Training around the Moorabool

Today I decided to ride much of the course that will form my Moorabool Mayhem ride next year. The concept of the ride is that it largely follows and crosses the Moorabool Valley in a number of places. This provides the opportunity to do a number of short sharp climbs with plenty of recovery in between. Several of the climbs are in excess of 10%.

 Across a valley

I generally rode at a cruisey pace (22 kph average over the whole ride) not wanting to breakdown the body too much as I slowly increase my base of endurance. Average HR was only 135 but I did peak at 180 bpm on the final climb before I resorted to walking for about 100 metres.

My Garmi GPS told me that I had gained over 1800m in elevation over the ride so all in all a solid day of training.

My course today. The ride next year will finish in Bannockburn

The elevation profile. Note the valleys.

A few of these signs on the ride