a weekend in NC

This past weekend Dan and I went up to Asheville for a weekend of visiting his friends & teammates. We had a few trainings planned which made me nervous - there was really no way of putting me in the same class athletically as his posse. Saturday morning we woke up and headed to Mount Mitchell (as if my company wasn't intimidating enough, we just had to go biking where the recent Offroad Assault on Mt Mitchell took place, where I've read many horror stories of how tough it is). Monica, Dan, and Joe were my riding partners for the day (all of Team Litespeed). We blocked out 4 hours for the ride (that's how long the sitter for Monica's son Chilton (aka Chilly)was booked for.) I expressed some concern over the time; if it took them 4 hours, surely it would take me 6. But Joe says "I did the ride a few weeks ago and it took about 2.5hrs", so the 4 should be a conservative effort. HA! They certainly aren't used to riding with the middle of the pack racers!

We started off on a crazy climb, the first bit on paved road then changing over to fsr & singletrack. Wow. What a horrible way to start. I'm not sure what it was, but I was dizzy, naseous, and at times couldn't push my bike up (Dan lent a hand in a few areas). I'm not sure how high we went, but it must have been through a few cloud layers. Then we hit a long rocky ascent on fsr. I've ridden on gravel before, but never seen this much rock. Truly unique. And quite challenging. Luckily I was feeling better by now and really tried a lot. In general I was pretty happy with this section, esp for not having seen this type of terrain before.

The crew waited for me one last time before we began a long descent. Yeah, most people can't wait for this part to start. Well, we know me and my fear of going downhill. Any hope Dan, Monica & Joe had of me catching up was certainly dashed once I took a look at that first rocky, rutted section. While it seemed to go on forever (sad to say it was much practice in hike-a-bike for me), it eventually smoothed out a bit to stuff rideable by me (although I still had my normal freakish issues with tight trails that drop off to my left, causing me white knuckles). I managed to escape the cover of the forest with just a few minor bruises, in about 5 hours. (Joe & Monica had long since left to get back to the sitter. I think Dan took a nap while waiting for me :)

The rest of Saturday was fun, games, margaritas, and wandering downtown Asheville (loved it!). Sunday was a good breakfast by Dano, then we loaded up the car to hit Tsali on the way back. To prepare for the Tsali Challenge triathlon coming up next month (that I may do, but Dan will actually compete in), we ran the 4mile trail running course, then hit the left loop on bikes (about 12 miles), cooling off in Fontana Lake after each leg. The temp gauge in his car read 99 when we got back (ugh!)This will definitely be a fun course if I can snag a boat to use (the first leg will be paddling). After stopping at the NOC for much needed cold refreshments, we hit the road back to Chatt-town (getting to drive through my favorite gorge by the Ocoee in Cherokee Nat'l Forest, where Adventure24 was).