The American Zofingen Long Course, which I successfully completed earlier this year, was an extremely tough course. 5 mile trail run, followed by 84 hilly miles on the bike, followed by another 15 mile trail run (3 loops of the first 5 miles). This race pushed me to my limits physically, but I felt mentally strong through the entire race. I mean I never once thought, well maybe a few times, that I could not finish.
The Tour of the Catskills was a totally different beast. My previous post lays out the 3-day event. Due to some life events it turns out that I only had 2 weeks of focused training prior to this race. Now I was in pretty decent shape having just completed the aforementioned AZ only 10 weeks prior. So with some encouragement from some friends and family I decided to attempt the race anyways.
So I packed up the gear and family and headed to the Catskills late Thursday night. I figured this would eliminate that typical early morning drive. Plus it would give me time to visit with my mom and dad, who were going to be watching my kids for the next 3 days. The drive up we quite relaxing since my dear wife (DW) took over the driving duties.
That evening was a bit late, but since my start time wasn’t until 1pm on Friday I wasn’t too concerned. Unfortunately I didn’t sleep that well. When 6am rolled around I was still pretty tired, but ready to go.
Prolouge Time Trial
Once again the DW took charge. She made a great breakfast while I packed up the gear. Once done we kissed the kids and hit the road to Tannersville and the TT. We arrived a bit early, were close to the Devil’s Kitchen, so decided to scope it out.
After scoping out the Devil’s Kitchen, which will turn out to be a bad decision, we made our way to downtown and registration. After checking in, it was still only 10am and I still had 3 hours until I raced.
We decided to get another bit to eat and a cup of coffee. There weren’t that many choices so we decided on a small cafe. I ordered a bowl of oatmeal and a smoothie. The oatmeal was a bit “bird-seedish” for my taste, as were the DW pancakes. Must be a Tannersville thing.
After eating I made my way back to the car and started to get things together for today’s time trial. I knew I only had to ride 2.5 miles, but that it was going to be all out. After suiting up I took the bike out for short ride to test everything and warm-up a bit.
Not really having a plan I simply road a few miles down the road. I tried to incorporate some FTP work and spin-ups to really warm the legs up. Don’t know if it really helped, but it definitely help settle the nerves a bit.
Around 12:30pm I lined up with the other Cat 5 racers. At just about this time the skys decided to open up. It rained for about 10 minutes, just enough to make things wet. The sun immediately came out and turned the whole place into a suana.
At 1:01 I stepped to the line. I knew the first 500 meters included a steep 11% climb and then leveled out. I decided to start in the small chain ring and middle of the cassette. The plan was to go easy over the first climb and then slowly crank things up, which lasted for about 2 secs. I hit that hill and it was lined with people. It was almost impossible not to pour on the gas. I was out of the saddle and pushing 600+ watts before I knew it.
Topping the hill I knew I needed to settle down or I would really crash and burn. I shifted up into the big ring and tried to bring the watts back down to a normal range. At about 1 mile everything started falling apart. The combination of rain and sun made it almost impossible to breath. The legs were burning. I just couldn’t find the right combination of gears. I was either grinding away or spinning to fast, no happy medium.
I did my best to keep pushing until the end. I ended up with a finish time of 10:58. My goal was to be under 10 minutes. So I was a bit pissed off until I was able to take a look at my numbers. For the 11 minutes I was pushing 280 watts, which is at almost 120% of my norm. Turns out I did okay.
We packed up the gear and headed out to find lunch and reconvene with the family. We took the time to drive a portion of Saturday’s stage race. Nothing major, some decent amount of climbing, some long decents, but overall not too bad.
Stage 1: Catskill Epic
Day 2 arrived all too quickly. Once again I had trouble sleeping. I was nervous about the fact that I had to complete this stage in a certain time frame in order to earn the right to race the final stage.
We arrived in Hunter around 8:30am. I had an hour to sign-in and prep for the race. I hit the toilets, dropped off my spare wheels and rode for 10-15 minutes. This was going to be an interesting day. Believe it or not it was going to be my first group ride. Way to procrastinate Pete!
The Cat 5 group lined up around 9:20am. The referee, or what ever you call them in cycling, was great. Since for many of us this was our first time, he took the time to explain the race day very well. He even gave a few tips on how to pin your numbers, wash your jersey, etc. This really helped settle me down a bit.
I lined up near the back of the peloton. Goal for the day, hand with the group for as long as I can and then survive. There was a 2 mile neutral start which gave me a chance to experience group dynamics at a slower pace. It was definitely a new experience. A lot of slow-and-go.
