Tour of the Ouachita Challenge

Did the Ouachita Challenge out of Oden, Arkansas a few days ago. Took me a little over seven hours to do the almost 70 mile course. Lots of fun single track and fast service roads. Good change of scenery from north Georgia.

No bicycle issues. No nutrition or pacing issues. I mean, I could have pushed it slightly harder, but that's all right.

GPS: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/28314957





Mass start. Registration was capped at 300 people. Seemed like about that many were there.



Service road climb.



I think my mountain bicycle is hot and I take a lot of photos of it.



A single track climb.



I may have pushed my bike up that.



Bio break.



The colored zip ties. One for each of the five checkpoints.



I have mud on my face.

Ride to the Georgia Capitol

Went big today. Over 6 hours on the road bike. 87 miles, 6000 ft of elevation gain. Rode from Reality Bikes in Cumming, GA to the state capitol in Atlanta, GA for the 2010 Georgia Rides to the Capitol event. Then back.





Power profile is kind of cool.

0-80 minutes is from Reality Bikes to Roswell City Hall. Had to kill it due to starting late.
80-190 was the ride form City Hall to the Capitol.
220-320 ride back to the City Hall. Much harder then the way down seemed to drop a lot of people.
320-370 ride to lunch on Windward parkway. That Greek place by Mellow mushroom.
410-460 back to the shop.

Good day on the bike.



Most of the group leaving from Roswell. Probably about 1/10th the number of people that ended up at the capitol.



Street in front of the capitol.



My hotness.



Not so hotness.



Capitol.



Me trying to do as little work as possible.

2010 Snake Creek Gap TT #3

Blah. Perfect weather. Good trail conditions. Didn't make the time I was shooting for though.



January time trial, I road fairly conservatively and it took me 5:34. I wanted sub four for March. Took me 4:40. Had a bunch of little issues, mostly related to not having my bike properly tested and dialed in. Then, I lost a lot of motivation when I saw I had fallen well off the sub 4 target and slowed even further.



Oh well, it was still a good ride and I learned a lot. Mainly need to get my new Maxxis Aspen tires dialed in. Was having issues with tubeless so I tossed tubes in them. Then, I overinflated them a bit, to insure I didn't pinch flat. During the race, they processed to beat me up pretty bad. About 20 miles in, I let a bunch of air out. The bike came alive and I picked up steam again! Several miles later, I pinched the rear. That took a lot out of me.



GPS Track: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/26266368

Time: 04:41:52
Distance: 31.70 mi
Elevation Gain: 6,219 ft

In other news, I vacationed in Savannah with my wife, the previous weekend. Got my hungover ass out to an 8am roadie ride. Riding out where it's all flat is actually kind of hard. The pace was always on. I mean sure, climbing hurts, but at least you get to rest on the descent!





GPS Track: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/25646663

Time: 02:28:42
Distance: 44.97 mi