Boone Training Camp

Last week marked the 2nd annual Stark Velo Boone Training camp. Having also been on the trip last year I knew fully what I was getting myself into and still, I was excited to go back and tackle the mountains. This years trip really exploded in terms of the number of riders going which was exciting to see such a big interest from my fellow teammates and hopefully for all the firs timer's, they would enjoy this trip as much as I did.

Thursday's ride was a quick warm up after sitting in a car for 8+ hours. We unfortunately got started a little later than planned which meant we would be chasing daylight to get back to the cabins in time. This day's adventure would be navigating Payne-Branch road to the Parkway. Last year the road was hard pack which made for a fun-off road adventure but this year the road department recently dumped a ton of fresh gravel on the road making it very difficult to navigate through on skinny tires. By the time we got out of the gravel pit and to the Parkway, 5 out of our 25 riders suffered flat tires. Fortunately, I wasn't one of them.

Stats from Thursday's Ride:

Duration: 2:19:30
Work: 1675 kJ
TSS: 165.1 (intensity factor 0.844)
Norm Power: 245
VI: 1.22
Distance: 36.868 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 631 201 watts
Heart rate: 64 178 153 bpm
Cadence: 30 141 83 rpm
Speed: 0 44.7 15.9 mph
Pace 1:21 0:00 3:47 min/mi
Hub Torque: 0 605 117 lb-in
Crank Torque: 0 986 212 lb-in

Friday's ride offered two route options, the short route coming in at 64 miles and the long route at over 90 miles. Knowing the difficulty I and several others had last year, I decided early on that I would give myself a fighting chance of completing the day and just ride the short route. Once again, the day started out like the previous day with several flat tires but once those gotten take care of, it was smooth sailing all the way to the day's biggest climb, Beech Mountain. Never having ridden Beech, I had no idea what I was about to undertake. The climb would be by far the most difficult of the trip due to its steepness (average grade of ~11%) but because it was only about 3 miles in length, it wouldn't be difficult. The beauty of my powertap (note that I will not get all PT geeky here) was that knowing what my FTP was, I set a sustained power output goal for each of the major climbs that I wanted to stay near. Knowing that I currently have a FTP of around 290 Watts, I set my climbing range to try to stay between 260W and 280W. This turned out to be a great approach to all the climbs that I did; even as the day went along I never found myself in extreme difficulty but always found myself situated within the group. This was a nice change of pace from last year where I seemed to be continually suffering on each and every climb as well as being the last guy up the hill. On the last climb of the day, Schull's Mill, I even found myself for a while off the front of the group, until Stuart came by and passed me. Even though I got beat up the hill, it was a blast to try and stick with him (and I hear rumors that I even pushed Stuart a little bit as he didn't want to get caught!) and to have been the second one to complete the day's climb. It was almost so much fun that I contemplated for a split second descending it just to do it again. Actually, I just wanted to descend it and I would have called Jen to come pick me up so I didn't have to do it again.

Friday's Stats:

Duration: 4:12:05
Work: 2730 kJ
TSS: 265.8 (intensity factor 0.798)
Norm Power: 231
VI: 1.27
Distance: 60.909 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 540 182 watts
Heart rate: 70 176 145 bpm
Cadence: 29 141 82 rpm
Speed: 0 43 14.5 mph
Pace 1:24 0:00 4:08 min/mi
Hub Torque: 0 598 121 lb-in
Crank Torque: 0 851 198 lb-in

Saturday's ride saw our large group split into two different areas of the State. The majority of the group decided to pack up the van and trailer and to head 30 miles south. The thought was that the radar showed rain for the day everywhere but if it was going to rain, better to be at a lower elevation where it would be warmer. The other group of riders which was mostly composed of people in my cabin decided not to give up on Boone and risk riding in the area (Note that we also didn't realize what time people were leaving and when we got a phone call to go, most of us were just then rolling out of bed...oops). So, after a good, relaxed breakfast, about 10 of us kitted up and slowly rolled our way out to the main road to find our way to the small town of Todd. Scott did a great job of mapping the routes for us so feeling comfortable with where we were heading to, we didn't think twice about venturing out alone. The first issue came in about 6 miles into the ride when we were supposed to find a parkway connector road off of the small back road we had been traveling on for a while. A few miles and hills down the road, we made the right decision to stop and ask for directions. I rolled up to a gentleman who was out using a weed-whacker to mow his lawn. Finally getting his attention, I asked how to get back to the Parkway. Unfortunately, his response was more like "Parkway, no speak English good." OK, time for plan B, I took two years of French in High School, one year of Spanish is College, one and a half years of Italian in College and I also traveled through Italy so having tackled every one of the romance languages, I was sure I could break through this language barrier and get our group rolling in the right direction. Second problem, native Spanish speakers speak muy rapido mi amigo and all I could translate was, and I'm still not sure about this but it was either we were way off target to finding the Parkway or that he really thought I looked good in cycling shorts with shaved legs and he wanted me to hang out for a cerveza. OK, so I decided for my safety that it was time to roll back up to where we had seen the Parkway and take our chances elsewhere.

Rolling back towards where we had seen the parkway, we finally found that critical turn we needed to make. It was marked with a small broken piece of wood that was hand painted with the word "Parkw" on it. That would end up being the biggest challenge of the day as would find ourselves rolling smoothly on the Parkway back to our turn around point in Todd. We did a portion of this route last year and I really enjoyed it because even though we were still doing some climbing, it wasn't the constant up and down that we did yesterday. Instead, the climbs on the parkway tend to be long, gradual and are very scenic which is why this is a favorite destination for several travelers.

Saturday's Stats:

Duration: 3:26:30
Work: 2084 kJ
TSS: 205.1 (intensity factor 0.775)
Norm Power: 225
VI: 1.32
Distance: 53.84 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 548 170 watts
Heart rate: 73 236 134 bpm
Cadence: 29 141 83 rpm
Speed: 0 42.6 15.8 mph
Pace 1:25 0:00 3:49 min/mi
Hub Torque: 0 569 98 lb-in
Crank Torque: 0 817 180 lb-in


Well, that raps another successful year for the Stark Velo training camp. I'm left at the end of this year satisfied in how much riding I did and how I felt on the bike. What makes this year different from last is that I'm anxious to go back again, only hoping that I can wait for a whole year. What makes this trip so much fun? Well, for one thing it's the great riding that this area of the country has to offer. The second and most important thing is, it gives me the opportunity to bond with my teammates and friends as this is the only time of the year that I get to ride and converse with almost everyone at the same time.

brian