36:44

Ascutney is in the books.

When I did the mountain for the first time two months ago in 55 minutes I never imagined that I would be reporting to you today that I did it in 36 minutes and forty four seconds. But I'm here, and it happened. And I'm damn proud of myself. I'm not only proud but I am profoundly more motivated to do even better.

The experience started Friday night after a dinner of Sweet Potatoes and Garlic Bread.

Delicious.

BANG.

Time for an epic thunderstorm and time to lose power.

Wonderful.

It was 95 degrees outside and HUMID which meant it would be next to impossible for me to fall asleep. I laid in a pool of my own sweat until the power came back on at 2 AM and I could crank up the air conditioner.

EEET EEET EEEET EEEET. 3 hours later. 5 AM. Wake up, sleepy head, it's time to rock.

Lauren and I picked up Joe, Sarah, and Little C man and headed out, but not before Dunkin Donuts, right?

Wrong.

No power.

Shit.

We found one in the next town.

Relief.

Two hours later we were in the field at Ascutney and I was on the trainer.

I warmed up briefly on the road and on the mountain before I lined up in the first wave. I was extremely calm and not at all nervous at the start that surprised me a bit. I'm so Zen.

The start featured a 90 degree corner on a steep pitch that tested nerves just a little bit but once I rounded the corner and settled into a groove I felt about as good as one could expect when they can feel their heart beating in their eyeball.

185 Beats per minute. Pinned.

Don't stop pedaling, Nate, you pansy.

I was frustrated on the way up because I knew I was putting out more power than the people I stayed with because I kept passing them on the flat sections of the climb.

Demoralizing. Damn 22 LB trek.

I maintained this hell until the finish and sprinted when I saw the crowd ringing the cowbell. I guess I went as hard as anyone at the finish. I think I have a talent for that.

36 minutes and 44 seconds after the gun I could rest.

And eat watermelon.

And drink chocolate milk.

Until next time.

The Fine Line

This week I have continued to cut calories in an effort to shed needless upper body weight. Come to find out shedding hard-earned muscle is more difficult to shed than fat - Especially since I am eating a lot of protein to aid with recovery to some tough training.

My riding volume has continued to be moderate in the lead up to Ascutney. Monday and Tuesday I rode 22 hard miles each day and yesterday I took it relatively easy and rode 25. I feel like this taper has been more successful than the taper I did for Newton's Revenge. Tonight I will go out for an easy spin and throw in one very hard three minutes effort to prime my body for the hordes or sweet potatoes and pasta I intend to eat tonight.

I'm excited to race tomorrow morning and I think I'm ready!!

Depending on how I feel I might ride the 90 or so miles home from Ascutney. If not, we'll be going out for a nice hilly century on Sunday!

Ascutney and Beyond.

After two solid training days I am excited to race at Mt. Ascutney this Saturday morning.

As a very, very newly minted climber I time-trialled the mountain mountain twice and had times of 55 minutes and 43:30. The goal on Saturday is to crack 40:00.

I have my sister, brother-in-law, nephew, and girlfriend coming out to watch and I'm pretty psyched about that!!!

Here's to hoping for nice weather!!

No Newton's and Looking Forward to Ascutney

Well, this is not the post I wanted to be writing.

Saturday morning I woke up and took a look outside and saw what nobody racing in Newton's wanted to see: Torrential rain.

Shit.

I went through my morning routine and arrived at the race tent feeling pretty good but soon they confirmed what I already knew in my heart: The race was postponed until Sunday.

This was disastrous for my race hopes because Lauren, my driver, needed to be back home for a triathlon on Sunday. This meant I would have to drive her back, a 7 hour round trip, and cross my fingers that I could find someone to give me a ride back down on Sunday. To complicate matters further, Sunday was my Nephew Connor's Christening - Something I did not want to miss. Not to mention, another $100 for a hotel, food, gas, etc. Ugh.

As luck would have it, I spoke with the race director, Mary, and she was insanely helpful and generous by allowing me to move my race to August! I will now be in the more popular and more competitive Mount Washington Hill Climb!

I'll be glued to the saddle for the next month and a half. Fantastic.

The Machine

She's primed and ready to go. All 21 pounds of her, lol!

Tapering Strategy

As someone with historically poor recovery and rapid degeneration of fitness, I have had to be quite careful with how I taper for the big event.

My strategy is based around keeping my legs fresh but optimizing my fitness. Here is what I have done and will be doing:

• Saturday, 7/3: Massive and final productive training ride. 75 miles to and up Greylock with a 110% effort on the mountain. Pretty major success here.
• Sunday, 7/4: 10 miles of ultra easy recovery
• Monday, 7/5: 15 miles very easy with one moderate effort 1000 ft climb
• Tuesday, 7/6: 9 miles with two high intensity short efforts.
• Wednesday, 7/7: 20 miles with two very high cadence intervals
• Thursday, 7/8: (PROJECTED) 10 miles very light spining
• Friday, 7/9: (PROJECTED) Warm-up routine on the trainer in the room before dinner, 45 mins.
• Saturday, 7/10: (PROJECTED) All out on Washington. I predict that I will need to very nearly kill myself to be under 1:30. If it's raining I don't think I have the fitness to break this number; truly, I don't. Given absolutely flawless scenarios and a brilliantly paced perforance, I could possibly hit 1:25, but absolutely no lower than this under any circumstance unless I throw Tom Danielson a line!

I have some additional thoughts regarding my preparation for this race. Training-wise I think I have worked adequately hard. I have hit my mileage mark and have quite a bit of high intensity work under my belt. As far as my weight is concerned, I am disappointed that I did not sacrifice more. I have been an avid and consistent weight lifter for six years. In that time, I have gained a lot of hard earned muscle on a very small frame. Getting rid of said muscle for this race was very difficult for me to do. The only saving grace is that I'm about 5% bodyfat at the moment, perhaps less. Still though, I am carrying at least ten extra pounds of muscle that needn't be there to stress my aerobic system.

Hopefully next year I will make the full sacrifice.

The Calm Before Newton's Revenge

I officially committed to Newton's Revenge bike race up Mt. Washington on June 1st, just 35 or so days ago. Since then I have trained very hard and made a few slight modifications to my machine, the Trek 1500.

On June 6th, I took part in the practice ride. Conditions were dismal. It started raining heavily at the base of the mountain and never let up. The gravel sections were like mud. The asphalt sections were unforgiving. I finished about four minutes slower than I expected in temperatures below 40 degrees. It was a humbling experience.

I drew up a training log later that weekend for the next month that consisted of 730 training miles of moderate to extreme intensity. I'm happy to report that I have roughly met that goal and am ready to race on Saturday.

As for the Trek, she now sports a 13-30 rear cassette that when coupled with my 30 crank produces the so-called 'magic' 1:1 gear ratio. We'll see.

I know I won't be competitive in my age group; in fact, I'll probably be dead last. What is important is that I gain experience and best my own personal goal that I set for th race.

Here's to hoping.