The Long of it.....

What a difference a day makes. I will go back. For the simple fact, that I do have aspirations of doing the GDR and there would be WAY more Gravel Grinding on that ride then on this one(Sandpine your driving). I need to man up.
Goal setting is part of my new skill set in 2008, and I did set some goals for the ride. The important part of goal setting is to write things down. Just as important as writing down your goals is to be specific. For example:
Goal #1: "I will finish the Cohutta 100 in ten hours or less". Its true, I finished in 8.5 hours. What I should have said, was "I will finish the entire Cohutta 100 course as it is laid out for the competitors in ten hours or less."

Goal #2: "I will beat Luis to the end". Almost came true, I had help from a diesel dualie truck. LOL.

Goal #3: "I will beat Ron to the end". This one did come true, again, diesel dualie, I should have said I will complete the course, blah Skippy blah, before Ron.

Goal#4: "I will have fun and enjoy and be safe". That totally came true, although I only rode 67 miles, Its to date the fastest dirt 67 I have done and it was clean not a single crash or dab, my team mates claim to have never seen me crash, but its not true, like once every 6 months I crash.

Takeaways:
My Nutrition was spot on. I don't eat typical cycling foods. I try to stick to whole foods or items that hit low on the glycemic index to avoid insulin spikes and avoid bonking. I took my handlebar bag, which may have looked suspect, but I had all the nutrition in there I would need for 12 hours. I took one dime bag an hour with 2 endurolytes and 2 sportsleggs, and I would eat 2 to 300 calories each hour depending on how I felt. I also made sure to keep drinking. Nutrition was there.
I got to see a bear in the wild during the race, lucky me!
I got to meet some new people and I got to ride some really spectacular terrain, I didn't think I would go back, but I will.
I rode hardest I have ever ridden and really put all my effort, I can honestly say I didn't leave nothing on the table.

The blow by blow:
The morning was drizzling and chilly. I got to use my brand new pearl izumi jacket, in fact I wore it all day and it turned out to be a great cycling Ally. I also, got to wear the new team bikeworks Orlando team kit in a race for the first time. I have never worn bibs and I totally dug them and the jersey pockets were deep enough to hide my entire race number inside of them, I really digg the gear(thanks guys).
I wasn't nervous as the siren went off, I took off riding but the legs were dead. From the start, I had nothing, no power, dead weight. I got chicked, single speeded, geezered, whipper snappered, I mean everyone passed me, I went into the woods, Dead Fu**in Last!
When I hit the single track I went to work. And it didn't take long for me to start passing people. And that's pretty much how it went till the 65 milers came Thru, then the 35 milers. I was riding clean, but not fast enough and I was really looking forward to the Gravel road to see if I could reel Ron back in.
I hit the Gravel road and I hammered. I was riding as fast as I could within my limits, I didn't want to fry myself. And sure enough after ten minutes of solid work I started reeling in riders just as we started hitting the major climbs on the gravel road. I kept saying to myself in my head how the course description clearly said that an expert level rider could do all the climbs on the course in the middle ring. So I avoided granny, but eventually, after miles and miles of climbing I decided I wanted to use it and my bike would not shift into the smallest frontal ring. Bummer, I kept griding away. After what seemed forever I made stop 2 and asked if there was a mechanic, and he fixed my ring, and I took off after some water and lube and kept at it. Eventually, after another eternity of riding I made stop three. At stop three, I ate some of my food, got more lube and water and took off. At this point I had picked up a couple of riders that wanted company, but I had a plan. I wanted to make stop 4 by 4 so I could have a chance of making the 7pm cutoff at stop six. I had one hour to complete 15 or so miles, it was a tall order, but at this point I was up for the challenge, they said there were "ten miles of downhill", so I took off. The two dudes tried to keep up and they did OK, but after 3 miles I was gone and so where they and when I hit the downhill, I took off, It was some good long downs but it had some ups and I was in such a rush that I would big ring hammer standing up the short climbs in an effort to make time. In the end, I made it to stop for at 4:35, it took me way longer then the hour I had hoped.
At that point, the race officials, never encouraged me to stop, but they basically told me I would have no way of making the cutoff. I gave it up and stopped my effort. I did put 30 minutes on one of the dudes and 45 minutes on the other in that short "15 miles" but regardless, that is how the cookie crumbled.
I rode back in the sag truck helped clean up the course markers and lamented my lack of strength to ride faster.
Some questions, to answer from the previous posts. What would I have done different? Turns out a couple of days before the race I got some bad news. I have a condition that needs surgery to fix and I believe its the main reason I had no power in the legs. Because of what is going on, I will not be able to race the PMBAR (sorry Luis) and the rest of my race schedule(i.e. Tsali) is up in the air. What I do know is that I should be healthy and in shape to do the Shenandoah 100 in August and that is what I am looking forward too. There is also the pine log 12 hour in October that I would love to take a crack at for the win.
In other news, turns out I officially broke my first bicycle. No not my Mamasita, she is battered but holding up fine, but the Beast. Raleigh is going to have to warranty my frame due to a cracked head tube.
That's it for now, in the mean time I plan to spend my off/on time doing more riding and more exploring, just enjoying the ride, hope you do too.

Laters,

LOS