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Two weekends ago I bailed on the Rt. 80/Parkway/Mt. Mitchell ride with my friends from Ohio, having already ridden the four previous days and not getting much sleep at the time either. Have I ever mentioned how much I hate morning rides? I believe I have. Anyway… since I missed out on that “classic” Asheville Trip route, I thought maybe I’d go do it this past weekend – except later in the day.
Much later.
On Wednesday I ran 8 miles at Deep Creek, when I probably only should have done 5, or 6 at the most. That left me a big question as to what to do on Friday. 8 isn’t really a long run; I had been up to 12 prior to my rest week, and I was still unsure about what’s going on with my ankles and heels. I decided to split the difference and do 10 miles. I also decided not to make it 100% trail run and split the distance into roughly equal road and trail. Mother nature decided to get in on the Split Distance theme as well – and proceeded to rain, and not rain, on me for roughly equal distances. I didn’t mind a bit.
Until mile 9, when the extra weight of rain soaked shoes and socks started to take it’s toll on my legs.
After Monday’s run, the first one after a week off to “rest” my potential PF injury, I was curious to see how my left foot would react. It reacted by hurting fairly bad an hour or so after the run. It then reacted by hurting much less Monday night, and pretty much not at all on Tuesday or Tuesday night. This reaction, or lack thereof, continued right on into Wednesday.
I found this to be quite ironic, and also very annoying.
Monday it rained. It rained all morning. It rained all afternoon. It rained all day. Almost. Except for the one hour or so when I went for a run, when it was sunny, hot, and extremely humid from all the rain. Most people who exercise would view this as good fortune. I did not. On Tuesday it was nice out. It was nice out all morning. It was nice out all afternoon. Almost. But then I started seeing Accuweather Severe Thunderstorm Watches in my inbox. Just in time for the Tuesday ride. So I wore my RAIN jersey.
It didn’t work.
Prior to this past week’s consecutive days of riding, I had been doing a lot more running, upping the miles as SOS gets closer. That had some positive, and unfortuntely… also some negative results. The positive: a great 12 mile trail run, followed by a pretty decent 5k road race, followed by a 2 mile run with Tanya.
And the negative: I woke up the next day after that last run with what appears to be a re-occurrence of Plantar Faciitis in my left foot.
Saturday was scheduled to be a traditional Asheville Day 2 ride which uses part of the Assault on Mt. Mitchell. Rather than do the full event route in one direction from Spartanburg, the group does only the upper elevations, starting on Rt. 80, heading along the Parkway and on up to the finish at Mt. Mitchell. This year Craig came up with the idea to do the Rt. 80 part as a time trial. Unfortunately, despite my best efforts I was completely unable to get any sleep Friday night – a mix of muscles that wouldn’t calm down, a resting heart rate that stayed 25-30 beats above normal and a brain that just won’t quiet itself. Same things I’ve struggled with all my life – nothing new. I really get annoyed at people who say things like “I’m going to sleep great tonight” after long hard rides or other athletic events.
(Yes, Goose.. that includes YOU! – grrrrrrrrr!) LOL
A couple years ago one of the guys read about a ride called the Hot Doggett 100, which was running concurrently with the annual Asheville trip. I didn’t make that trip but the other guys all did the 100 mile ride and really enjoyed it. The following year they opted to do the 62 mile Devil’s Fork Metric which is most of the same climbing but leaves off some extra mileage – and they also did it on their own with Carla as the support driver, instead of registering for the official event. This year the plan was the same – do the 62 (actually 65) mile / metric the day before the actual event. We met out at Mars Hill College and by now the group was six, as Craig, Goose and I were joined by Vince, Todd and Chuck, three veterans of the Asheville trips who had come down Thursday for the more traditional two days of riding.
The plan for Thursday was up in the air during the planning stages before the trip. A lot of roads around here are under construction or even closed due last year’s above average rainfall and record winter snowfalls. The entire length of the Parkway is open for the first time in over a year thanks to a single lane being available up to Mount Pisgah. That would normally have been the route of choice, or possibly the traditional ride up to Mt. Mitchell via Craggy, but after describing the local Ring of Fire route to Craig, he thought that sounded like an ideal ride. And I was more than happy to lead he and Goose once more over my local roads. I promised them that unlike the previous day, this route would be very low traffic and no construction messes would get in our way.
I kept my promise on that score, but as it turned out, I had another little lie for them.
The first ride with Ohio friends was for me a repeat of the previous day’s ride up to Balsam, followed by continuing up the Parkway to Waterrock Knob. I was joined by my friends Craig aka “Egg” and Jeff aka “Goose” and also escorted by Goose’s wife Carla, aka “Noose” (yes.. Goose & Noose) who drives a support vehicle for us and takes a lot of photos on these mountain ride trips. They arrived at my place in the early afternoon and the first thing they wanted to know was “are we going to ride on that highway?!?”.
Yes!
Five years ago I joined some friends on my first trip to Asheville for their annual Mt. Mitchell/Parkway riding excursion. Although it was somebody else who said the words, the phrase “hardest thing I ever did” pretty much sums up that trip. My memory of that first time climbing up Town Mountain Rd. – before we even got onto the Blue Ridge Parkway – seemed ridiculously slow and difficult (because it was). I remember wondering, and sometimes I still wonder – how (and why) I ever managed to do another climb after that.
Not to mention wondering why I not only continued to climb mountain roads, but actually moved here four years later, pretty much for the sole purpose of doing it on a daily basis.
While sometime I think it is a source of absolute evil, on other days Facebook is a pretty cool thing. Especially when it offers a chance to catch up with friends you haven’t seen in years. Friends who used to live in Ohio, have been traveling all over the US and even further for the past few years. Friends whose latest adventure is hiking the Appalachian Trail for however long and however far they decide that it’s still a fun thing to do. Friends who posted on Facebook that they would be spending a couple nights at the Basecamp at Nantahala Outdoor Center last week.
The same Nantahala Outdoor Center where I had just happened to want to go and ride a new (to me) mountain bike trail. Read more on New Trails & Old Friends…
A couple weekends ago I had a chance to “commute” between Asheville and Sylva, opting to take the Parkway for a good portion of the 75 mile distance. There is (or was at the time) a section that is closed between Asheville and Mt. Pisgah, so I took the recommended auto detour – Rt. 151. Leaving out of West Asheville the directions are pretty simple: Sand Hill Rd., US 19, Rt. 151, Parkway to Balsam Gap, US74 to 441 home.
The riding wasn’t quite so simple: somewhere between 6000-7000′ of elevation gain and temperatures in the 90s would make for a tough ride. Despite being
“only” 75 miles I thought getting home in under five hours would be a good goal.
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