Today I pressed the Submit button twice. I registered for two major mountain events — The Assault on Mountain Mitchell and Blood, Sweat & Gears. These two rides combined will be 205 miles long with 24,000 feet in climbing. That’s about 4.5 miles in elevation gained. My quads burn just thinking about it.
This year my goals are similar to last year, to accomplish the toughest, biggest rides in the southeast. I will focus my training around four major events. Assault on Mount Mitchell in May will be the first and probably my highest priority event. I would like to beat last year’s time by a considerable margin. Blood, Sweat & Gears will be in June. The next big rides will come in September — Bridge to Bridge and Six Gap Century, which are within two weeks of each other.
While those are my goals for training, I am also going to participate in a few smaller rides. So far my calendar looks like this:
Colon Cancer Challenge – Columbia
After the Bridge Run Ride – Charleston
Assault on the Carolinas – Brevard
Tour de Midlands – Columbia
Assault on Mount Mitchell – Spartanburg
Fletcher Flyer – Asheville
Blood, Sweat & Gears – Boone
Roan Moan – Bakersville
Copper Triangle – Vail, Colorado
Blue Ridge Breakaway – Waynesville, Lake Junalaska
Six Gap Century – Dahlonega
Bike MS: Breakaway to the Beach – Camden, Florence
For the next few weeks I will continue adding base miles. The more difficult rides will be in March and April. The big base mile weekend will be in 3-weeks. We’ll be staying in Santee, SC where we’ll ride almost about 300 miles on a 3-day weekend.
This schedule may seem ambitious. It may seem painful. To me it’ll be a blast.
SteepClimbs.com 
February 1st, 2012 at 8:11 pm
Awesome! I registered for my first ride today – WABA’s Vasaloppet. It’s 58 miles and flat as a pancake. Somehow, I feel inadequate. 😉
February 1st, 2012 at 9:51 pm
Ha! Well fortunately it’s not a contest. I’ll look forward to hearing about your ride.
February 1st, 2012 at 8:52 pm
I know all the training you’ve been doing will help you demolish last year’s AOMM time.
My goal this year is just to complete the Assault and Six Gap. Next year I’ll focus more on my time.
February 1st, 2012 at 9:52 pm
I’m sure you’ll kill the Assault. Six Gap is another beast entirely. I’m a little worried about that one, to be honest. We’ll see how AOMM and BSG go.
Hope to see you out on some training rides.
February 3rd, 2012 at 9:11 am
Yeah, Hogpen Gap looks like a gradient similar to Paris Mtn, but 3 times longer. Those kind of climbs really wear you down over the course of a long ride.
February 3rd, 2012 at 4:31 pm
I think Hogpen is a little steeper than Paris. From what I hear it is around 11% for 7 miles.
February 4th, 2012 at 9:44 pm
http://app.strava.com/segments/621980 It looks more difficult for sure, but actually dips in the center.
February 5th, 2012 at 9:10 am
That doesn’t look as terrible as I heard. I think people tend to exaggerate. Although I doubt it is really a 5% average grade. Strava can underestimate.
Guess we’ll find out later this year.