2013 05 20 Assault on Mt. Mitchell Ride Report

I put most of this ride report together in a draft shortly after the May 20, 2013 Assault on Mt. Mitchell (AOMM) ride. AOMM is a legendary cycling even in the Southeast US featuring a massive 5000+' climb over the final 25 miles or so (Mount Mitchell). The event page is currently at http://freewheelers.info/assaults/ I signed up for AOMM pretty late, as the opportunity pretty much fell in my lap when we scheduled a couple of weekdays off work in Anderson SC to see visiting family. I had certainly looked at the ride on paper before and knew it was pretty legendary, but the Monday start kept it out of touch before. While I can't say I trained for this event in particular, I have been pretty good about keeping up with my cycling training through the winter, and I certainly include a lot of climbing in that routine. I had just tackled a Cat2 climb on Burnt Mountain a week ago, though that pales in comparison to the CatHC ~25 mile behemoth that is Mt. Mitchell. My Burnt Mountain climb was the beginning of 7 days in a row of riding, with the climb and the Thursday night Pizza Ride bookending a chunk of computrainer work via Trainerroad's "8 Days of California" challenge. It worked out pretty well that we were flying to NJ to visit family on the weekend as I got 3 days of taper before the big event. I managed to get a good meal Sunday night, albeit without my customary wine thanks to the SC blue laws. Monday morning I started out around 4am and rolled from Mom's in Anderson at 4:45. I had a bonkbreaker bar for breakfast and washed it down with a bottle of EFS for electrolyte seeding. I stumbled into the bonkbreaker bar breakfast last September when I totally forgot/missed breakfast until the start line in 6gaps, so I feel pretty good about it now. If I had more time/less travel to do I might have had a bagel or cereal, but I didn't worry about falling apart with just the bar. I carried two water bottles, and 7 items of nutrition: 4 bonkbars (-1 for breakfast) and 3 gels. I like to eat every 45 minutes during these endurance efforts and try to alternate between solid (bonkbar) and gel. I usually pick what's next based on how my stomach feels, but today I was pretty even keeled and just alternated rigidly. I set my Garmin to alarm every 45 minutes as an eating reminder, but since I got my new 810 I haven't had much luck with that. The alert sounding profile changes when you use the bluetooth/phone live tracker option, so while it would otherwise beep every 45 minutes, during the bluetooth operation it seems to only pop up a little message if you are lucky enough to be staring at the screen at the right time (at which point you will likely be upset to have your view blocked by said message). In any event, I did some quick math and figured for the whole lead-out I would be doing about 15 miles each 45 minutes, so I ate around mile 15, 30, 45, 60, and 75. I had a final banana-half around mile 81, and that rounded me out. I think that was adequate. I also refilled one water bottle at mile 81 and that was adequate as well. If I had one tweak to make it would have been to bring along the NUUN tablets I had in my backpack (oops) and add one to bottle number two or three. I needed something for cramping by the end. I might try out some salt tabs some time soon. The good news is that I usually don't have issues until deep in a very strenuous ride; the bad news is that it means I don't have much oppoty for 'testing'. I arrived at the event around 5:45 and had no trouble parking pretty close to the entrance and no trouble finding packet pickup, which was only about 100 yards from my car. All of that was oddly easy. Bathrooms were also readily accessible and the trucks taking dry-clothes to the top of the climb were also right there and clearly labeled. All of that went great. By about 6:10 I had nothing better to do, so I rode up to the line and slipped in about 50' back - close enough to keep an eye on the front without quite being an ass. Lo and behold, the only person I remotely knew on the ride ended up right in front of me. It was great to see Jim Simes - an avid rider I know from the Anderson SVR ride, so we got a chance for a quick catch-up before go. The ride rolled out perfectly on time and we were on our way. The pace on the initial 80 miles wasn't too intense. I tried to sit in a bit and that cause me a few issues. First, the dreaded accordion effect. I was on the brakes a lot more than I would have liked, and even had a pretty legit run-in with a guy trying to pass on the right at one point (smashed into each other and rubbed wheels a bit during a climb but no drama and I was satisfied with his quick apology and got on with life). I did have an interesting conundrum with piss-stop decision making. At mile 20 approached I definitely had to work in a bathroom break. About that time I