Muskoka 70.3 training update

One of the reasons I have been so absent lately was because I went on vacation to visit my sister in Nashville.  Holidays coupled with dual workout days, leaves little time for blogging. I have been trying to visit and comment sporadically on your blogs.

Also congratulations to Mel on her recent triathlon completion!!!! She signed up for another one right away. Awesome, and just posted some great pictures of her tearing up the course.

I had an opportunity to ride most of the Muskoka 70.3 bike course with some friends that are also racing the Ironman.  The race takes place about 2.5 hours from where I live, and my friend has a cottage nearby,  so I was fortunate to be able to go up and ride the route. The bike course route is actually 94Km (~58 miles) instead of the usual 90Km (~56 miles). This is because the course is basically shaped liked a lollipop,  and goes around a huge lake called the Lake of Bays. The course map can be found here if you are curious.

I snatched a video from the Ironman website. In the video 11-time Ironman Lisa Bentley previews the Muskoka course:

Don't those Ironman videos give you the chills? I need to give props to Lisa, who is a real role model for Canadian female triathletes. A few years ago, my sister Melissa was given full paid trip to compete in Ironman Canada (Ontario to BC) from Lisa's winnings (my sister had won her age group at a triathlon in Peterborough, Ontario). She is very supportive to budding triathletes!

On another note, did you see that elevation chart? The course is super hilly! I really felt it on my practice ride, I certainly had moments of doubt - can I do this??!! I know I can, but let me tell you - it won't be fast or easy!

I know people who have completed several full and half Ironmans that say its the hardess 70.3 course (its actually longer than 70.3 since the bike is 4km longer, I think the swim is 1.9K instead of 2K). But although its hard, its super beautiful, so I am going to try to focus on that during the bike and run. I am going to ride it again on Tuesday with a friend, we are driving up early Tuesday morning so I think that will help with my mental and physical preparation.

While in Nashville, I had a chance to ride an equally challenging and wonderfully scenic route on the Natchez Trace Parkway. What is the Natchez Trace?


What Is The Natchez Trace Parkway?

The 444-mile Natchez Trace Parkway commemorates an ancient trail used by animals and people that connected southern portions of the Mississippi River, through Alabama, to salt licks in today's central Tennessee. Today, visitors can experience this National Scenic Byway and All-American Road through driving, hiking, biking, horseback riding, and camping.

So basically the road is for recreational use only - no transports, and has a relatively low speed limit. Heaven for a cyclist!!! We rode 91Km of the Natchez Trace and it was challenging but AWESOME. The road goes through the Alpalachian Mountains through Tenessee, cuts through part of Alabama, and ends in Mississipi (which is apparently flat but the part near Nashville was not). 

Here is most of our route from Map our Ride. We rode 25 miles out, 25 back.

The Natchez Trace starts in Nashville at a cute little tourist area, where there is a hotel famous for smoked ham called the Loveless Cafe and Motel.  Cute.  Hubs and I went in and shared a meal (although not ham, we had smoked turkey- we don't eat red meat or pork) and it was HUGE!!  More than we could finish between the two of us.   They really cater to cyclists and had even a bike shop right there called Trace Bicycles,  and other cute art and crafts type shops.

It hard to tell,  but this is an area that is about 100 meters up in the air called Birds Hollow.  Hubs didn't want to pause long to take my picture.  You kinda of had a feeling of flying through here- cool and scary at the same time,  my bike computer hit over 60km/h (36 mph) at several points of the trip!

We saw flocks of wild turkeys and even a snake that was large enough to eat a rat!! (sorry no pics, we gave the snake a wide berth!)

Lots of climbling....

Lots

and lots

of climbing!!

Entrance and exit to the Trace..

The route has washrooms,  bed and breakfast hotels, and campsites along the route. I was thinking I would like to ride the entire route - all 444 miles maybe in the spring. Anyone interested in joining? I think it would be an awesome experience!

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Happy Friday Thanks for reading!!