Lots of climbing

When I first heard the distances for the race in China (4K swim, 120K bike, 20K run), I was most concerned about the swim since I've only done 1.2 in races before. However, now that I've seen the elevation profile of the bike course, I think the bike will be the most challenging part. I need to find a lot of hills to climb this summer to be ready for this:

So far, I've done the Assault on Marion, a 52 mile ride that included Mt Olivet, and the hardest bike ride I've ever done - the Tour de Cashiers metric century. I think Tour de Cashiers had around the same amount of total climbing in a similar distance, but it was a lot of long, somewhat gradual (but it definitely still had its share of steep parts) climbs - we just don't have such short, steep, hills around here. Still, since I'm not going to spend my summer in Weihai, I'll just have to practice on what we've got. I love this picture a fellow rider took during the Tour de Cashiers:

I actually grew up on the road this picture was taken on, and I knew people biked it (it's part of a loop the local riders call the Ring of Fire… for good reason). I never planned to be one of those people, but I did it!!!

Now I'm planning my summer schedule and looking at some more rides in the NC mountains. Maybe Blood Sweat and Gears, Roan Moan and/or Blue Ridge Breakaway?