saw an increasing number of guys taking care of business along the side of the road. Public-urination law aside, they were certainly being strategic - with several pissers getting back on the bike around the same time they could form up a large-enough group to work together to catch back on the pack. Once I figured this out I was interested in playing ball, but every spot I saw wasn't quite ideal. A short time later we passed a legit rest-stop and I pulled over and used a 'proper' portapotty. This was a pretty high-risk move since failure to catch back into the group this early would ruin the entire day ("ruin" like.. being abandoned at sea) but I gave it a shot. As I emerged from the chamber I saw a seemingly-fit cyclist take off from the area. I hunted him down and jumped on his wheel, and he pulled me within eyesight of the back of the peleton. I then called out to him "Happy to take a pull" and took over to carry us the west of the way home. I enjoy the camaraderie of unspoken cycling collaboration, and I wish he had just rolled off and expected me to pull through when he was ready, but after a long time I figured I'd just speak up. He was appreciative and catching on was like a little win. Reviewing my data I can see I stopped for just about 1 minute, had a nice ~450 watt effort to 172bpm for about a minute to catch him, then chilled out and rode his coat tails for about 3 mins down to 140bpm, and then put in 2-4 minutes of uphill work to close it off. I love data. After that piece of drama I was able to sit in pretty comfortably. There were definitely some legitimate hills along the way, which is impossible to notice on an elevation chart with that giant Mt. Mitchell on the tail. The group did not go nuts on those hills and while they were demanding, it was tenable to back off and roll into the peleton as they started and then settle into a steady cadence in the group without too much much drama. There was a great deal of littering going on among the peleton. It's usually my observation that the cyclist demographic has some serious overlap with the suburu-driving green party demographic, so this was pretty surprising. Sure, there will be some litterers among the crowd, but I figured they would know they were in the minority and at least try to hide it. Rather, it seemed some riders flaunted their littering and assumed it was the cool thing to do. In addition to spitting out the tops of gel packs, which I suspect some closet litterers do already, there was also some over chucking of water bottles into the woods. Pretty ridiculous. It really peaked when one hero stopped at a bridge post to grab a little provision pack he had clevery snuck away before the ride. He didn't plan it out too well and had everything in a large plastic bag, which he attempted to sort out while riding. It wasn't long until he dropped ALL his nutrition and a full water bottle right into the middle of the road. I can forgive goofiness or stupidity all day - and expect to benefit from said forgiveness myself quite frequently, but this cat didn't even flinch when it came to considering going back for everything. He basically depth-charged the peleton and didn't even apologize. I'm sure he was cursing under his breath but didn't seem too concerned about leaving a campsite in the middle of the road. The peleton was thin enough at that point to make it feasible to right the ship (which is also why it wasn't a full-on imbroglio). There was also a lot of on-bike pissing going on, which wasn't the end of the world to me, but seemed a little hard core for people that weren't 2 minutes off the front. There were still junior enough riders in the peleton that I'm sure some people did not recognize what was going on and the need to GET LEFT to steer clear of the... slipstream. Since 6 Gaps last September I've been using the lap counter on my garmin to mark some notable climbs and count the mile to the top, view my average data for the climb etc. I planned to do the same thing on this ride and had it in mind to hit the button at mile 81.1 and expect a 21.1 mile climb from that moment onward. I nailed that, and knew the climb was about to begin. In reality the climb starts around mile 83.2. In any event, I saw a last rest stop right around mile 82, and was completely willing to stop knowing that my use of the peleton was over and I would not miss them on the 10mph slog that was soon to follow. I pulled off, scarfed down a banana half, refilled one bottle, and hit the john. It was nice not being in a hurry, and I was on my way in about 2 and a half minutes. I figured from that point on I should only overtake people since the entire peleton I arrived with was up road and anyone coming in behind me would likely be pretty shattered. That proved to be accurate. I got back on the road and did a little more flat/descending before hitting the proper climb at mile 83.2 or