass them. At one point, about 6 miles in, a family passed me for the third time and the father, a fit man on a single speed mountain bike asked, "you running the loop." "Sure," I replied. He said, "You're not from around here, are you?" I told him I was from Nashville, in town for the festival. He got all worked up when I told him I was in the Stringdusters, he and his family were planning on coming up to the festival just to see us. He offered me some water and I asked how far I had to go. "About 11 miles."

I was not cut out for this, I'd only been running seriously again for a few months and had never tried to bite of anything more than 5 or 6 miles. At that point, I was past the point of no return. I kept on, begging water at the kid's rest stations and finally made it back to the hotel, a little worse for wear but feeling ok. If it hadn't been for the kids ride going on it would have been a tough day. I told my bandmates I'd "accidentally run 11 miles." Our guitar player stated that those words would never be heard coming from his mouth. That evening I got an appreciative round of applause from the mostly sedentary crowd when a band member introduced me as the "idiot who accidentally ran the entire River Loop that morning." Here's an incredible YouTube video of me acting a fool onstage later that night during the encore. I do my "thing" about a minute in if you're pressed for time. Notice the classic bluegrass haybales!

It's interesting what you can do if you have to do it. I remember that run often when I'm trying to push through a physical wall on foot or on the bike. It's kind of like how I explain riding a single speed. When you don't have any choice, or choices, you just stomp on it. I think that's what's so appealing to me about only one speed, no choices save for go and stop, and that's not a very difficult decision to make, right?

Nashville MPO Survey

The Nashville Area Metropolitan Planing Organization wants community input regarding sidewalks, greenways, and bike lanes. I don't have to tell you how deficient Nashville is in these areas and my hope is that some of the money our new president is setting aside for "infrastructure" could end up going toward "clean" or "green" infrastructure like the construction of more greenways, bike lanes and sidewalks. If you have an extra 3 minutes (and if you're at your desk, you definitely can afford to sacrifice 3 minutes of Facebook time, seriously) please go here and take a quick survey. You also may consider shooting out an email with the link to a few of your like-minded friends.

My cyclocross season has ended. I'm feeling a tremendous sense of loss and a sort of listlessness I haven't felt since September. To make matter worse I went out after the race Sunday and ate two huge plates of Mexican food and drank a 30 oz. beer and half a pitcher of Margarita. Needless to say, my legs still feel like crap. Fortunately the lousy weather and sore legs are keeping me from getting outside, forcing me to do a little transitional downtime. Yesterday I spent the day planning my next training cycle (which included finding a 5k/10k in February, mapping out all the mountain bike races I can make between March and August and fitting one road stage race into the schedule) all in an effort to keep me fit and motivated and get me ready for next cyclocross season.

Cross-A-Nooga #2 (or My Season Finale)

Last race day of the season, could not have gone better. They changed a couple sections of the course, adding two tricky sections that I had to run and adding a chicane. First race I found myself off the front again, with a 5-10 bike length lead over the first Pro. I stayed out front through the first lap, then let the two of them ride up to me. The three of us stayed together, trading places for the next 3 laps. On the final lap, through the first 1/3rd of the course, they got a 10-15 length gap (I was forced to run a section they were riding and by the 6th lap, I was starting to lose a little ground), but I was able to close it down through a series of corners, finally catching them in the mud and sand. I knew I wouldn't be able to beat anyone geared in a sprint, so I attacked as soon as I made contact. With 1/3rd of a lap left, I got enough space to stay ahead, finishing first, in front of the 1's and 2's as well as the 3's.

An hour later the SS open class went with the 4's. I was feeling good, it was my last race of the season so I just put my head down and hammered. Made it around 5 times. Almost got a little teary-eyed coming across the finish line. It's been such an amazing season, I never expected to end up the the kind of form I did. I've met so many great people and beaten myself into such good shape, I'm really sad it's over. Fortunately I have a lot to look forward to next season and in the meantime, it's cross-training and mountain bike season. There will probably be fewer ride related posts, but single speed is as much a mind-set as anything so I'll be posting up some random thoughts, and photos (hopefully, forgot the camera again today) from rides, runs, and general adventures.

This weekends results put me in 3rd overall in the CX3's and 2nd overall in the SS categories. I'll most likely drift down a few places after the Knoxville weekends but I'm pretty happy to have topped out on the podium. If my season wasn't ending I'd have a shot at moving up in the 3's.

Thanks to Nate, Freeman, Tanner, Ed, Travis, David, Jeremy, and all the other guys who helped me out, yelled at me when I was obviously slacking and generally added to fun-factor and camaraderie aspect of the races. There's a bunch of you who's names I can't remember or didn't get, but the Central Tennessee cyclocross racing scene is one-of-a-kind and I'm really honored to be a part of it. Until next year...

Cross-A-Nooga #1

Cyclocross. My last weekend 'til September. Long day, good company, great course and good outcome. I usually love riding and today was no exception. I've finally got my pre-race routine down, just in time to forget it again for months. Definitely credit the yoga for always setting up a good day of racing. French press. Quinoa. Gallons of Water. Met Nate at 7am off Bell Rd. then drove south to Chattanooga.

