Cherohala Challenged

Yesterday, I road the Cherohalla Challenge. Those not familiar the CC is a ~115 mile road event that tackles some of the most fun and challenging roads East Tennessee and Western North Carolina have to offer. I had a moderate day. I got to feeling really bad from mile sixty to about mile seventy then recovered and felt strong again riding right past the sag stop that most quitters dropout at. Then right at the top of a nearly 30 mile climb I started feeling some twinging in my legs like the beginnings of cramps. I limped over the top coasted the major descent and felt super strong again hammering the crap out of the last ten miles of rollers to the finish. I’m pretty sure I had some nutritional problems mid ride that caused my weirdness, I downed a quarter bottle of perpetuam and threw down a pb&j and a banana at a sag stop just before I fell apart. I may have had too much or a bad combo of food all at once. I have my ride nutrition down when I’m self supported in the woods but pulling up to a table of goodies in the middle of a ride is too much for me.

Over the last couple of months I have been slowly building up a new commuter/utility/fun bike. I finally got the last bits together this week. It’s built from a combo of parts I had lying around, some ebay bargains, and a few new bits. It really turned out pretty swank.


Its super comfortable, rides smooth and fits my around town needs to a T. It still needs a rear rack and more appropriate pavement tires. One disadvantage of 29ers is their wheelbase is too long to fit on public transportation bike racks thus the CX bike, it fits fine.


Today was my first father’s day, I spent nearly the whole day with Noah playing and hanging. We went to the neighborhood pool and Noah got his first tast of swimming. He floated on his back, kicked his legs and giggled away. I’m not sure wich of us had more fun.



Ride log:

Tuesday the 12th – brief fixy ride :30
Wednesday the 13th – Weenie Ride, road with Steve, we kept a mellow pace but I cleaned some climbs that usually give me trouble. 2:00
Thursday the 14th – final construction of the new commuter bike, did a neighborhood test ride and final adjustment/tuning about midnight. :30
Friday the 15th – First commute to work on the new bike. 1:30
Saturday the 16th – Cherohalla Challenge 116.16 miles, 6:58 ride time, 7:23 total time, 16.8mph average, 48.8mph peak, ~15,000ft vert.(Check Steve’s much faster results here )
Sunday the 17th – Easy greenway leg stretcher ride 1:30