so. At that point I settled into my gameplan, knowing I had a long slog ahead. While I didn't have a good "2 hour effort" to benchmark off, I used my general past performances and some eyeballing of previous riders' power data to decide the max I could maintain was about 250 watts. At first this took a lot of conscious effort. It is hard to hit a climb without popping into 300-350w very 'easily' with the expectation that you will be finished in a few minutes. Knowing I had 20 miles of climbing left, I developed a mantra that came into my head every time I felt/saw the heartrate creeping up. "Less force. Less cadence. Less power. Less heartrate. Less speed." Later I would add "More survival" to the tail of that. Developing the variables and determining the order was a nice mental distraction. Trying to target 220-240 watts put me in a nice sustainable spot, cruising around 10-11mph with a decent cadence of around 65-70 rpm. Much slower than I am used too, but sustainable. This was in my 39-28 lowest gear. I had the following fields visible on my "climbing view": Lap distance, lap time, heartrate, power, lap power, and lap speed. I did NOT have current speed. I was pretty happy with this approach since seeing 6mph can be debilitating and counterproductive. Focusing on power meant that I likely was doing 4-5mph at some points and just fine about it, and then sped up when the particularly steep bump passed, instead of trying to muscle through the switchbacks to keep up 10mph. I'm going to keep using this approach. Keeping the power this low also meant I didn't feel like I was going to explode or any pressing need to get off the bike. Well.. at least for most of the climb. I reeled in a steady stream of riders during my entire ascent. This ride presents a great opportunity for someone to study ride psychology since you have riders so strung apart on such a long climb. After passing a good number of riders early in the climb, I was alone for most of the rest. A deep fog set into the middle section of the climb, so I would see nobody until a rider appeared out of the mist. In any event, it was interesting how I would instinctively react when I saw a rider up ahead. I found I immediately upped my effort, as if I was suddenly in a race with that rider. I had to remind myself that I would certainly catch and pass that rider with my existing effort given I already caught them in sight, and had to relax a bit. There are two points during the climb where this is a little relief and some short downhill. One passes through a tunnel. On one descent I caught a rider in the mist, and he was clearly not too excited about the quick rampup to 35mph into zero visibility on a mountain. I was a little more willing to push the envelope, and he seemed a bit upset about the overtake under the conditions. Alas. Around mile 20 of the climb I came to a sign for the Mt. Mitchell Park (right turn). I'm notoriously stupid about following courses, and I really wanted to pass this up since there was no sign indicating I should turn here, and I was riding alone. Sure.. it's the Assault on Mt Mitchell and the sign is for the Mt Mitchell Park, but how do I know there isn't some special park off the side? In any event, I finally saw an unmanned table with water cups on it that required a right turn to reach, so I made the turn. I'm glad I did. They could use a sign there. Or a volunteer. Around this point the cramping really set in. I had full below the waist cramping. Both quads, hams, calves... terrible scene especially on any standing. Soon after I reached the last rest stop opportunity, which I remember mocking in the preview reading ("who would stop 2 miles from the end?"). I stopped, grabbed some water and ate a banana. I just needed something.. anything. About 4-5 riders passed me during this stop, and I only caught 1 or 2 of them after. That is a bit disheartening. I trudged on. Finally I reached the finish. The finish was still a bit uphill, and as you pass through the line volunteers lay hands on your bike, congratulate you, and try to take your bike (to truck back down). I was NOT ready to get off the bike.. I would have fallen into the fetal position cramping. I needed some easy spinning before I could stand/walk. I explained this and they let me ride on into the parking lot where I did a few easy laps. Once I checked my bike in I found my checked bag with the sixer of Westbrook IPA on ICE I had packed and had a beer. Very nice. I then got on the next available shuttle pretty quickly. This took us to Marion, where I was able to sit down and have a good meal. I then got another shuttle back to Spartanburg, where my bike was ready and waiting and a very short walk to my car. I ended up with a total time of 5:54:31. It was awesome to break 6 hours. it was good for 38th/719 riders and 6/80 in my age group. Top 10% in general, which is always a good mark.