The course featured a tight front half, including a really tricky steep right hand switchback that everyone was having trouble with. A few off camber sections, brief run-up, a little mud, and some tricky sand. The second half was wide open, flat out and back with a some dirt road before a barrier and a couple turns right before the finish.

CX3 went with the 1's and 2's and were first on the course at 11. From the start I stuck with the 1st and 2nd place Pro's, sitting in, letting them do all the work and trying to stay out of the way. When we hit the sand on lap 5, they both went down. I missed them and got a little gap but didn't think I could keep it. Coming through the start/finish I sat up and let them get ahead to do their thing. I followed them in, finishing 15 seconds behind. Nate got third, which is badass for his first race. He and I are both of the opinion that there are a bunch of 4's that should upgrade.

I was feeling good today, stretching my legs a little. Single speed race, CX4's went at the same time. There were just 5 of us in the SS class. I waited about of third of the way through the first lap and I hit the gas and went for broke. 5 laps in 30 minutes. Felt best on my 10th lap of the day. I think I will upgrade to CX2 at the end of the season, not give myself any "out" when October rolls around.

No camera, again. I'm going to go put it in the car right now. Same thing tomorrow.

Sewanee Snow

Got an email on Monday from Kevin "the Freak" Freeman recruiting me for a little mid-week mountain bike ride. He suggested some trails I hadn't ridden and he further enticed me by dropping the word "single" followed immediately by "speed." Now, I've had a lot of racing success this season coming into the weekends rested and initially I didn't think that a mid-week 3 hour mountain bike ride was exactly what my final 'cross weekend needed, but I'm not some livin'-for-the-race-weekend wanker, so I re-arranged my schedule and committed to showing up at the Blue Chair coffee house in Suwannee at 8:30 this morning. Last night, after a perfect steak dinner with my perfect wife, I went to the trouble of doing the math and realized I'd have to leave at 6:50, meaning I'd have to get up at 6. Fortunately, in addition to not being a wanker of any type, I'm a morning person and WPLN 1430 AM comes in clear almost all the way to Suwanee, which was especially nice this morning after. NPR had cut up the inaugural address into little soundbytes that made me tear up all over again.

Today was a true blue-bird day, and as soon as I started gaining elevation, I noticed snow on the ground. By the time I got to Sewanee there was nearly an inch of white fluff that effectively took the edges off everything. It reminded me of those trips up to the mountain back in my ski-bum days. I was a little skeptical, as I pulled into the coffee shop parking lot, I wasn't sure what condition the trail would be in. Freeman had arranged to ride with a local, and not just any local, but Woody from Woody's Bicycles. Woody, it turns out, is the man. Single speed, 29er, bike shop... He didn't seem phased by the conditions and Freeman seemed fired up as always.

The ride starts right from the shop and the first half mile or so it was just the three of us, slipping silently through the snow on the sidewalk. Between single speeds, large tires and snowcover, there was hardly a sound. With little warning we left the road and hit the trail. Everything was covered in a little less than an inch of dry snow and no one else had ridden it since the snow had fallen. I immediately started to warm up and settle into the comfortable pace. The snow made for great conditions without any distractions as all the terrain looked the same. No way to distinguish between rock, dirt and leaf, all was white. We kept a leisurely pace, which was a nice change for me. I usually find it hard to restrain myself but it was such a beautiful day and the company was so good, I just pedaled and smiled and tried not to push too hard on the pedals.

Forgot the camera again. Fortunately we stopped for a lot of pictures and Kevin shot these over to me while I was eating dinner with the family tonight. At one point he did a ride-by shot, seen here to the left. He also showed up with a used Felt X1 that I'm probably going to get. I need a geared bike for riding the road and this was at the top of my list for a geared cross bike before I realized how fast a single speed was. The hard part will be finding the money, but more than that, I'm worried that I might start using it to race the CX3 race instead of my SS and that's not what I want...

Ride

Beautiful cold day. Rode over to the east side of town to pick up a hotrodded freewheel from Dan. Then over to my friends house to watch him paint for 10 minutes. Mad dash home across the river to get home in time for a meeting of the minds (Obama said to get to work). Ran into a guy on a Lynskey cross bike with couplers for flying. Very cool. Was feeling good about my physical condition, my relative core-ness until I stumbled across this guy and even more this guy. I don't know how a guy could maintain 21mph for 92 miles, but apparently it's nothing out of the ordinary for Fuzzy. I'm linking these guys blogs to mine, this is the kind of adventure I want to hear more about.

TBRA

TBRA has finally posted up the results from Knoxiecross #1 and #2. I'm 5th in CX3 and 4th in Single Speed. 6 races left in the season, I'll only be at two of them.

Gray days in Nashville. Snow yesterday, flurries today. Planning some riding this week, though, it's hard to say how much of that will actually happen.