Building Up to Burnsville

It's just a hair over two months until the Burnsville Metric, which is one of my A rides this year. By that time, I will have had a good solid four months of training and hope to finish in 3.5hrs or less. Can't remember the elevation gain right off hand and the route is 58mi, so I should be able to do ride it in that time...

I need to get some riding done in the more mountainous areas of the state before this ride though, so I am a little more used to the elevation gain that will occur. That being said, I think that in the next two months following the Frostbite ride, I'm going to be heading out west for some riding. This week has been a scheduled 'easy' week due to the FBT and next week will start a three week period of 'hard' weeks, followed by another 'easy' & so on.

I'm contemplating the following schedule to incorporate longish (60mi+) and more elevation gain rides in preparation for the Burnsville ride. *Edit* I think I'm going to ride, at least the first 35mi of the Frostbite metric route on Saturday. I have to know whether I can do 17-18mph avg solo for at least this part. Don't think I can do the 19+mph that Andy & I did Saturday, but I'm gonna go give it all I've got and see what happens.

• Feb 24 - Mar 1: North Raleigh area for 60mi + *
• Mar 2 - Mar 8: Frostbite Tour metric route (plus maybe a little more)
• Mar 9 - Mar 15: Tenative trip to Valdese area to visit parents & go ride the BM route
• Mar 16 - Mar 22: Easy week - FTP testing
• Mar 23 - Mar 29: Benson/Coates route for 60mi +
• Mar 30 - Apr 5: Day trip to Gastonia for Crowder's Mtn metric route
• Apr 6 - Apr 12: Day trip to Pilot Mtn area to ride Triple Hump
• Apr 13 - Apr 19: Frostbite Tour metric route
• Apr 20 - Apr 26: Easy week - Burnsville Metric

Also, during this time, there will be two TT's at Charlotte that I want to do - one on April 9 and the other on April 30.

I have really been enjoying the training I've been doing. It's really nice to have the structure/organization that I get from my mentor on training. I just can't do this stuff as 'self-coached'. I like for someone to lay it out for me and tell me what to do. I will then bust my ass to do what's scheduled for that week. Man, organization/structure FTW for me.

My next A ride will be Assault on Marion in June. Right now, I'm really apprehensive about that ride, but I know with four months left to train before that ride, that I will be ready for it.