Labor Day Weekend made a final trip to the Mountains to train for Everest Challenge. We went to Asheville N.C. Saturday, we rode south on the Blue Ridge Parkway to Mt Pisgah, and also did a side jaunt done to Candler and back up the Parkway. We rode pretty well, and stayed out of the small chainring all day. ( I figured we could use the work pushing a bigger gear up 8-10% grades to simulate climbing 15-17% grades in the small ring.)
Sunday, was going to be the big training day heading from Asheville north on the Parkway to Mt Mitchell, and doing a couple of repeats up Mitchell. Unfortunately, we found out, the hard way, that the Parkway is closed for 10 miles at Craggy Gardens due to a landslide. So we made do with doing repeats up to the Craggy Gardens picnic area, and adding a climb up Ox Creek from Weaverville back onto the Parkway. The climb up Ox Creek was actually much steeper than Mitchell, with sustained sections in the low teens, but it didn't have the same cache as Mt Mitchell, the highest point in the Eastern U.S.
On the whole it was a good weekend of training, but I'm concerned that both days were still substantially less climbing, and ride time, than Everest Challenge will require.
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