We took a drive over to Boone this weekend to visit some friends. I was really looking forward to seeing those beautiful mountains, Libby and Azor. I brought my bike along and went for a ride early on Saturday morning. And what a great ride!
I've been biking to work a lot and the 17 miles a day have been really helping me get faster I think. The route is pretty hilly but also has a few good flats to there are a lot of opportunities to go fast in different ways. I mean down hill fast is a lot different from no-hill fast is different from uphill fast. The elevation gain for my ride to work is only ~700 ft though. I haven't been able to get on a lot of really long rides since I got the new road bike because my weekends are usually spent mountain biking or doing other things; which is fun don't get me wrong! But man! This ride in Boone...
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| A guy was here looking out with his son and said "it sure is worth waking up early, isn't it?" |
I went out on the amazing Blue Ridge Parkway. It was so much fun! There were such big hills. I spent the whole ride at either 10 mph or 40 mph. The uphills were steep, slow and long and the downhills were just as steep but much much faster and over too quickly. Going down those twisty mountain roads at 40+ mph with the cold air and fog on the hills could not have been more enjoyable. It turns out tucking in real tight really does make you go that much faster. None of the hills I bike in Durham are big enough to merit it, plus I can't really get into kind of (sort of) dangerous/uncomfortable positions like that on the crowed highway I bike on.
The big plus of the BRP is there's no commercial traffic allowed so in the early morning there is almost no traffic at all then slowly as the sun gets higher a few cars appear. But, not many. And cars know it's a popular bike route so they pass very wide and are very polite. which makes the really fast down hills even more enjoyable.
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| The halfway point |
So anyway, over the 32 mile ride the elevation gain was 6600 ft. I wish I had more time but if I want to bike any further I really need to bring food. 2 hours/~30 miles is about my internal energy limit. Something to keep in mind for the next ride. But, as it was, that was the best ride I've ever been on and I need to go back.
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| Aho! An elevation marker |
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| A green ski slope at ~4000 ft |
Nice!
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