Well....this was a great route to ride and would have been a lot better had it not started raining about an hour into the ride. It was off/on rain, heavy at times, finally letting up after the Cullowhee Mtn climb....
I stayed with my friend Barry in Cullowhee and we got to the start early enough for him to get registered and us to get our stuff together. NealH was there also and the 3 of us started together. There were quite a few riders out to do the ride despite the forecast and the ominous clouds at the start. We get going around 9am - start off with some climbs on 107, trying to weed our way through some of the riders. After one of the short climbs, I spy a tandem! I know how they roll so I moved in quickly because we were starting a descent and if you aren't on the tail end of that when it starts, you're history! We go for a little ways and I see Neal up ahead. I know it will be hard for him to jump on, but I try to let him know as soon as I can that we are smokin' by him! He wasn't able to latch on and I just about got dropped on the descent.
Rolling terrain until we turn up Pine Creek - the first climb of the day. I felt pretty good climbing this one, though I think it had started to rain a bit by then and I had resigned myself to being wet. I lose the tandem on this climb too. Hell, I lose everyone on climbs. Not that I'm dropping them - I always get dropped! I probably could have kept up, but would have blown completely up in doing so. I'm climbing really well though, not breathing all that hard and behind me, I hear this really loud breathing! I mean, huffin' n' puffin'!!! I thought the guy was gonna die the way he sounded. 
After a short descent, pass by CMR and I know there's one more little climb on Pine Creek. It wasn't bad either. Next up was the awesome descent down Walnut Creek! The rain had made the roads wet and even though I'm pretty confident descending - I take caution when on wet roads. Still, I hit 51mph down WC on wet roads! Damn, bet I could've come closer to 55mph if the roads had been dry.
At the bottom of Walnut Creek, there was a volunteer standing off to the side...I didn't pay any attention to road markings and he didn't give any direction as to turning either right or left. I knew the next climb was Ellijay, so I took a right. Wrong. I was supposed to have taken a left. Maybe if I had, I would have seen a rest stop too. I was looking for the rest stop at Hwy64/Ellijay Rd...there wasn't one! I thought "what the hell?" cause I had about 3/4's of a bottle left for the climb up Ellijay. Not really a problem because I sometimes dump the water on climbs, especially if it's near the end of a ride. (Ellijay is the last climb on the Ring of Fire - so I do dump the water for that psychological edge cause it's not far from the cars once you reach the top). So, I'm stopped at the waterfall where I always stop to take a picture, get the picture and what do you know...here comes Neal and Barry! I ask them where the hell they came from because they had dropped me on the Pine Creek climb. Found out that I missed the turn then. 
Oh well. Ellijay wasn't that bad of a climb either, but I was soaked and had a bit of water sloshing around in my shoes.
Reach the crest, refill the bottles and start the descent down Tilly Creek. Good grief I was so damn cold. I was so ready to bail, but didn't. At the bottom of TC, made the right turn to head up to the Cullowhee Mtn Rd climb. I think I was zapped by then. Reached the point on CMR where I start the interval for the climb and I knew immediately this was not going to be a good climb. My speed just kept falling. I tried to go harder, but just couldn't. It sucked. And it poured down at times. 9minutes slower than my last time climbing. I think the rain, cool temps, totally wet clothes didn't help either. Descend this to Pine Creek, refill the bottles at the next rest stop and begin climbing again. Only about 10mi more to go, but I'm beat.
The last part of the route from the rest stop to Hwy64 was rolling and I didn't think the climbing would ever end. The mental game was lost now. Every time I saw any kind of upgrade, it was just a struggle mentally to get over it. I told myself I never wanted to see another climb. Ever. I was sick of climbing. And, what the hell am I doing 2 weeks from now?? AoMM. Great. Mental attitude was shot. But, finally reach Hwy64 and had some great riding, one small climb, the rest pretty much descending. Finally get back to the start as it begins to rain ever so slightly again.
Barry & Neal were already finished when I got there. My time was 4:50hr for 60mi and 7000' climbing. Not what I wanted (time-wise), but considering the weather, I guess it's ok. If there's one thing I wish for - it would to be able to climb like these guys. I get dropped on all the climbs. Damnit. I'm gonna work hard this summer to get this last 12-15 pounds gone and hopefully that will help. Other than my sucky climbing and the rain - it was a great day/ride/route. I'd love to come back and do the ride again sometime this summer....
Pictures....
