Interesting couple of days since the last post. The biggest (cycling) news is that our Cat 3 and Junior Squads went up to Fitchburg and killed it.
Saturday's focus was getting to Lynchburg for the wedding of some good friends, but not before I got in a quick TT workout on Macarthur. This one was real quick intervals, just 3 minutes each. I'm still in that very rewarding part of the improvement curve where I get better and better each time, and the speeds I'm hitting go up and up while I learn to eat bitterness. 3 minutes is one thing. The next TT intervals I do will be in the heat of battle, though. The TT stage is 7.5 miles, with a narsty little climb near the end.
Lynchburg is far, far away. While en route, we were hearing details of some of the "night before" debauchery. There was some pretty serious misbehavior and let's just say that not everyone is welcome everywhere in Lynchurg anymore. The wedding went off without incident, and everyone had a grand old time afterward.
Sunday morning I busted through my hangover to get out for a quick ride out Route 501 towards the Blue Ridge. There were a couple of great climbs out there. The east side, climbing on the way out, was a much more gradual climb with no real switchbacks or anything. Probably from the time you got out of town to when you got the the peak, it was 3% average grade with a couple of spots as steep as 8 or 9%, with the final 2 miles averaging closer to 8%. At the top was the "Eagle's Eyre Baptist Community Leadership Center." Have I mentioned that there are about 15 churches per square mile in Lynchburg and the surrounding environs? Over the top, you drop down a much steeper profile, with mad switchbacks. A super fun descent, with plenty of corners taken in the low 30's of speed, definitely at the edge of control. The ride back up was plenty fun, too. I much prefer the switchback type of climb, where each section is taken individually, as opposed to the long straight "oh my good it's going to take an hour to climb that thing" kind of hills where you look and head straight at the top the whole time. By the time I returned most everybody was up and dusting themselves off, and we were ready to go.
On the way home, the FPG and I decided to take the Blue Ridge Parkway and Skyline Drive rather than route 29. This would take a few extra hours, but the FPG really wanted to see it and I didn't mind showing her the scenes of my very manly climbing exploits last week. For those of you who haven't yet done it, get yo'sef to Skyline Drive. The riding is as good as the views:
The question I posed last time was whether we would go 2 for 2 on bear sightings this trip, and the answer is yes. Same exact set up - a car ahead just cold stopped in the middle of the road. Upon seeing it I turned to the FPG and said "this is the way it happened when we saw the bears last time," to which she immediately responded "holy S&!T - A BEAR!" This one really had no problem with people at all, not even the motorcycles that showed up. He was probably thinking "hey, cool, some of those shishkabobs showed up!" Eventually he got bored and walked away. FPG took this great picture of his butt.
Busy week at work this week, mellow week of riding in prep for the big race.
1 comment:
That bear had a big ole butt!
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