Upside Down My Whole Life
I have a confession to make, Superbowl Sunday turned out to be a training ride on the Rev3 Triathlon Olympic bike course. I hard as I tried, the ride was upside down from the start. Yes I had remounted my Garmin clip upside down. So the whole ride I was just a little off when trying to spot grade or speed.
This is where it all begins, The swim starts slightly up river at Calhoun's and you exit here at the UT Row house. Run across the road, dodge a goose and your in T1. Yes, 1,000 meters is downriver and it was a nice benefit to a slow swimmer like me. you will want a wet suit, I went sleeveless and was fine.The ride this year starts out a little different than last. You will exit left out of T1 and climb up to the woman's BB hall of fame. From here you will cross over to Gay st. bridge and head out to south Knoxville. You will make a right turn off the bridge and head up to the construction of Henley St Bridge. Watch here race day, pavement may be rough. From this point most of the course is exactly like last year. It does appear to have a 5 mi tail about midway that i tried to find on this ride but was not confident enough.
Here is the view at about the halfway point. For you doing the 70.3 you would cross this point at about mi 39. The ride is what I would call controlled effort. You start right out of the gate going up hill to the bridge and once over it, you have a couple mile run up to the first hill. Don't worry all the hills are less than 1/2 mile long just steep, about 8-11% grade. During last years race I stayed in my big gear. I have a confession, I ride a compact crack here so it was a 50t. Yesterday being an easy training ride, I did drop down on both larger hills. This year will be a big test, I will be coming over these with 54t On my new/used cruiser.
The hills have to be managed, you need to know when to push and when to settle back into a usable pace. Last year I felt great coming over them but could feel it at mile 5 in the run.
This is the other side of the road at the halfway point.
Post ride recovery was on my mind after a nice 40mi weekend solo ride.
Check out where I parked, all of these people are either training for the Ktown 26.2, walking their dogs or are cycling. Knoxville is a great little training area, I call it the Boulder of the East
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