Knoxville 2011 - 5th Double of the Year

This past weekend was Knoxville Double.  This is the target of my fifth, and hardest, double of the year.  I was targeting this since the beginning of the year.  This is not to say the other four (Camino Real, Solvang, Davis, and Grand Tour) were easy, but Knoxville was definitely my focus.  Unlike the other four, Knoxville was far apart on the calendar from any other double.  The others were separated by one month, but Grand Tour and Knoxville were separated by 3 months.  I found this difficult to focus on training, so even though I was pumped up for this at the beginning of the year, I found it tough to maintain a good schedule.

I took some days off from work, just because I didn't want to handle the stress of work, and stress of performing well on this ride, at the same time.  I have no idea if this is an effective strategy, but I had the time available, so why not take vacation.

Weather condition leading up to the day was ominous ... Friday, it was in triple digits, and my fear was it would be hot like it was last year.  In fact, as late as 7 pm, it was still 90 F.  With this in mind, I didn't even bring a vest or jacket, and just carried arm warmers ... more on that a little later.

Dan (aka Lanceoldstrong) and I decided to start off at 4 am.  Most of my double friends from LA were going to start at 4:30 am (well, they actually started at 4:45 am).  Believe it or not, we weren't the first ones ... I heard another friend of ours, John, start at 3 am (but he was not in the best riding shape, just getting back into it again).

Remember how I said it was hot on Friday?  Well, not even 1 mile on the road, we felt a few sprinkles.  Wow, wouldn't that be amazing if this was a rainy double ... but it didn't last long.  At least we got a little wet to cool us off to start.

We started off with a good pace (not blistering, but not turtle-ish).  We made some good time, passed a number of riders.  All was good, until we got near St. George, and the pace picked up.  Eventually, it got to the point where I could not keep up with Dan, and when we climbed St. George, I was well behind him.  We didn't catch up with each other until rest stop 1.

As we were approaching the first rest stop, I couldn't help but notice the clouds with the illuminating sky, and sunrise was peeping through the clouds over the mountain peaks.  You just had to be there to realize what I'm talking about, but maybe the above picture may help.

At the pace Dan was going, I thought it best he go on.  I saw my friend Rick at Rest Stop 1, but he was not ready to roll yet, so I rolled on.  

Usually, the next climb would be Howell Mountain, but there was some road damage, so they had to re-route us to Deer Park Road.  Not sure which is worse, but both were fairly long, 4 mile, 1300 foot climb.  Rick and his friend Dave, caught up to me on the descent of Howell.  Good, I have company now ... at least for a little while.

I proceeded to ride with Rick and Dave onto the 2nd Rest Stop.  Quackcyclists had a great layout here at this rest stop, as usual.  One problem ... this may make you stay at the rest stop longer than you want to.  

Ok, after a longer than usual stop, we are off on the road again.  Riding with Rick and Dave is great, but it kind of elevated my pace, and again, I'm not sure how much longer I could maintain at that pace.  Then suddenly, I notice my cadence stopped recording, and my speed was fluctuating wildly.  I had to stop a couple of times to futz with sensor adjustment ... I still couldn't get cadence to work, so I just continued with no cadence.  Somehow, miraculously, the speed and distance continued recording, but who knows how accurate it will be.  Stopping allowed Rick and Dave to go beyond reach, and when I continued, I decided to just go at my own, slower pace.

This began the first hard part of the ride.  The climb up to lunch is so long, they put in a water stop, 15 miles before the lunch stop.  The climb up Knoxville is long and gradual, until about 15 miles later, then it kicks up to 10-15%.  Just as luck would have it, the sun intensity is highest right when Knoxville kicks it up the steepest.  I was eyeing my Garmin, and it would register between 89 to 95 F ... if there is a silver lining, at least it's not 100 F.  I had to stop a few times (in shades whenever I could find them), just to rest, and build up enough energy to continue.  

Finally, I get to the tunnel, where a shade awaits.  Whew, I made it this far ... just have to muster up enough to get to the water stop.

There are actually two steeps sections to get over before hitting the water stop.  Rick and Dave are once again there, lounging in chairs, just trying to absorb the comfort of the shade.  As I mentioned before, it is not as hot as last year, but still hot ... still drains you.

There's 15 more miles to lunch, and it is a series of up and down hills ... very annoying up and down hills.  What's more annoying are the markings on the road "last hill before lunch ... honest" ... and there were clearly 10 or 20 more uphill ramps after that hill.  Geez.

Get to lunch, and reunite with Rick and Dave.  My friend Steve is there too.  Then, I found out Ken and Teresa collided in the morning, just 10 miles on the route.  It was uncertain whether or not they would continue or not.  Later on, I found they completed the ride, but finished at 12:30 am ... wow, they are tough.

I took a long break here at lunch (about 45 minutes), just to recover, because I know what's coming up after lunch ... Loch Lomond.  The dilemma here is if I eat too much, it may not be good for a steep climb, but need the body to recover.  

Rick went on ahead, and I left a little later.  I thought Dave went on with Rick, but apparently, he took a 2 hour lunch break, getting a massage ... wow, that's a long lunch for a double century.

Anyhow, onwards to Loch Lomond.  Heat intensity is still high as ever, but I am more than ever conscious about hydrating.  As I'm climbing, I start hearing some unnerving sounds coming from what sound like my bottom bracket.  It's almost as if my bike is falling apart!  Despite that, I decided to just continue climbing.

Unlike last year, I made it to the top without stopping ... I chalk that up to learning from last year, and also a little cooler.  Onwards to Cobb Mountain then a long downhill.  On the descent, I meet up with another LA friend Terri (who just got inducted to the Triple Crown Hall of Fame ... woohoo, congrats, Terri).  We rode together the rest of the double back to the finish.

The hard part was done, and the ride flattens out.  Just like last year, fatigue started to settle in with me between the 135 mile mark and the 160 mile mark, where rest stop 4 lies.  It's just one of those rest stops where you wish it would be here already ... where is it?

Ok, 40 more miles, and almost all of it on Hwy 128. What's sketchy about that part of the route is, the sun went down by that point, and the route is pitch black at this point.  It is pretty heavily traveled ... and yes, we did get our own share of drunk pick-up trucks yelling obscenities at us ... but luckily, no issues arose from that.  Why do they always have to do that?

While climbing Cardiac, I seemed to be more concerned about the creaking of my bike, rather than the long slog up Cardiac Hill.  Maybe that's a good thing, as we finished the climb before I realized it.  My reaction was, "Is that it?"

By the time we got to the last rest stop, my Garmin ran out of battery power.  But luckily, the bulk of the climbing had been done.  Got back to the finish by 11 pm.  I actually felt pretty good, and could probably go for another 20, but glad this is the finish.  Woohoo ... my 5th double is done.  The gold triple crown jersey is virtually mine!