Team Camp: Chattanooga, TN

At the top of Signal Moutain
Catherine, Kat, Valerie, Parri, Anna, Lee, me, and Shelly
photo credit

This weekend was amazing. It was our team camp in Chattanooga, and everyone (minus a pregnant Cali) was able to make it. We left Friday and stopped in Sewanee for a fun 1:50, 29-mile ride. We rode up and down Monteagle twice and then in the valley for a little while. I wish I had the route, but I don’t since Todd made up all the routes for the weekend and I had no idea where we were. I have stats, though, so that’s what you’ll get. One of the climbs was 3.8 miles, and that took me 20:30 (11.3 mph). The other climb was 2.3 miles, and that took me 17:00 (8.2 mph). Not ridiculous because they weren’t all that long, but definitely a challenge.

1:50:26, 29.32 miles, 15.9 mph (37.9 max), 3190’ ascent, 3276’ descent.

Friday elevation and speed

We had fun chilling around a great campfire made by Todd and enjoyed being able to relax outside.

Saturday we slept in a little and after a great breakfast by our resident chef Parri, we headed out from Lookout Mountain for a long, hilly ride. This one included 2 significant climbs again, and I think both were up Lookout Mountain. The first was 2.75 miles and took about 28 minutes (according to MapMyRide, 4.09 miles and 5.3% grade). The second climb was 1.58 miles and took 17:13 (5.5 mph; according to MapMyRide, 2.39 miles and 5.4% grade). This climb was crazy hard, and it was all I could do to stay moving on my bike. I felt like I was going to slowly, but I was still moving, so I just kept pedaling. I don’t know why, but this ride was more mentally exhausting than anything else. Between the two climbs, we had fun playing on the road, doing a good bit of work with a double pace line. Dave F was along with us, and he is so experienced and knowledgeable. He was talking us through everything, helping us improve and ride as strong as we could while all working together.

I missed almost 30 of the middle miles, but here is part of the route we did:

4:08:03, 68.76 miles, 16.6 mph (48.4 max), 142 bpm (182 max), 7412’ ascent, 6811’ descent

Saturday elevation and speed

We had a great team meeting Saturday night and took care of lots of business.

Sunday we packed everything up and got the cabin in checkout order. Then we had a little tire-changing competition, to see who could properly change hers the fastest. I won this, but it turned out later that I really didn’t change it properly (I tried to return my prize, but they let me keep it and said it was a good learning experience). We met Bill P on the other side of Chattanooga to ride up and around Signal Mountain. After a very short warmup, we hit the mountain for a 3.35-mile climb that took me 24:20 minutes (don’t know pace). I managed to climb fine, but as soon as I got to the top I was done. Mentally done. Physically I could’ve continued, but my mindset was all wrong and I couldn’t get back into it. We rode a little while longer, and I called Todd for sag. It was a weak moment and I hate being weak, but I just couldn’t climb and descend, and ride, really, any more. He came to get me, we had a good athlete-coach talk, and then we headed down the mountain (in the car) to wait for the rest of the team.

46:47, 8.94 miles, 11.5 mph (30.9 max), 147 bpm (176 max), 2016’ ascent, 871’ descent

Sunday elevation and speed

I don’t know what my problem was, and I didn’t like having to stop. It was the right decision, stopping and letting the rest of the team continue, but it was not an easy thing to say to my team that I was done. I was definitely happy to be off the bike, though, and I know it was just time to be done.

Photo credit

It’s now getting late on Sunday night and now that my bike is clean, I’m ready for some good sleep. That’s all for today.