This weekend was quite the kicker of a way to end the training season and dive headlong into racing season … starting next weekend with the southern cross race. Here’s a quick look at what I believe I’ll be racing the next few weeks:
Feb 16 - southern cross (mtb) Feb 17 - gsmr training race #1 Feb 24 - gsmr training race #2 Mar 3 - gsmr training race #3 Mar 10 - rouge roubaix Mar 16-17 - union city (crit, rr) Mar 23 - hell of the south
Yesterday was an epic 102 mile day with BBL with four attack zones and koms, adventuresome climb up bass pro cement road (close to 35% gradient), and followed up by more climbing with Mark through Mountain Brook and Vestavia. Today, Kristine was working up in Huntsville so I tagged along to do some riding/climbing up in Huntsville.
First, the scoop on today’s ride up in Huntsville … Kristine was working her admin assistant job for the army reserve center up in Huntsville, so I decided to tag along to try to get a good long climbing ride exploring some new climbs and putting in a couple hard KOM efforts on others. I ended up falling a few seconds short on the Monte Sano climb (kudos Mark) but taking the Hawk’s Nest one. Here’s a view from the top of monte sano looking back down torwards Huntsville with the space and rocket center visible in the background (look for the tall white rocket).
View of downtown Huntsville and the Space and Rocket center from the top of Monte Sano (click to enlarge and read the annotations)At this point in the ride, the temp had climbed into the mid 50s with a few clouds and even a little bit of sun. After exploring another Cat 3 climb on the Monte Sano ridge line, I headed down 431 towards Keel and the super steep Blowing Cave climb. As I approached Keel, it started to rain a bit off and on but nothing heavy or steady. By the top of the Blowing Cave climb, though, it was starting to rain a little more frequently so that by the time I had turned around and climbed Keel from the backside and then descend on the frontside it was pouring … and the temp was down into the 40s … and I had shorts and short finger gloves on. I immediately decided to cut out a huge chunk of the ride … Woodville to Skyline (Cat 2) … and trade it for an additional climb up Keel. This worked out well because the additional climbs up Keel kept me warm enough so that I wasn’t hypothermic for the descent down Blowing Cave.
That descent was insane in the heavy rain and cold. I knew I couldn’t get up too much speed because there would be no way to brake hard enough and turn without sliding out. Still, the super steep section towards the bottom (20% avg for 0.3 miles) I outran my brakes and had to negotiate some of the turns at much higher speed than I felt comfortable doing. By the bottom, I was frigid but thankful I hadn’t fallen and that I could start hammering again to try to generate body heat. Fortunately, I had a nice tailwind for a large part of the next ride so I was able to crush the 53×11 to a gas station near 4 mile post rd (east side of cecil ashburn). I spent a while warming up in the gas station drinking $1.09 ($1.18 with tax) 20 oz cappuccino before braving the cold rain again. Absolutely freezing and even with a tailwind and a Cat 3 climb, I still almost crashed coming down Cecil Ashburne with speed wobble because I was shivering so badly! Fortunately, once I made it to the bottom again, there was an awesome tailwind, a lot of open road, and a lot of green lights. I arrived back at the armory sooner than expected. As soon as I stopped riding, though, and my heartrate dropped I got so cold that I was shivering again uncontrollably for a good 5 minutes until I had warmed up in the car in the parking lot with the seat warmer on and heat blasting at 90 degF. Here’s pic of the conditions (it had been raining hard for the last 35 miles of my ride) at the armory after I had stopped shivering enough to get a picture:
