Training Log Archive: britty327

Rockstar 270 Trail route with Chris. The weather forecast had been changing drastically from day to day in the week leading up the event, but final weather was looking better. Dusty came down for the weekend with us to drop us off at the start and pick us up at the finish, while providing support at Douthat, where you were allowed to get outside aid and still be considered self-supported.

After a chill night of camping and poring over clothing choices, we woke to a dry morning and warmer than forecasted temps around 40. Wind coming from the N would mostly be a tailwind for the next day or 2. We made final layering and gear choices and drove to the start at Black Sheep Coffee in downtown Harrisonburg. The group lining up for the Grand Depart was a bit smaller than the initial registration. Some had bailed, while others started early, choosing to do an Individual TT instead.

At 0700, we rolled out, heading to some swoopy trails in town where we made 5 or 6 wrong turns trying to follow GPS in tight singletrack, while half the Trail group missed this section altogether. Once clear of the woods, we hopped onto pavement and gravel for the next few hours and started ticking off some of that 44,000' of climbing the route promised. We spent the day trading places with Barry Croker while picking off folks from both the Gravel and Trail routes and moving into the Trail lead. After topping out on Reddish, we were welcomed into a glorious ride through Stokesville singletrack. We blasted down Wolf Ridge and later Tillman West. I was just thinking how I loved that I couldn't wipe the smile off my face when it started snowing while climbing Lookout. Fat, wet flakes. Finishing the Hanky climb, you are usually treated to the long, UHMAZING descent down Dowell's Draft. Today it was wet, getting buried by snow quickly, with temps that immediately dropped with the start of the storm. We were soaking and frozen in minutes. We stopped and put on all our rain layers plus extra gloves, hoping to get enough feeling in our fingers to feel the brake levers. Having planned to stop at the convenience store in W Augusta for food, we knew we didn't have far to go...we just had to suck it up and get there.

At the store, we stripped wet socks and gloves and started thawing out. We ate/drank a lot, called Dusty, sent some texts, studied the route, pondered our options. The snow wasn't going to let up for a few hours. We were 67miles in at that point. Douthat was at mile 130. The route climbed from Braley's up to Confederate Breastworks then eventually to Southern Traverse and Little Mare. The majority of it would be above 3000' with several inches of snow on an exposed ridgeline overnight.

I had no desire to sleep on the ridgeline overnight. It was too cold/wet, but we weren't going to be able to ride through the night as it stood. We both felt way too fresh at this point to throw in the towel, so we started studying the Gravel route. It was 65mi to Douthat from there but stayed a bit lower and would be mostly rideable throughout. Luckily there was good cell service there, or we would have been navigating with paper maps for the rest of the night. I had the Trail route on my Garmin but not the Gravel. I was able to upload the gpx to Gaia on my phone, and we made it work. It required more map check stops, but those were welcomed after all those frigid descents! We geared back up to head out, armed with fresh hand and foot warmers, as well as the best 10$ farm gloves money can buy from the store. My hands were happy happy for the rest of the night. This ended up being a 90min stop, and it took us another 9hrs to get to Douthat.

Pavement up to Breastworks, then a left onto gravel. It was a mostly uneventful evening although it was filled with wildlife. The most memorable section was the powerline road-that-was-not-a-road. After searching for some time and finding nothing, we eventually bikewhacked straight down the mountain in the snow, following the tracks of previous riders. Both of us took a few spills sliding down the hillside. Once the sun went down, we had to keep the pace a bit spirited to stay warm, motoring up the climbs and descending just fast enough to not freeze. I lost feeling in my feet around 7 or 8 pm and didn't get it back til we stopped. Chris was in a similar boat. We both have some nerve damage to fingertips and toes now.

Rolling into Douthat at 2am, the RV was a welcome sight. Dusty woke up and made us some hot ramen, and we basked in the warmth. We had plenty of time to ponder our next move on the gravel ride, and we had decided we were finished at Douthat. Our cutoff was 60hours based on work/support constraints, and there was no way we were getting close to that. As of 7am on Tues, Barry is still out there conquering this course, 170mi in. That's 72hrs since the race started, with 100mi to go! The upside to only doing half is I won't be shattered for rest of the month from this one. I've got a race every wknd in April. These courses are incredible. However, they aren't made to be "raced." The Trail route should be savored over 6 days or so with good friends and good campfires in warmer weather. Hats off to Rob Issem and Virginia Endurance Series for creating a route to hit all of these VA singletrack gems.

C • Sounds like a smart decisio... 3

http://trackleaders.com/rockstar18

Link to Rockstar's tracking map! Race starts at 0700 Sat.

Stretching the legs

One final spin on Peri after the bike fit. Bill once again worked a miracle. Felt good. Snagged a couple more crowns.

CVR Zone E race WIN. Prob the most fun Zwift race I’ve done to date. The gal who just won $7800 this wknd racing Zwift was here. BucholZ broke away with a mile to go and I gave chase. Came within a couple sec of her then sat there and surged past w/500’ to go.

Spinout

Dog Dirt Church.