Choices, choices. Do I do this on the 25th?:

http://www.blueridgeextreme.com/

or, do I do the unpaid BBC club ride Civil War Century in the reverse direstion:

8:30am
START: TCP - Thurmont Community Park
Phil M's century run backwards and extended to run through the Gettysburg and Antietam battlefields. Easy ride out to Gettysburg, then steep climbs and long, gentle descents. You can stop pedaling at mile 100 and coast the last 7 miles into Thurmont.

Whichever... it'll be a sufferfest!

Wow! I could do both, as the BRE is on Sunday the 26th! :eek:

I'll be doing the BRE - less than a week away! Actually I'll be doing the metric - should be a great ride regardless.

The Blue Ridge Extreme looks like a daunting ride. I'd love to try that, but 11,000 ft of climbing skears me!:eek: I wonder if this is doable if one takes it easy and rolls at an easy pace?

Get that triple crank gear and do switchbacks on the cat 1 climb and you'll make it up no problem. You'll also end up doing 200 total miles, but they'll be easy!

4000' of climbing wore me down in Lancaster; I bow down before those who attempt 11,000. :)

I have a 12-27 rear cog set, and I did 6,800 in Tahoe back in June but that was pretty docile compared to 11,000 feet. Lancaster was pretty tame, but tack on another 40 miles and 7,000 feet - it could get real ugly in the Virginia mountains. I'd still like to try something like this just to find out if I had the Kahoonas to do it.

I have a hotel reservation im about to cancel at the Afton Inn. I was looking forward to this getway and taking my wife. However, since this date will be 1 year ago that my Mother In Law passed away, my wife is loath to leave her dad by himself.

It'll be line painting for the Bay Country Century for me.


Patapso Ride update.

Saturday i needed about an hours worth of easy peddleing. Having picked up some moto parts from Speeds Cycle right near Levering, i went an paid my 2 bucks to get into the park. I had my bike and kit in the back of the Jeep. I was wanting to discover for myself the connection to Ilchester I had heard about a couple days earlier from some teamates. At first i went down the wrong side and ended up dead ended at the dam on the wrong side of the river. What i was told was that River Rd runs all the way thru now. What i wasnt told was that it wasnt really river road that went thru but the old rail trail on the Balto county side of the park. Once i figured that out, i decided to keep on going out on River Rd road past the abandoned mill. I had no idea where this road went but i kept on going. At the fork i turned right up Thistle. It turned out to be a nice gradual climb all the way out to Frederick Rd. I knew the steeper Hilltop Road to go to Frederick Road. But i didnt want to go that way, what with Ilchester repeats from 3 days earlier still fresh on my mind. I had always thought the fork to the left at the mill was a dead end road. Having just checked a map it turns out that River Rd goes all the way to Ellicott City. And to my surpise at the time It turned out that Thistle went out to Frederick road a little closer down the hill toward Ellicott City from Hilltop Rd. Once Thistle dumped me onto Frederick Rd, i continued up the hill, a little harder climb than Thistle Rd, up past the Candlelight Inn and on to a right turn on Rolling Rd. Now i knew where i was. I went to school at Catonsville Comm College and UMBC. From that turn it was pure bliss of a 5-6 mile downhill run all the way back to the park entrance by way of St. Denis and Relay. The roads to take are S. Rolling to a bear left on Selford Ave, just past the Park & Ride, down the hill to a right at the stop sign onto Francis Road. Francis road to a left on S. Rolling Rd. Follow all the signs to the Park until you hit the Park entrance and go back into the park.

Or...for a more challenging 13 mile loop

Go past the park entrance to Rt-1, turn right and go to a right turn on Levering. Take Levering to a l/t on Laywers Hill. Climb the hill and keep on Lawyers Hill Rd to a r/t on Montgomery. Take Montgomery to a r/t on Landing Rd. Follow Landing all the way to a r/t on Illchester and return to the point of entry back into the park.

Sounds like fun eh?

Do it backwards for a real leg breaker. :eek:

After the time trial on Ilchester Rd, Saturday, me and one of my team mates decided to do some riding in the area--he hadn't had enough after the time trial, I guess. We went up College and a few others just for the climbs, riding through Ellicott City on to Frederick Rd, then River Rd, back up Ilchester, and then back to "Our Lady of Perpetual Motion" ;).

I'll have to check out Lawyers Hill the next time I'm in the area.

lawyer's hill is nice. Steady grade. Compared to the changes that is Illchester. And that TT was fun, I proudly carried the lantern rouge for the Cat 5 men.

The way I do Ilchester is to kind of not do it at all. I start at Bonnie Branch then turn on Beechwood. Its the same elevation but 0.3 miles longer and the climb is a more constant grade (and no 18%).

Bill

Well... here's how things are shaping up for my weekend:

- Saturday: play around on Skyline Drive (warm-up for Sunday?)

- Sunday: Blue Ridge Extreme Century

I'm on my own. I haven't been able to get any of my race team mates to join me (yet--still working on it).

After my race tomorrow, I'll be carb loading for the weekend. I just hope the weather holds out.

BRE looks like a fun challenge. I am determined to do either it or the Cheat Mtn Challenge (or both) next year.

-D

-D,

They'd definitely be good goals to set and motivate you to get to a higher fitness level.

True dat.

And things are finally getting back on track. I am looking forward to a good fall/winter to get my base back up and hit next year running.

-D

Derath: I thought you had kids. If this is the case, never think life will get back on track:) This wknd I will be taking my youngest off to college. We will officially be empty-nesters. My life has been in a state of kaos for 24 years. I don't know how to live with "things back on track". But I am gonna try to find out:D
Noracer: BRE, been on my list as has the Cheat mnt challenge. CMC was run last wknd. Good luck but i don't think you will need it.
Calhoun: If you make it up Illchester you've done good.

