2nd Training Session ... 1st Day of Hill Training

After my Silver Comet partner dumped me for this morning's ride, I activated Plan B: the Blood Mountain ride. I arrived just South of the loop at 07:30 and found I wasn't the only masochist with a bike and a penchant for hills.

Flip-flops off, shoes on, and barrelling down the hill I went. A few minutes more of flying downhill and I started to consider how much it was going to suck getting back to the car. I was wrong.

I chose a counter-clockwise course that featured long segments of uphill followed by slightly less downhill which all accumulated (I eventually learned) into the final descent (as depicted by the long, wiggly line across the bottom of this map). Perhaps second only to glacading down the Coleman, this descent was ... consuming: a multitude of sharp, banked turns, trees flying by, deafening wind. Next time I'll have my helmet cam mounted to the bike. That's going to be awesome.

Thirty-six miles of huffing up hills and soaring back down finally concluded as I coasted to a stop back at my car, pulled a Mr. Rogers with my flip-flops, downed some water and headed back towards civilization.

Based on the group riders who passed me, I still have a lot of work to do. Muscles will acclimate, but what troubles me more is the thought of a month of back-to-back "centuries" without an incredibly sore butt. Hopefully it'll acclimate as well. My twenty minute scenic lunch break (Twix, 3 Musketeers, water) at Lake Winfield Scott helped a lot, so I'm not fretting just yet.

MapMyRide and my GPS concur that this ride features ~3,100 feet of ascent. And it is also roughly a third of the distance I will eventually want to cover daily (although perhaps most days will feature less climbing). So, if I can eventually lap this three times in a day (even if it takes all day) and still be useful the following day, I'll consider my training adequate. Five months to go.