29inches

Those 26 days have past, the temperatures are rising and the racing season is about to start. In two weeks I’ll be heading to Virginia with teammate Jeremy Arnold to race my first race of the season, the Dragon’s Back. This will be a 35 mile race consisting of forest road climbs and technical singletrack. Last years 37 mile course was won in 4 hours and 47 minutes. That’s about 7.5 miles per hour. Not your average groomed XC Race course average speed.

This week I find myself training for this race on a road bike in Litchfield, SC. I always enjoy the break from the mountain riding when I come here to ride, and this week is no different. It’s not often I get to ride 8 out of 10 days and better yet, it’s even less often that my body will hold up to ride 8 out of 10 days. That’s the beauty of riding a road bike on the coast. I’ve been able to ride multiple miles and control the fatigue by rotating, distance, intervals and tempo rides with recovery rides. I find it more difficult to do this in Asheville due to the terrain and the urge to ride a SS on trails when given the opportunity to choose.

Anyway, I don’t know if training for a technical mountain bike race with multiple climbs, in the flatlands, on a road bike, is a good idea, but we’ll find out in 2 weeks. In the meantime, I have two more days of riding in the flatlands with gears. Tune in after the Dragon’s Back to see how things turned out.