Paris I/2011

Yesterday, I looked for takers for a Sunday afternoon ride per Facebook status... What else, right? I did have tons of comments, but no takers.... Words like "nuts" were being used! The temperature was over 40 degrees, so why is everybody calling me crazy??? ;-) All in good fun.

Fortunately, I was able to motivate one of my training buddies that are not on FB to join for the ride and with one of her girlfriends and Terry, we ended up being a nice group of four.

The two ladies were looking at a 3 hour ride, I was looking at something between 2 and 3 hours.... And they rode up from Greenville, so it kinda all worked out.

First we did the Green Valley Loop with some nice rolling hills from Furman to Travelers Rest (TR). With the right gear, the weather was actually pretty good for riding. Actually, once we stopped in TR (around mile 20), I had to take the "toasty toes" out of my shoes, because my feet were cooking!

At this point, Terry took the direct way home, while the girls and I decided to go up and over Paris Mountain. With Mitchell being on the plan for this year, Paris is going to be a basic in my training, but this was my first trip up Paris in 2011 and actually my first ride up there in several months. While I consider myself a pretty good climber on the bike, this climb is just kicking my bootie, especially after a little break from the hills for the last couple of weeks.

Yeah, that's right... 800 ft of climbing over 2 miles (when you start from Old Buncomb Rd)....  And it's really save the best for last with a steep steep section right at the end. While I pedaled up there, I mostly thought about how embarassing it would be to topple over because I couldn't pedal fast enough to keep me moving. But all was good at the end. I didn't time my ascent (or descent for that matter), but I wanna start doing that, to see how and if things progress.

The base of Paris on the Old Buncomb side is just 2 miles from the house, so once it's light outside longer in the evening, I want to tackle this climb during the week too. Maybe even more than once per workout at one point. What's good enough for some local cycling pros, should be good enough for me... right?