Category: Training

  • Out west – days 1, 2, 3, and 4

    Day 1 – Birmingham to Mt Magazine – 450 miles We arrived an hour or so before sunset after driving well over 400 miles from Birmingham. The kids were excited to go for a bike ride around the state park loop to go see the sunset at Cameron Bluffs – found cool trail connecting the…

  • Climbing analysis

    Today was a really hard ride … no racing this weekend (sadly) since the Barbers race was cancelled this year. So I did a bit of race simulation by picking out the longest climb in the Birmingham area (Pumphouse – Vestavia Dr) and trying to take back the KOM on it. I also picked out…

  • More spring climbing for the Specialized Climbing Challenge on Strava

    Chasing Josiah up the hill at the end of my ride – wearing @strava bibs and #southerncx jersey iBike data annotated at peaks (click to enlarge) Today was an easy day with a big criterium tomorrow in Dothan. I spent most of the ride looking for good hills in the shade to do repeats on.…

  • Lots of climbing stats

    Today was quite a combination of rides — hitting a new personal record of shortest distance to 5,000′ of vertical gain on the way into work and then hitting 5,000′ ft again in less than 30 miles on the way home from work. Both rides were pretty slow with lots of weaving on the steep…

  • Spring climbing

    After yesterday’s long climbs in Huntsville, today was a different style of climbing – numerous short, steep climbs. Check out the iBike gradient graph: Numerous climbs – click to enlarge and count the changes in gradient from up to down and then post in the comments how many “hills” there are. I don’t have time…

  • Climbing to the moon

    Annotated ride map (click to enlarge) It’s spring break this week in Alabama, and so my good friend Lennie and I took our families up to Huntsville to the space and rocket center. While they were enjoying exploring all about space, Lennie and I drove on over to Keel Mountain to explore it and Green…

  • It’s Sunday – a great day for two flats

    Well, this makes two weeks in a row of two flats on Sunday. Last week, two flats might have cost me a podium at Rouge Roubaix. This week, I had two flats on the way to church, but just like last week where thanks to a quick change from the motorcycle wheel support, it all…

  • Shades Mountain and Red Mountain climbing

    Annotated view of the Big Momma (West Oxmoor Rd) climb Fun, hard ride today. I didn’t have any particular goal in mind other than steady tempo climbing for most of the ride and a KOM attempt on the West Oxmoor Rd climb (Big Momma). Big Momma is a moderately steep climb that starts out really…

  • Southern Cross Weekend Wrap-up

    Panoramic view from a grassy knoll just below the summit of Brasstown Bald – the highest point in Georgia at just under 4800′ Wrapping up a wonderful weekend of riding, racing, and climbing in the beautiful North Georgia mountains outside of Dahlonega that included the Southern Cross Ultracross race, I headed out for one last…

  • More racing, riding, and climbing

    Wow, what another great trip up to Dahlonega for the Southern Cross bike race, and the trip is not even over yet! On Friday, I biked into work, taught class, biked home and put my road bike directly into the already packed car for a 4 hour drive to the beautiful mountains of North Georgia.…