humbled.
this past weekend i joined fellow vixens lisa & star (both headed to the Leadville 100) and colleen & her husband franklin for a big ride that i've been wanting to do for awhile: the cohutta death march.
it pretty much lived up to everything i've heard: painful. brutal. epic. the death march is a ride that circumnavigates the cohutta wilderness management area in north georgia. the ride is on forest service roads, with tons of elevation. since it was a loop, the gain/loss equals out, but it certainly did feel like we went uphill a heck of a lot more! about 2hrs into the ride we ran across jeramie, who was out doing a diff loop. (i just talked with him and he said he saw a nice big bear hanging out on the road where we had just come from. we didn't get to see any wildlife though.)
the pace was solid and the leadville gals put a hurtin on me. they've been training so much; their fitness level right now is quite impressive! i'm definitely not there, but managed to hang on, although i was looking at spandex-clad butts most of the day. we really lucked out with the weather. the morning started off around a cool 62 and didn't get much above 80. the clouds increased as the day went on, but the rain stayed away from us. about halfway through, we used franklin's filter to refill our camelbaks from a creek (at least this one could be classified as running water, unlike the puddle i used at the UOG earlier this summer). we kept well fueled and hydrated, but my legs still burned constantly. my pack was also hitting my lower side back funny, which was quite annoying. with 2 hrs left, we came across some houses with people outside that kindly let us use a well to refill our paks once again. i really wonder what they think when they see us ride up... i'm sure we looked/smelled grande...
not much more time to go and things have been pretty uneventful. no crashes, no bears, no bad weather, no freaky motorcycle guys... then on a nice descent (and i have to say, i'm getting much better at them, with the new bike & hydraulic brakes...), where i had a decent amount of speed, i hit a wasp of sorts. and of course it stings the crap out of me - the inside of my lower lip to be exact. yeah, NOT fun. i've only been stung by yellow jackets a few times, and this was much bigger and too black to be one of those. not knowing if i was allergic to this thing, i hightailed it down. when i met up with everyong at the bottom, i had tears running down my face, was trying desperately not to hyperventilate, and my lip was throbbing so much i couldn't talk (like when you leave the dentist with half your face numb). i took a benadryl to help with the swelling... it did the trick. but it also sucked every last bit of energy i had. there was about 45min of riding left and it was sooo hard. my eyelids were heavy, legs not wanting to move like before. it was like the sleepmonsters coming after 20hrs of adventure racing. not fun!!
we made it back to our cars finally and hit a cracker barrel for dinner, consuming massive amounts of food. (i had all but passed out in the back of the car before, then had to fight off a food coma!)
i'm still pretty sore and tonight's tuesday night ride was not an easy one. but, it was a great workout, and as i said, very humbling.
a few stats:
80 miles
approx 8000' of elevation gain
8hrs 16min ride time
(total time about 1 hour more)
it pretty much lived up to everything i've heard: painful. brutal. epic. the death march is a ride that circumnavigates the cohutta wilderness management area in north georgia. the ride is on forest service roads, with tons of elevation. since it was a loop, the gain/loss equals out, but it certainly did feel like we went uphill a heck of a lot more! about 2hrs into the ride we ran across jeramie, who was out doing a diff loop. (i just talked with him and he said he saw a nice big bear hanging out on the road where we had just come from. we didn't get to see any wildlife though.)
the pace was solid and the leadville gals put a hurtin on me. they've been training so much; their fitness level right now is quite impressive! i'm definitely not there, but managed to hang on, although i was looking at spandex-clad butts most of the day. we really lucked out with the weather. the morning started off around a cool 62 and didn't get much above 80. the clouds increased as the day went on, but the rain stayed away from us. about halfway through, we used franklin's filter to refill our camelbaks from a creek (at least this one could be classified as running water, unlike the puddle i used at the UOG earlier this summer). we kept well fueled and hydrated, but my legs still burned constantly. my pack was also hitting my lower side back funny, which was quite annoying. with 2 hrs left, we came across some houses with people outside that kindly let us use a well to refill our paks once again. i really wonder what they think when they see us ride up... i'm sure we looked/smelled grande...
not much more time to go and things have been pretty uneventful. no crashes, no bears, no bad weather, no freaky motorcycle guys... then on a nice descent (and i have to say, i'm getting much better at them, with the new bike & hydraulic brakes...), where i had a decent amount of speed, i hit a wasp of sorts. and of course it stings the crap out of me - the inside of my lower lip to be exact. yeah, NOT fun. i've only been stung by yellow jackets a few times, and this was much bigger and too black to be one of those. not knowing if i was allergic to this thing, i hightailed it down. when i met up with everyong at the bottom, i had tears running down my face, was trying desperately not to hyperventilate, and my lip was throbbing so much i couldn't talk (like when you leave the dentist with half your face numb). i took a benadryl to help with the swelling... it did the trick. but it also sucked every last bit of energy i had. there was about 45min of riding left and it was sooo hard. my eyelids were heavy, legs not wanting to move like before. it was like the sleepmonsters coming after 20hrs of adventure racing. not fun!!
we made it back to our cars finally and hit a cracker barrel for dinner, consuming massive amounts of food. (i had all but passed out in the back of the car before, then had to fight off a food coma!)
i'm still pretty sore and tonight's tuesday night ride was not an easy one. but, it was a great workout, and as i said, very humbling.
a few stats:
80 miles
approx 8000' of elevation gain
8hrs 16min ride time
(total time about 1 hour more)
Labels: ga, mtn biking, training
posted by cathi at 8:53 PM
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