Warming up in the car at the reserve center after the ride while Kristine is working. Very cold rain for the last 35 miles of the ride.Here’s the iBike data from the ride and from some of the popular Huntsville climbs…
Summary of all climbs listed below
Dist Avg% Max% Gain
Bankhead 4-way stop (Monte Sano) 3.63 mi 4.98 12.0 990 ft
Big Cove - Governor's Bend 2.07 mi 6.57 23.3 786 ft
Blowing Cave Wall (Keel Mtn) 0.30 mi 19.91 26.8 309 ft
Blowing Cave Complete (Keel Mtn) 3.83 mi 4.49 26.8 1050 ft
Keel Backside (north) (Keel Mtn) 1.55 mi 11.20 17.4 895 ft
Keel Frontside (south) (Keel Mtn) 1.88 mi 9.39 25.2 897 ft
Cecil Ashburne (east) 2.02 mi 5.47 12.6 582 ft
Bankhead from 4-way stop (Monte Sano)
Dist: 3.63 mi (0:15:38)
Climbing: 990 ft
Min Avg Max
Power 46 326.4 684 W
Speed 9.5 14.0 27.4 mi/h
Slope -4.0 4.98 12.0 %
HR 142 170.0 182 bpm
NP:332W IF:1.13 TSS:33 VI:1.02
168 lbs; 2/10/2013 7:59 AM
48 degF; 990 mbar
Big Cove - Governor's Bend (Monte Sano)
Dist: 2.07 mi (0:14:21)
Climbing: 786 ft
Min Avg Max
Power 0 243.1 420 W
Speed 3.9 8.7 23.6 mi/h
Slope -6.0 6.57 23.3 %
HR 119 139.1 150 bpm
NP:261W IF:0.88 TSS:19 VI:1.07
168 lbs; 2/10/2013 8:52 AM
50 degF; 990 mbar
Blowing Cave Wall (Keel Mtn)
Dist: 0.30 mi (0:04:11)
Climbing: 309 ft
Min Avg Max
Power 187 304.0 409 W
Speed 3.1 4.4 8.6 mi/h
Slope 8.6 19.91 26.8 %
HR 141 148.9 155 bpm
NP:311W IF:1.05 TSS:8 VI:1.02
168 lbs; 2/10/2013 10:03 AM
51 degF; 990 mbar
Blowing Cave Complete (Keel Mtn)
Dist: 3.83 mi (0:19:59)
Climbing: 1050 ft
Min Avg Max
Power 0 256.1 496 W
Speed 3.1 11.5 35.1 mi/h
Slope -10.7 4.49 26.8 %
HR 126 141.7 155 bpm
NP:273W IF:0.92 TSS:28 VI:1.07
168 lbs; 2/10/2013 10:02 AM
51 degF; 990 mbar
Keel Backside (Keel Mtn - North)
Dist: 1.55 mi (0:14:57)
Climbing: 895 ft
Min Avg Max
Power 0 254.0 427 W
Speed 4.6 6.2 21.3 mi/h
Slope 1.7 11.20 17.4 %
HR 121 137.0 142 bpm
NP:257W IF:0.87 TSS:19 VI:1.01
168 lbs; 2/10/2013 10:27 AM
52 degF; 990 mbar
Keel Frontside (Keel Mtn - South)
Dist: 1.88 mi (0:16:00)
Climbing: 897 ft
Min Avg Max
Power 0 248.6 449 W
Speed 3.9 7.1 23.4 mi/h
Slope -4.2 9.39 25.2 %
HR 123 134.0 142 bpm
NP:253W IF:0.85 TSS:19 VI:1.02
168 lbs; 2/10/2013 11:05 AM
45 degF; 990 mbar
COLD AND RAINING HARD
Cecil Ashburne from Hwy 431 (east side)
Dist: 2.02 mi (0:10:47)
Climbing: 582 ft
Min Avg Max
Power 0 276.4 604 W
Speed 0.0 11.3 24.1 mi/h
Slope -0.6 5.47 12.6 %
HR 111 138.5 146 bpm
NP:287W IF:0.97 TSS:17 VI:1.04
168 lbs; 2/10/2013 12:25 PM
44 degF; 990 mbar
COLD AND RAINING VERY HARD
Now, the BBL videos from the attack zones and the climbs – in reverse order starting with the Bass Pro climb.
Mark and Kyle at the bottom of the bass pro climb (click to view the annotations)
Bass pro climb
Dist: 0.22 mi (0:02:31)
Climbing: 218 ft
Min Avg Max
Power 124 349.7 582 W
Gravity 100 316.0 448 W
Speed 3.4 5.4 11.2 mi/h
Slope 3.1 18.05 33.2 %
Cadence 32 49.1 102 rpm
HR 133 164.7 178 bpm
NP:374W IF:1.27 TSS:7 VI:1.07
168 lbs; 2/9/2013 12:11 PM
58 degF; 990 mbar
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