I'm training for the Gran Fondo NY coming up in a month and a half, with a plan Brad put together. The GF route is quite hilly, with ascents of Little Tor (northbound), Buckberg Mountain, Bear Mountain (to the summit), Gate Hill, Little Tor (southbound), as well as the various hills needed to connect them (Toga, State Line, etc). So anyway, Brad's foul plan for yesterday called for four repeats of River Road (from the parking lot), to which I added a trip up Eisenhower, for 45mi. (Strava link)
The River Road repeats were exciting, as always. I seem to be able to knock out three without much difficulty (though my back isn't a huge fan). The unpleasantness kicks in about halfway up the fourth. I can only imagine how exciting next week's five repeats will be. All the whining aside, it is pretty cool to know that I can string together that many repeats and still walk away from it, so to speak.
This was only my second time up Eisenhower. The descent to Eisenhower, on Hillside (from 9W), is easily one of my favorite descents in the area. Perhaps I'll grow jaded, but for now it's lots of fun. I don't know exactly why I like it more than State Line. Maybe it's that the descent is windier. Maybe it's because I haven't done Hillside three thousand times. Who knows.
Eisenhower has three hills. The first and the third are brutal. It's like force work, without the inconvenience of needing to change to a higher gear. The scenery is nice, though. Giant mansions (in varying degrees of tastefulness) line the road. You could hear a pin drop in this neighborhood after everyone's gone to work, so there's almost no traffic. Just climb, climb, climb, climb.
Here's the descent to, and ascent of, Eisenhower. Yes, the camera was on sideways. Sorry.
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