South Carolina (the wrap-up)

What an awesome weekend! The tldr: this area has truly phenomenal riding--beautiful, challenging and safe--and the Hotel Domestique continues to be an amazing place to stay.

Day 2 featured a tough ride from Brevard, NC up to the Blue Ridge Parkway. The long climb up along 276 passes by the Looking Glass Waterfall which is pretty spectacular. On the way up, I was joined by a local Cat 1 who races for Brevard College. Nice guy and the company kept the climb feeling lighter.

Once up on the Blue Ridge, I cruised for about 10 miles and caught up with Ethan near Devil's Courthouse. The view along the route was remarkable--all you could see were (literally) blue mountains in every direction.

Following the Blue Ridge, we descended along 215. Our profile map had us convinced that we'd already done all of our climbing for the day, but Ethan and I got gutted by about 10 more very punchy, tough ascents. By the time we wrapped up our 5.5-hour, 8200-vertical-ft ride, we were both totally hosed. It was time for some delicious BBQ at Hawg Wild BBQ.

Day 3 was an easy spin for just over 3 hours. We still banged out about 3,000 ft of climbing, but it seemed like child's play. Cruised up to Saluda--a very cool, mountain-top town--and then did some descending and more climbing. Once back at the Domestique, Ethan and I crushed some delicious panini and just unwound for the remainder of the day.

All in, a very successful weekend. And some interesting numbers comparing this year and the same 3-day weekend in 2014:

• 2014
• 11:39
• 174.6 mi
• 6610 kJ
• 12,400 ft gain
• 2015
• 14:16
• 211.7 mi
• 8288 kJ
• 20,217 ft gain

And to wrap things up...

South Carolina

Been a long, long while since I made a training-/racing-related post. So here goes nothing.

Away from home for a long weekend of base training. The goal: get in some long, steady, solid miles on the bike. The venue: Greenville, South Carolina.

My buddy Ethan and I arrived at GSP last night and made our way over to the Hotel Domestique. Developed by former pro George Hincapie, this hotel is the perfect destination for a cycling-centric get-away. The property itself is beautiful--feels like you're in Tuscany--and there are many services which cater to cyclist, e.g. "bike concierge", on-site mechanic and soigneur, etc.

Today, we kicked off the visit with a steady ride down to Paris Mountain State Park. We started by working through some beautiful neighbourhoods with quiet, quality roads. Then we did a pretty great climb up Altamont Road (which weaves you up Paris Mountain through a beautiful set of homes). After summiting, we worked our way over to the State Park and worked our way around some lakes and brooks and waterfalls.

We are both a little out of shape, but we felt motivated to have a solid first day. So, after the state park, we worked back to the hotel and did another climb. The route was a bit of a lollipop that took us into North Carolina, out and about and the back down. Solid, solid climb up towards Hendersonville, NC through some heavily wooded areas. Minimal traffic and beautiful views of the Saluda Reservoir:

When we finally got back to the hotel, we had put in some good work in the saddle: 5:20, 85 miles, avg 215 W, NP 230 W... and 8900 ft of climbing!

And to cover the 3400 Cal workout, a phenomenal post-workout recovery snack at Domestique's great Restaurant 17: