What a day...after years of continuous training I approached the starting line Saturday morning with very low expectations. I started the race forgetting it was in fact 100 miles long and not 35-60 miles like almost all of my rides had been to that date. I cruised for the first 20 or so miles and then started raging up to aid station 3. It's important to note I had a good time on the early single track. At aid station 3 I caught up with the JV Squad El Captain and cruised for awhile with him. I later pulled in Drew...man, what a miserable day for that guy. Kudos for sticking it out (Explosive Diarrhea). The tripod had some good cries, and it was really good to catch up with Kyle and ride with some good people. We rolled into Aid station 5 only to see this scene in front of us...
Well, due to my increased unadulterated power (Mustache) I was able to clean this no problem. I continued to edge up my watts past threshold power to see where my barrier was, but it kept going up until I was rolling at about 420watts. I felt amazing but knew that 420 was 310 watts above my tested LT and it could not be sustained for the remaining 1 or so more hours. I brought it down to 396. I hit the single track feeling like a champ, but soon felt like this young boy...
My tire selection got the better of me; so I sat in the woods and collected my thoughts. After a quick soul search I carried on. Soon, Tony from Richmond rolled up behind me which motivated me to ride like a big boy, and I finished the race. The whole day I felt good...8.5 hours...not too shabby. Good times were had. Thanks Joseph for driving. I've already started tapering for the Middle Mountain Momma in May; so, expect to hear about a great victory.