The first few miles of the race were at a slight grade and then we hit the first major downhill. I assumed if I could keep with the group until that point I would be good. Much to my surprise I hung on the climb, but was promptly dropped on the decent. I just didn’t have enough gears to match the normal cyclers. I was topped out and spinning at 120 rpms, but they were still pulling away.
At the bottom of the decent I found myself with a pack of 5 rides and outside the race caravan. Not were I wanted to be 10 miles into the day. Believe it or not we managed to organize into a decent pace line. We were each taking 15-30 second pulls, and then falling off. We did this for a few miles and seemed like we were catching the pack.
This was probably one the most exciting times of the day. I don’t know if I was doing it correctly, but no one was complaining or hollering so I must of been doing something right. This will definitely be something I will get out and practice again. Hey, were are my riding friends?
After a few miles 3 of the riders fell off. This left one other rider and myself. Shortly after that we it the first major climb, which is were I fell apart. The other rider simply walked away from me on the hills.
New goal, finish in 3 hours and don’t let the 3 guys behind me catch me. I spent the majority of the rest of the day riding by myself. I got passed by the pros about half way through the race. They were just flying. I also managed to catch and pass another Cat 5 rider during the climbs.
I have to say that the spectators at a bike race are simply fabulous, especially on the KOMs. It was great to be riding up a hill with people on both sides cheering you on. It was almost “TdF-esque”. I was smiling from ear to ear.
During this time I just tried riding as hard and fast as I could every second. There were ups and downs but overall I felt pretty good through most of the ride. I definitely botched any type of nutrition plans. By the end of the race I may have finish 3/4 of my bottle of Infinit and 1.5 bottles of water. In retrospect this was nowhere close to being enough.
I managed to get through the major climbing sections in just over 2 hours. I knew I had a steady 10 miles to the finish line ahead of me. The 3 hour goal was definitely in reach. As a bonus I still had 4 riders behind me. I was happy!
I settled down and just tried to ride at a decent pace and just push through. This was tough. I was exhausted and due to lack of nutrition was starting to bonk. I wanted this day to be over.
At about 4 miles to go, I started to see riders behind me. Some other category riders had already passed me, so I knew this must be some of the other Cat 5 riders. Where the hell did they come from? Where were they finding anything left in the tank?
I simply pushed on as fast as I could. They finally caught me with a few miles left. I tried to jump onto their tail, but only last for a new minutes. I has nothing left. I was no left to ride home alone, in last place.
It turns out that I finished the day in 3:09:09. Even though I was the last Cat 5 finisher there were 4 riders who did not finish. This made me a little bit happier. I was 39 minutes behind the leader. This was enough to qualify me for Sunday.
This is were the trouble starts. I knew I now had to ride the Devil’s Kitchen, which was the worst climb I have ever seen. It was a 2+ mile climb with grades reaching 15% or more. There was really no false tops either. I was going to be a brutal day, and I was already totally spent.
We spent some time enjoying the festivities and watching the other riders finish. We then headed back home to meet up the family once again. Upon arriving home I found out that my mother, who has not been feeling well, had been taking to the emergency room. They couldn’t see anything wrong other than maybe some dehydration, so told her to report to her regular doctor on Monday, but to take it easy for the remainder of the weekend.
This opened the door to my head. Nervous about the Devil’s Kitchen, after doing the drive, I was desperate to find a way out. We would now have to bring our kids with us for the race. Not the best of situations, especially for the DW. I spent the rest of the day in a miserable mood. I wanted to ride, but I was super scared.
By the end of the day, I had convinced myself that I was going to ride. Time for bed. If I had slept I would have been golden. However, I didn’t sleep one second. I laid there wide-eyed thinking about everything that could go wrong, and how to get out of this. My thought ranged from falling off the edge to the cliff to sabotaging my bike during the race. I didn’t want to be that rider who had to walk, in front of all the people.
Ride Home
Come morning I decided that it just wasn’t worth the stress. With that off my mind I went to sleep for an hour or so. I finally got up and visited with my mom for a while. She still wasn’t feeling well. We spent a few hours visiting and getting things packed up for the trip back home.
I was okay with my decision not to race. I simply let the Devil into my head. I learned a lot of great things this weekend. Even on the ride home I was talking about how I would most definitely be coming back next year!
Finally, I want to take a final moment to thank all the people for their support and encouragement.
First of all to my wife, for being the best domestique there is. I wouldn’t have gotten through what I did with out you. Thanks for supporting my crazy ideas!
To the EN Gang: Cary, Tucker, Nemo and many others. You guys/gals have introduced me to a new me. I never thought in a million years that I would be doing crazy shit like this. I can’t wait to see what is next. Wait, I know what is next: Tour of Cali and CDA. See you soon!
To my mom: Thank you so much for everything! Without you I wouldn’t be. I hope you start feeling better and can be there for more of my crazy adventures.
