Training for the Trace

Hey, it’s been a long time. On Thursday we will resume our pedaling vacations by cycling the Natchez Trace, a 440 mile National Park byway from Natchez, Mississippi crossing Northwest Alabama and ending by Nashville, Tennessee.

While my legs are in pretty decent shape for a spring trip, my ego is severely dented. As I have aged, my mind keeps telling me that I am 25, while my body rudely reminds me otherwise. Last year, I did a two mile treadmill run where I kept increasing my speed to the point where I thought “you’re just killing it” during the last quarter mile. I later realized that I ran a full marathon at a faster average pace 30 years ago.

So my antennae should have been up at a December holiday party when some Westport Y friends encouraged us to participate in their winter Sunday virtual cycling races. Perhaps I should have considered the messengers — Steph who last year ran a marathon on a Saturday in Arkansas, and then drove six hours so she could run another the next day in Oklahoma in her 50 state marathon quest. Or her husband Ray who almost sucked me into his cycling vortex as he blew past me last year on a local road.

For ten Sunday mornings this winter, I raced against 40-70 really good cyclists for 25 or so lung-busting and quad-screeching miles at an all-out pace. Monster cyclist and mother of two Nancy, who did well in these races, described the pain as “worse than childbirth”. This was a real professional set-up using the Zwift virtual cycling program and “smart” indoor cycling trainers simulating outdoor conditions (see 3/9/25 post). All of us were connected on Zoom and there was an actual play-by-play race announcer. Here I am (red and black jersey on the right) tied for 7th place at mile 5 of the Champ d’Elysee Paris race:

But in almost every race, I ran out of gas at some point and had one of these moments:

Of course, there was always the race director’s post-race report to cheer me up:

And the post-race text banter:

So I am emotionally bruised, but my legs feel good for our trip. In contrast, Mary is training confident, but the upcoming trip may be emotionally challenging for her. Why? Well, Mary’s family has a rich military tradition. Unfortunately, a good portion was on the wrong side of history. While my late and wonderful mother-in-law’s family was in America before the Revolutionary War, my daughters Allie and Sarah are not Daughters of the American Revolution-eligible. That’s because the Goldthwaite family were loyalists and fled to Canada. But Allie and Sarah are Daughters of the Confederacy-eligible.

Mary’s great, great grandfather George Goldthwaite was originally in the same West Point class as Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis. He was later the Chief Judge of the Alabama Supreme Court and a Confederate General in the War of Northern Aggression (and a post-war United States Senator):

His son Robert Goldthwaite’s Alabama cavalry company fought in battles along the Natchez Trace — Vicksburg, Brices Cross Road, the Battle of Tupelo and the Battle of Franklin (outside of Nashville) where he was wounded. Passing away 38 years after the end of the war, his service to the Confederacy was still remembered:

So we will be cycling in the footsteps, or horseshoes, of Mary’s great grandfather’s cavalry company. Northern blog readers will be pleased to know that the family’s military history took a different turn during WWI as Mary’s grandfather was one of the first pilots in the then U.S. Army Air Corps, trained in Canada by the British. Here he is with his life-long friend Jim Forrestal (Secretary of the Navy during WWII) two to his right:

But back to cycling. The Natchez Trace is a road rich in history. My reading list was distributed and I am going to try and strike a good balance between cycling and history in my upcoming posts. I’m sure that my cycling friends enjoyed my book recommendations, just as my John Steinbeck reading list was a smashing success on a recent family vacation to Monterey, California:

I hope that y’all stay with me. Today’s musical coda features one of Mississippi’s most famous musicians, accompanied by a band that you will see (if you stay tuned to this blog) has a connection to this trip:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=RDyRbHRaG7yao&v=yRbHRaG7yao