GEORGIA! Spring Break Training Part 2

Wednesday:
Wednesday would prove to be the toughest day of the week due to a multitude of reasons. Most notable was the weather, which was cold with temps in the low 30's and wind chills in the low 20's. And that was in town, the tops of the mountains were even colder and covered in snow. Next off my derailleurs got all gummed up with something that also got cold and very viscous so my shifting was pretty much restricted to my 6 or so easiest gears. That was fine for climbing, but I couldn't keep up at all on the descents. And to top it all off my legs were tired and not interested in riding which made everything that much harder. Wednesday was definitely an exercise in  mental toughness.

The route was the same as Monday's 3 gap ride except in the opposite direction. Unfortunately this meant we didn't get the fun Unicoi descent and we had to climb up the steep side of Hogpen. At the top of Unicoi I was really tempted to just turn around and call it a day, but the guys convinced me to keep pressing on. Next up was Jack's which was even easier going the opposite direction (probably the easiest gap of the trip.) After descending Jack's it was time for the big one: Hogpen. The climb was only about 2.4 miles, but holy cow was it steep as about 1,200 feet of climbing were packed into those 2.4 miles . A tough headwind on one of the final sections didn't help either as I struggled my way to the top. Those 2.4 miles took me 33 minutes to climb while I averaged a blazing speed of 4.2 mph.

I thought my struggles were finally over as I reached the top, but unfortunately I was mistaken. Less than a mile into the nearly 7 mile descent I heard a weird popping noise. I figured it was nothing, but a few seconds later John yelled to me that I had broken a spoke. Sure enough I looked down and my rim was wobbling all over the place. Thankfully my 32 spoke rear wheel was strong enough to still be rideable, but I took it easy the rest of the way home just in case. Eventually I made it back to the cabin and began the task of putting 3,000 calories back into my body so I could be ready to go for Thursday. John saved the day and let me borrow his spare rear wheel for the rest of the week so I didn't have to miss a beat.

Thursday:

Wednesday may have been the most mentally difficult day of the trip, but Thursday was definitely the most physically difficult. The plan was to meet up with the guys from Michigan State's team since they were staying somewhat close to us. However, they got impatient as we rode around 20 miles out of the way to meet up with them and they left without us. Oh well, we weren't going to let that spoil our ride and we pressed on towards Neels Gap.

Neels actually ended up being my favorite climb of the trip. It was long at almost 7 miles, but it wasn't overly steep with about 1,500ft of climbing, the roads were nice, it was scenic, and overall just an enjoyable experience. And better yet there was a store at the top to load up on goodies (aka candy) to help us get through the rest of the trip.

We decided to push the pace while descending Neels which unfortunately made us miss our turn towards Wolfpen Gap by about 2 miles. After backtracking we made the turn onto the creatively named Wolfpen Gap Road and started our way up the hill. Wolfpen was pretty cool too as it was really windy and mostly situated in a forest so there was tons of stuff to look at. Wolfpen lasted for about 3 miles and included around 1,100 feet of climbing. The descent off Wolfpen was cool too as it was also windy and all of the turns were banked nicely. We had to be careful as there was gravel here and there on the road, but overall it was fun.

Next up was Woody Gap which was over with pretty quickly with only one really steep section presenting a challenge. The descent off Woody was also a blast as it seemed like we were riding downhill forever (5.5 miles). At the bottom we stopped at another cool little store and bought more supplies (more candy!!!). Unfortunately we had another 20 or so miles of backtracking to do in order to get back to Helen since our failed MSU rendezvous took us so far out of the way.

We made it back to Helen where the group split up. A few of our really strong (read: crazy) guys decided to go tackle 3 more gaps to complete the infamous 6 gap while 3 more of us decided to call it a day and ride back to the cabin. When it was all said and done the 3 guys who went back ended up riding a total of 85 miles with 8,000 feet of climbing. Good for over 4,500 calories! The other guys ended doing about 120 miles with around 12,000 feet of climbing. Crazy!

Despite being tough, Thursday's ride was definitely rewarding. We were dead tired afterwards and spent the rest of the day not doing much of anything besides eating.