Unfortunately, my first sprint tri of the season, the Valdese Triathlon, was cancelled on Saturday morning due to the heavy rain and high winds, along with a tornado watch that was in effect all day. I was pretty disappointed not to race, but also very disappointed for Jess, because I had convinced her to race in her first triathlon and she has been training hard for the past couple of months! The race is re-scheduled for June 25th.
Our plan all along had been to race in Valdese, NC and then drive the rest of the way to Asheville and spend the rest of the weekend with my sister Kate, her husband Luke, and my baby nephew Eli. My parent's were also going to be in Asheville for the weekend. So, since the race was cancelled, we ended up making it to their house in Asheville pretty early on Saturday, which was nice because we had a lot of time to visit.
I hadn't really been planning to ride at all in Asheville, because I was planning on taking a rest day after the race on Saturday, but since it was cancelled I figured I had to get a workout in somehow this weekend. Today ended up being a beautiful, sunny day with highs in the mid 60's, so I decided to ride a section of the Blue Ridge Parkway. The only thing slightly problematic, was that all I had was my tri bike and all of my aero race gear (ie. aero helmet, tri suit, 88 mm wheelset, and disc cover), so yes, I was "that guy" out on the parkway this morning! Sorry for being a sterotypical tri nerd!
I'm so glad that I got a ride in though. The Blue Ridge Parkway is an absolutely stunning place to ride. To be honest, it is probably the best road riding that I have EVER done. The pavement is in phenomenal shape, there are no side streets or intersections, and I probably saw 15-20 cars max for the 2 hours that I was out riding. I got on the parkway near Asheville, at about mile post 380, which is at about 2500 ft, and headed north to make the unrelenting 10 mile climb up to the parkway visitor's center, which is at about 5500 ft. All I have to say is, I strongly recommend against riding this particular section of the parkway with an 11-23 TT cassette! Hah! But, it sure was a fantastic workout; I had to ride the whole time at about 300 W just to keep on top of the gear! I continued past the visitor's center and rode past the Mt. Mitchell turn-off and descended down to Crab Tree Falls and finished my ride at mile post 340. The descents down the north side of Mt. Mitchell in the aero bars and full aero gear were unbelievably fast (between 40-50 mph), but very fun.
I am already making plans how to incorporate some training on the Blue Ridge Parkway into my ironman long-ride training this summer.
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