White to Horn Mountain Training Ride

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Before this ride Gary and I discussed what type of riding should we do on our last big ride before 3 State 3 Mountain. We both agreed that in the past several weeks we have done hill repeats on Wednesdays, we have been to Burnt Mountain twice and we have been out to Fort Mountain. It just seemed right to get in 80 miles on familiar roads with rolling terrain, but there were other factors. Once again there was a threat of rain and storms heading our way and has been the case for a number of weeks now. There was one more place we could have gone to get more climbing training and that is the north Georgia gaps. We had some friends going there today to watch the Tour de Georgia as the race is in the gaps today and also ride the gaps, but for me I wanted to stay away from the crowd and I believe the other guys were pretty content about our peaceful day today.

When I pulled into the parking lot a little after 7 am to meet Gary Quellet and Mike Quick, I saw Neal Bowers and Glen Hittel and thought they were supposed to be at the gaps today, but maybe they will link up with us. They asked what we were planning and I told them about 80 miles with maybe Johnson Mountain (a small bump compared to what we have been doing lately) and wouldn’t you know Neal and Glen were planning to ride 80 miles, but go out to Horn Mountain, which is a more substantial climb. My heart and my head thought sweet plan, but I believe my legs were not too happy with the news yet we were determined to go for it even with the threat of storms coming our way. As we started I could tell my legs were a bit fatigued from several weeks of being beaten with climbing training because my heart rate was running a little higher. Sweet!! The sun is out and no rain clouds in sight and I am with a good group of guys, who are set on getting perhaps their last big training ride before 3 State 3 Mountain.

From the start to mile 34 the terrain was pretty mild with rolling hills, but now we were at the base of Horn Mountain. Though I had done Horn Mountain before it has been at least a couple of years and I remember having to stop several times, but now things are different. I have been training with intention and consistency for two years with good mentors like Gary and others helping me go from NARC’s slower group to riding in the faster NARC group, but how was this last climb going to be? Glen calls back to me and asks me if my Edge 305 will give a road gradient reading. I answer, “I have 6%….7%……8%…..11%.” I had to shut my mouth as the gradient went up to 15%. I see Gary, Mike and Glen pull away from me fairly quickly as my heart rate begins to climb quickly. I think to myself, “I have got to get this under control. I need to take my focus off their pace and concentrate on my own pace.” I settle back to a slower cadence, use my 28 cog and get my heart rate under control. My heart rate begins to calm down and I am able to shift back to the 23 cog and my speed increases a little more, but around the hairpin turns the gradients increase again to 15% forcing me to drop back to the 28. There it is the summit!! The climb was only 2.8 miles with 850 feet of gain, but it seemed fairly intense to me. At the summit big Cal, another NARC member and a friend were chatting with Mike, Gary and Glenn. Neal comes by us and keeps going to the descent and all the guys follow. After talking with Cal, I take off to catch up with the guys and it was a steep descent with a lot of twisty roadway. As the roadway flattens I see the group off in the distance and don’t see anyone soft-pedaling to wait on me. Maybe it was the few drops of rain that hit my face that indicated their faster pace. I wasn’t sure because they were pretty far off so I shifted to the 11 cog and settled on my drops and put a pace to span the gap if I could. Thankfully they must have eased up a little because I was starting to catch up, but the terrain had a particular look to it that makes one fully aware that this is the type of road Mike Quick gets excited about. Rolling hills with a slight downward slope and sure enough when I caught up to the group Mike was just sinking down into an aero position. “Ooohhhh….here we go”, I thought. I took a position behind Glen and the pace was running about 23 mph. We sustained that speed for another few miles before Mike pulled off to let Glen take a turn pulling the group. We go another couple of miles and now it is my turn, but fortunately I heard someone say the store stop is ahead. Good news for my legs because they were starting to reach threshold pulling the group.

For the remaining ride the sun stayed with us and the roads were fairly mild. We had a few spontaneous races that broke out like Gary enticing me to after Mike as he did a little breakaway once again on his favorite type of road. I briefly saw my speedo reading of 35 mph as I went by an unsuspecting Mike, but that was short lived as both Mike and Gary blow past me. As we approached the parking lot I just kept thinking what a day this turned out to be. Perfect as our last big training ride, a great group of guys to be with, no rain as predicted, 80 miles and a descent climb.

The day and the route couldn’t have been better for 5 guys needing a fix for their cycling addiction.