River Gorge Recon

Lee, Catherine, Valerie, Parri, Anna, and me near the
top of Racoon Mountain (on our way down)

Today we went to Chattanooga to ride the River Gorge Road Race course. I have done this at least twice before: August 14, 2011 (recon), and August 28, 2011 (race), and I pretty much remembered everything about it just as it was. But today seemed to go better than every other time I did it. I wish I knew why I felt so good, but I felt amazing. I had told Will on Friday that my legs felt so good that I felt like I needed to race this weekend, but there weren't any races. So I had to settle with riding with my girls (and others) and riding well.

Parri, Lee, Catherine, Jeremy, me, Anna, Val, Modo, Bill, and Todd all rode the 38-mile course plus 5 miles back to our cars. So I rode 43 miles, 2:35, 16.6 miles (49.5 max), 155 bpm (190 max), 4316' ascent, 4435' descent.

This race has 3 major climbs:

1. Queen of the Mountain (QoM)
• Begins around mile 10.2 and lasts approximately 1.8 miles
• 8-14-11: ~9:40 (~1.8mi)
• 8-28-11: ~9:20 (~1.9mi)
• 8-12-12: ~8:50 (~1.7mi)
2. Stair-step
   • Begins around mile 20 and lasts approximately 2.1 miles
   • 8-14-11: 11:06 (2mi)
   • 8-28-11: 11:13 (2.1mi)
   • 8-12-12: 11:22 (2.41mi)
3. Final climb
• Begins around mile 33.3 and lasts approximately 3.4 miles
• 8-14-11: 29:50 (3.4mi)
• 8-28-11: 25:12 (3.4mi)
• 8-12-12: 24:58 (3.34mi)

Most of these are estimations, and my times aren't significantly better, but I felt significantly better, and that stair-step climb was by far the best. I started up it first and had to work hard to stay with Parri, J, Lee, and Cath, but I did and almost couldn't believe it. Woohoo!

This picture is from August 28, 2011. The elevation and route are pretty similar, but I'm not sure about speed and HR.

This picture is from August 14, 2011. Same with similar elevation and route, not sure about speed.

River Gorge Profile: RR and TT, including HR, elevation, and speed

This is a picture of the race route, including elevation.

River Gorge RR and Profile