Barry with his stash of food (he carried a pack of nabs, Payday candybar, a Powerbar and who knows what else!)
Of course, my photos would not be complete without pictures of Very Nice looking calves (Barry's):
Just pictures along the way...
Ellijay Valley:
From Cullowhee Mtn Rd.
since i didn't get to make the climb up to the summit on the ride with Andy during the Mini Assault on MM, my friend, NealH, and i planned on doing the BRP to MM the sunday after the burnsville metric.
it was a beautiful day for riding!!! i guess it was around, maybe 80F, during the climb, but i could be totally incorrect....i thought it was hot tho and searched the shade out when i could.
we started at the BRP & Hwy80 around 9:30 or 10am. granted, with somewhat fresh legs, i didn't think it was all that hard on the BRP, but the 5mi up to the summit parking lot was a different story...i thought parts of it were pretty hard, but once past the visitor's center, you get a respite for a little bit....then it's back to the hard climbing. i think i did ok. i'm gonna have to remember how i felt today and for the other climb up 80 in a couple of weeks and just keep telling myself "you can do it" when the real ride gets here. omg. climbing 128 after 90-some miles....i think i'm gonna die....
well, Neal gets his groove on and leaves me on the 128 climb....that's ok with me...once i get up to the parking lot, he's no where to be found. i see that the pathway up to the actual summit is paved....i'm like, what the hell, i didn't ride up this to not go ALL THE WAY TO THE TOP!! wow. the first section, i take standing up out of the saddle. take a short break for a picture, then head up the last bit...all the way to the top of the tower!! freakin' awesome!!!!
here's some pics from today's ride...the climbing just goes on forever on the BRP: 
NealH:
32mi/3:06hr....climbing....3500'??....Andy????
This is gonna be pretty short & sweet, I think....
Started with cool temps, opted for no warmers cause it was going to get up to the mid 80's and i didn't feel like carrying them around. The ride got started around 9am - Andy, Neal, and myself were close to the front but not with the lead group. Those guys were fast!!!
I took off and didn't attempt to stay with either of the guys. 
Andy had told me not to worry about him and treat this as an AoMM training ride, which it was...hooked up with 2 cuties in green kits from Boone maybe and 2 other guys. The 5 of us were doing well together, taking pulls (I took short ones, remembering the advice of "don't do any work, let the others pull you around") and then we got swallowed up by the group Andy & Neal were in. Probably 30+ riders.
Lots of slowing/speeding up, which I knew was going to happen and I wasn't nearly as concerned about it as last year. Not to say, it wasn't nerve wracking, it was, but I was better prepared for it. I stayed up towards the front of this group until around 36mi, where the first climbs started. Got to this point in 1:30 and at this time, I had a 23mph avg.
Andy and Neal caught me on the climbs, as I knew they would, both passing me. I didn't find the climbs to be all that difficult this year. Last year, I thought they were hard as hell. I eventually caught up with Andy a few miles from Bakersville and we got to the rest stop together. 41mi/1:52/22.5avg.
I felt really good to this point - last year, I suffered and didn't think I was ever going to get to that rest stop. We refill our bottles, and set out to do the climbs on Hwy80. Not anything like it was last year. I was spinning pretty well up some of the climbs too. I started to feel a little on the bad side towards the end of the climbs on 80 - I could feel my calf getting a little tight and when I stood on some climbs, my dang quads wanted to start cramping. 
but, it was never enough to really cause any problems.
Reached the last rest stop, where Andy was waiting on me...he asked, as I rolled up, if I needed to stop and I said no and kept on going! He caught up with me shortly and I pulled us all the way to the next turn, which took us off of the main, trafficky road and told him he could do some pulling. He comes on by me, says "get my wheel" and off he goes! I didn't even have a chance to!! He dropped me!!!! 
So, I didn't bother trying to catch him, I was getting tired, had a headwind, and my legs were not feeling too good. Started to get a serious cramp in my inner thigh, left leg when I was very near the last climb in Burnsville. Managed to keep going and finished about 6min behind Andy.
I am very pleased with how I rode today. 
62miles/3:18hr, 3100'+/- climbing. No pictures from the first part of the ride, but if you want to see hte scenery, check out Andy's Burnsville Metric Recon thread on Bike Forums...I do have a couple of pics from late in the ride, but haven't downloaded....later...
