jppe

A slug is what I felt like today-I never could get my HR up and just didn’t have any power in my legs. I can blame it on either the BBQ dinner my brother fed me last night, all the riding I did this week or just being 55+!!

I did a 100 mile organized ride out of Hanging Rock State Park north of Winston-Salem, NC. We started and finished in the Park. There were so few doing the 100 mile ride there weren’t many folks I could group with. I also made the mistake of doing some long pulls with some folks only to find they did the 60 mile route. So basically my 100 miler was done solo-but I would have been miserable trying to keep up with anyone other than an expectant Mom in her 8th month today anyway……….

Total climbing for the day was around 8000 ft on the Garmin and Motion Based showed over 9000 ft. There were a number of climbs of 1-2 mile with 5-8% grades and at least 12 hills with grades of 15%+. There was one hill that was about 1 mile long and was the steepest sucker I’ve ever seen. It showed 24% on the Garmin as I was riding and 22% when I downloaded it. It was one scary sight coming up to the bottom of that thing. I did most of it out of the saddle which is very unusual for me.
The weather was super. It started raining as I was putting my bike back in the van so the wet stuff held off for us. There was a little more wind than I’d like but not as bad as some of the winds we’ve had this year.

Here are the two elevation profiles from Wednesday and today. Within the last week I’ve climbed about 15,000+ feet. My time today was just less than 6 hr 30 mins and thankfully not even the first twinge in my legs. I suspect that was because I never pedaled hard enough to make them hurt!!!

My only complaint was all the rough chip and seal roads on the tough climbs-that type of road surface just made the climbs feel even steeper.

I have no idea what to expect for 3 State 3 Mountain out of Chattanooga in a couple weeks...... but if can avoid the BBQ and pie over the next couple weeks maybe I’ll at least have a chance to finish.

Here is the elevation profile from today. The scale doesn't do it justice because of the descent and climb at the start and finish. But just look at all the ups and downs over this route. I don't think I've done a route that had as many individual hills......and most seemed really steep at that.



I also did this ride on Wednesday. I was able to get in about 15,000 ft of climbing over the past week (a third 62 miler is not shown).

cranky old dude

Dude! If you call that being a slug...then I'm the rock you crawl out
from under, a dead rock at that. To me you've had an impressive week with some impressive rides!

Happy Trails

lesdunham

This makes me think I have peaked. Cycling seasons over.

Jet Travis

If you want someone to compare yourself with: I tilled the garden and felt so proud of my accomplishment that I decided to take a nap.

Hermes

You are a slug. When are you going to do something challenging? But as usual... I am patiently waiting for the 40K TT report.

ad6mj

You're a slug. I guess that would make me a dead slug.

Kurt Erlenbach

Take three days off and call me in the morning.

BluesDawg

Yeah, right. You do a century as hilly as the hilliest I've ever done in a time equal to the fastest century I've ever done and I'm supposed to call you a slug. Maybe some mutant slug with super powers.

Congratulations on a great week of riding.