Stone Mountain Training

I have been looking for a cycling benchmark to use as my season progresses. Without forecasting beyond this month, I think it is safe to assume that each week, I will have a 90 minute ride on Tuesday or Wednesday. I have begun to spend more time out at Stone Mountain now that the days are longer.

Stone Mountain provides a great training venue (so long as you don't get bored with laps). The inner lap is roughly 5 miles and the outer lap is about 8. The terrain, naturally, is hilly. Some of the climbs are short and steep, others are a bit long and tedious. The course is more or less closed off from traffic and there is a bike lane for half the inner loop. I find it to be the perfect blend between hills for strength, descending for handling and flats for power.

I have proposed to the Atlanta crew, the idea of me leading a weekly training group out there. The course I propose is 27 miles and can be altered depending on speed. It currently takes me just under 90 minutes at 18 mph. I think my goal for the season will be to get this down to about 80 minutes and over 19 mph. That is a loft goal given this terrain




So my benchmark for the season will be the following. It was an average ride on exhausted legs:

Lap 1: 17:08
Lap 2: 14:29
Lap 3: 15:37
Lap 4: 16:26
Lap 5: 24:35
Total time 1h 28m