What I find amazing on the hoco side of the park is the amount of development. Not that long ago there was the Cider Mill farms(kids use to PYO pumpkins), the exclusive private school and Rockburn Park on Landing road. Now!!! Same w/ College ave. Not as pretty as it was just a few years ago.

Reading FatguyRacer's patapsco report made me want to take another look around that area. I've been getting familiar with those roads since I moved here in April. I've seen river rd (all the way to old ellicott city) and thistle, but not hilltop (the three roads which branch off the north end of illchester, pretty much all leading to points at varying elevations on rt 144). I also wanted to check out college ave. So, on a whim, before I went home after work I decided to take a little drive and did the following route:

-north on illchester
-left on bonnie branch
-right on college ave (WTF ! ? :eek:)
-... east on 144
-right on hilltop down to river rd/illcehster

First off... College ave looks insane. Although, once up that first hill, maybe I'd be able to use momentum to crest some of the 'gentle rollers' that follow. I don't think I'm yet ready for that road, but I think I may add bonnie branch to my regular route.

around patapsco, loop back via bonnie branch.

Try it this way:


- Start in Ellicott City
- east on 144
- bare right on to river rd
- south on ilchester
- right on beeachwood
- cross over to college ave
- little jog right to st paul
- take st paul to 144 again
- bare right on river rd (again)
- left on hilltop
- left on to 144
- west on 144 back to Ellicott City

:eek:

True to a point. But the family aspect is managable. The big killer for me was the loss of my lead IT consultant back in February. I just last week hired a worthy replacement. That will get me back on track with work, which has already started to free up my time.

-D

I'll give it a go tonight. Im bailing on G-belt. I havnt ridden in 2 days, my bike and team kit is a mess from Sundays 4 hr slog and still a mess and the team kit is in the wash. So i've got a dirty bike and former team kit from 8 years ago to train in tonight.

Yea I spent an hour cleaning up my bike last night. GRIMY

-D

I finished the Lancaster ride just before it started to rain, so... not much to clean up for before the Greenbelt race this evening.

Speed demon...

I rode in the rain just long enough to trash my bike. I took all down the other night and cleaned it up like new again. You must have finished around noon time.

Started at about 8am, averaged a little over 19 MPH, and finished in about 3:15. Only one #1 break, so probably around 11:30am.

Yea after that first hill College ave isn't bad.

-D

Heheheh, it only looks bad because its 8.7% for 1/4 mile.

I just got home from a really instense but throughly enjoyable workout on all these hills EXCEPT Ilchester itself. Only went downhill on that one time. Managed to give notice to a minivan driver who thought he was gonna pass me. I ended up dropping him. He's probably still shaking his head. My new top speed this year is now 49.7 mph. I hit that thru the very last 18% pitch just before Bonnie Branch Rd.

Here's how the workout went.

I left my Jeep in Columbia near the office and rode the 6+ miles as a warmup to the bottom of Ilchester Rd. I took River Rd all the way to Rt-144 and made a l/t for E.C. Once over the bridge, i made the left at St. Paul and took the road straight up and left on College Ave. That climb from the Phoenix Inn to the top just before the construction site on the right is .94 mile @ an avg 5.3%. From there a bunch of rollers to the stop sign @ Bonnie Branch. I took Bonnie Branch left to Ilchester and left again to start another lap around.

BTW - Those stone houses on Bonnie Branch are awesome. And the family on the other side with the private bridge is living the dream. All nice places.

For lap 2, I went up Thistle to Rt-144 and turned left again back to E.C. and did repeat #2 of College Ave. Thistle is 1 mile @ 4%.

Heading down Bonnie Branch the 2nd time i ran into a group of 6-7 riders heading the other way and one of them was a guy I knew from way back. Good to see an old familar face. We chatted a couple minutes and I excused myself to finish my workout.

For lap 3, I went up Hilltop to Rt-144 and turned left again back to E.C. and did repeat #3 of College Ave.
The hard part of Hilltop (the very begining up to the power lines) is 1/2 mile @ 9.1 percent.

For what its worth the avg. for Ilchester @ 1.1 miles from bottom to top is 6.3%. Mercifully those 18% pitches are short.

My teammate Chris who lives in the area is spot on. Hilltop is the better climb. Its pretty steady the whole way.

Once after repeat #3 of College Ave i took the right onto Beechwood back to Ilchester and right back to Columbia. I had no desire to do Ilchester from the bottom at that point so i wimped out and took the easy way back to Montgomery Rd.

My total elevation gain for the 33 mile ride was 2441 ft.

Great workout. I think i make this a regular Wednesday thing.

Good job, John! :beer: x 6

I've been following all these comments with much interest -- I moved to Catonsville in May, but just haven't had much time to ride lately, especially to check out new routes, so when I have had spare days, I've been heading back to my old 'hood up in Sparks. Some great hills up there, very pretty countryside, and it's easy as pie to put together a nice 50-mile route (or even more, if you like.) But I'd like to be able to just ride from my front door again. One thing I was wondering about -- can anyone comment on the traffic on these routes? I can cope with sharing the road with lots of cars (I used to live and ride in northern Anne Arundel -- :eek:) but I sure did get spoiled on those virtually car-less country lanes in north-central Baltimore County.

Hi Maxine! How have you been doing?

To address your question, these roads are fairly light, except maybe closer to rush hour. Route 144 is busy much of the time, but the others are relatively light. I wouldn't classify them as "virtually car-less", though.

Hey, NoRacer! I've been busy, busy, busy. *sigh* Things should be easing up shortly, though, and I'm looking forward to finally getting to ride more consistently.