Blast from the past

My wife was getting ready for a garage sale this Saturday when she found these two posters that I saved from my college racing days at Clemson University. I was a big follower of the principles laid out in Eddie Borysewicz’s book “Bicycle Road Racing”. One of the things that he recommends doing at the end of every season is to make a poster for the upcoming year with a box for every single day of the year.

The week to end all weeks was a 504.8 mile week Oct 14-20 (Monday-Sunday). I raced the Michellin Classic on Sat/Sun Oct 12-13 and then had a 504.8 mile week to end out the 1996 season. Check out these rides for that week:

Mon 10/14 – 25 miles easy
Tue 10/15 – 107 miles (first time to ride to Highlands, NC and back from Clemson)
Wed 10/16 – 54 miles
Thur 10/17 – 35 miles
Fri 10/18 – 38 miles
Sat 10/19 – 200 miles (to Brasstown Bald and back)
Sun 10/20 – 45.8 miles

Total mileage: 504.8 miles!

Other highlights are listed below and visible in the pics, too:

• Assault on Mt Mitchell 1995 – 21st place
• Morning resting heart rate of 36bpm
• Low weight of 115 lbs on March 18th, 1995
• A ride with the comment “fell-on-ice”
• NC/SC state TT 40k in 1:00:08 on August 25th, 1996
• My “pass-out on the bike” crash at UGA on April 20th, 1996

Gatlinburg to Clingman’s Dome

How is that for a scenic view and ride profile? It took just over two hours to do the 22 mile climb out of Gatlinburg up to the Clingman’s Dome parking lot – and then only 42 minutes to make it all the way back down! That works out to an average speed of 11mph on the way up and 31mph on the way back down. My one mistake for the ride was not realizing that there is actually a paved path the rest of the way up to the lookout tower that is like a hot wheel’s track for grown-ups. When Kristine and I drove back up to the top later, we passed a small group of cyclists nearing the top. We then saw them riding up the path and caught up to them while they rested at the lookout tower. I found out they race for a team in the tri-state area (TN-NC-VA). The view is absolutely amazing. Check out the rest of the photos from the ride.

Dauphin Island Ride

Yesterday I took two of my programming students to the University of South Alabama just west of Mobile for a programming competition. The competition involves a 5-hour session where we cannot make any contact at all with the students. What is a biking professor to do for those 5 hours? Well, let’s see, I’ll go for a bike ride! Here’s a topocreator.com map of the route I took from the university down to the coast and across a 4 mile long bridge.

I started out heading due south on Hillcrest Road which was surprisingly hilly with some 5, 6, and 7% grades. It was a very wide 4 lane road, but there was a bit of traffic. Eventually, I made my way down to Carol Plantation Rd which took me for the next 14 miles south towards the coast. This road had much less traffic, but it was a narrower 2 lane road with a speed limit of 55mph. The road was very straight so most cars passed on the opposite of the road. I had a pretty strong side-headwind to battle so my pace hovered right around 20mph. It was very windy once I made it to the bridge. The middle of the bridge rose up very sharply with a maximum grade of 7%. Just to the right of the white line was about 18 inches of smooth, debris-free shoulder which allowed me to ride the bridge without being in traffic and without worrying about getting a flat tire. The actual shoulder was probably 6 feet wide, but it was quite debris-strewn past that 18 inch mark. It didn’t matter much though because there was hardly any traffic.

Dauphin Island itself was a great place to ride with low speed limits, and wide smooth roads. I rode to the easternmost point of the island just past the ferry which is a 45 minute trip across the bay to Fort Morgan. Unfortunately there wasn’t enough time for me to ride the ferry across, so I turned around and headed back with a strong tailwind. I was able to average much closer to 25mph for large sections of the return trip, except for the portions of the route which turned northeast since it was a strong southeasterly wind. It was an awesome change of pace from my normal riding in Birmingham.

Tour de Cullman (2009)

Yesterday we went to a great group ride / training race / and party better known as the Tour de Cullman. Carson Glasscock continues to pour into the cycling community by opening up his home to the community and facilitating this informal ride/race/party. The format is to ride at a leisurely social pace for the first 21 miles, then race the next 18 miles over some serious rollers finishing with a nice climb up Skyball Mountain. I ended up winning the race portion in what was a very tactical battle. Here’s my HR data for the race portion of the ride with annotations describing key points in the battle:

1. The wooden bridge that comes before the official start, but this is the spot where the pace really picks up. Nice 12+% gradient for 1/10th of a mile
2. The official start of the ride. It was an exhilarating start with a horse drawn carriage on the right side of the road, a pack of dogs on the left, and us shooting through the middle right as the green flag dropped. My teammate Darryl Seelhorst (Tria / DonohooAuto.com) launched out hard and strung out the group forcing others to chase.
3. As soon as the front group reached the left turn up the steep quarter mile 12+% gradient climb, Jake Brewer (Herring Gas) launched an attack. I covered it and then rode behind him waiting for my teammates to come up.
4. Eventually, Omar Fraser pulled up with Scott Kuppersmith (Herring Gas) and my teammate Sammy Flores. The five of us worked together over this stretch labeled #4, but Jake, Scott, and Omar each took a dig to launch out on their own. I covered each move and tried to help make it stick, but there was always somebody strong enough to pull us back. So we came to the foot of the climb together as a group of five.
5. Omar was in the front and set a fast tempo at the bottom of the climb dropping Jake and Sammy. Here at the spot labeled #5, I picked up the pace passing Omar and taking Scott with me.
6. At this spot, right when the gradient gets really steep, I kicked it up a notch and took it the rest of the way solo. The road was very bumpy so I knew that Omar would be able to navigate and ride more efficiently with his mountain biking skills so I could never let off the gas and pushed it hard all the way to the finish.
7. The finish – awesome to watch people come in one-by-one after making it up the climb.

The Tour de Cullman

I am excited to be able to participate this year in the annual Tour de Cullman – an informal training ride, race, and party put on by Carson Glasscock and the Cullman Cycling Club. Check out the topocreator.com map I made. I’ll report back on Sunday about all the fun!