Tomorrow, Neal and I are going to ride teh BRP from hte intersection of Hwy80 up to Mt Mitchell. Another training ride.
was Control and Pacing this evening...
Messed up on the 1min intervals on Monday by not staying in control and pacing myself properly. Fussed at by Andy and Martin about doing this, so this evenings goal was to be in control - show both of them and myself, that I can do this.
Set out with the goal of starting the intervals in the 250w range and increasing 15w or so for each interval. Success!
20min warmup which included a 5min VO2 interval, followed by 5-6min easy spinning then begin the intervals....
#1: 251/96/19.2
#2: 276/95/21.8
#3: 292/102/21.2
#4: 311/95/23.4
#5: 256/99/20.6
#6: 272/96/22
#7: 271/91/21.2
#8: 300/ 93/22.5
The first set was great. The second set was ok until the 3rd interval. OMG. I held it up around 290-something for about 20-25s, but, the burn! I just couldn't hold it. The last interval started at over 300w, but fell quickly. It was SO hard. It was everything I could, including a bit of yelling, to get it back up to 300w after it fell all the way down to 288w. Whew. Kick Ass last set of intervals.
I'm tired now...and was very hungry when I got home....didn't have enough to eat during the day today...
Tuesday was to be a 1hr Tempo ride for me and I thought that I could maybe do this ride with Dallas and the guys, so I called him and left a message...he gets back up with me and says to come on out!Since I told him I needed to get a good hour of riding in, he sorta picked a route out (we do this on the fly, no Q-sheet) that had nice really long stretches and not very many turns. It was an awesome ride...a good 25-30min warmup and then I took the lead and pulled for only 20min. "Only" 20min because my power was way above what it should've been for a "tempo" ride and I need to learn to control my pace better. So, I came off the front but didn't go directly to the back...sorta just rode in the center of the lane so that I wouldn't get any benefit of a draft from the guys. Pretty much rode like this for the whole hour - those guys taking rotations off the front.After the hour, in which Dallas & Cliff really cranked it up and did a tempo ride with me, we were in cool-down mode for the return trip. Until the last couple of miles. It was getting on after 7:15pm, ominous clouds in the sky and I don't think any of us wanted to be caught out in any storms. Dallas kicked it up a notch or two on the way back, pulling us along at around 25-26mph! Very easy to sit in behind Dallas and tool along. :)Stats:41.5mi2:04hr
That's right. I am now the sole owner of my home. I don't usually post much info on what's going on in my personal life, but I'll make an exception (or two)...It's been a year since the separation started and I wanted/needed to get some stuff behind me in order to be able to move on. Getting the house into my name was one of the final things left to do. I refinanced and took out enough in the loan to pay the ex his half of the equity in the house giving us no more ties to each other...except one more thing....all that's left is getting the D. That should be final by 5/22 and I will officially join the ranks of the single again.How do I feel about all of this? It's been an emotional roller coaster lately. Up & down, up & down. There were good times & bad times, so it's just been hard...not going to get into all of that though, other than I'm very ready to get off the roller coaster. I'm much more happier, now that things are coming to a final conclusion. I've learned to be happy with myself, that I don't *need* a man around to make me happy. Seems when you stop looking - good things just fall into your lap. :)OK...that's enough emo stuff...I'm feeling good too, in that, the weight is coming off, too damn slowly for me, but never-the-less, it's coming off. And, with that comes some attention...attention that I'm not at all used to...oh well, it's nice. :) I may have to go to the closet to find that Big Stick by summer time. :) hee hee...enough...Later.
And It told me this - "YOU SUCK!" 
That's right. My intervals sucked donkey balls big, big time this evening. Seems like I'm never going to learn to Start Slow to Finish Fast. Damnit. Way, way too hard on the first one of the first set and just totally blew up for the remainder of the intervals.
Hell, they were so sucky, I'm not even posting them. 
Talking to Andy this evening about it and he suggests (same as he has before) that I try to go easier at the beginning and build up to the last interval of each set being the best, i.e. 270, 285, 300+ watts. Oh yea...he also threw in an extra interval for each set, so now, on Thursday, I'll do 2 @ 4x1min intervals. Great. But, I want to get better and he says this will help, so I'll do what I'm told.
Tomorrow is a 1 hour zone 3 Tempo ride (151-182w). Wednesday will be easy spin day, then hit those intervals again on Thursday. I hope they're better than the last ones I've done. Then it's off to Burnsville on Friday for the Burnsville Metric.
