Cedars of Lebanon

I live in the area and am very familiar with the roads.  I would describe the course as rolling; no extreme hills.  However, the last few miles, the course enters back into the park and the roads are rather rough with some big pot holes.

I'm also wondering what how the officals are going to handle a rather unique situation - this triathlon and the Tennessee State Time Trail Championships occur on the same day and both events will be using Cainsville Pike (at the same time!).  There is going to be a lot of bikes on that course and a lot of confusion.

Hilly for sure...I rode cainsville pike from the Boro on Sunday AM just to remember, its hilly but as longcrank said, not to bad.   The key is to push on the down hills to get some speed on the ups...or at least thats the plan.

Thanks much all!

On another note, I got clobbered several times in the OWS in XTERRA last weekend.  One guy actually swam up onto my back!  And I started in the back out of the way!  I swallowed water, hyperventilated, had to hang onto a Jet Ski several times; couldn't get my heart rate down at all.  I stayed anerobic way too much on the mtn bike and cramped badly and DNF'd the run.  Just like last year.  (No more Xterra for me!)  I'll bag Music City until next year and do Cedars of Lebanon and Old Hickory Lake.  Old Hickory Lake has a 400 yard OWS that should help restore my confidence.

I rode the entire course yesterday. I thought it was fairly difficult, especially early on. After leaving the park there are 2 or 3 pretty decent hills. I would get to the top, looking forward to the downhill, only to relize I was riding into a very strong headwind. Once making the turn on Cainsville Pike the route becomes much easier. After turning on Norene road, you go a couple of miles then the road becomes fairly rough. There are a couple of rollers, but it felt to be mostly downhill from mile 12 to the finish.

There are very few places that I would call flat.

I rode the course again today and, to my surprise, the hills were still there . Steven Taylor lead a group ride and gave us some pointers before the ride. I ran with my regular Saturday morning group before doing the ride. After 7 miles of running, the bike was tougher than I expected.

I hope everyone has trained well and I look forward to seeing you on Saturday.

Thanks for the info on the road course! 

I hope the humidity dies down somewhat.  Did a 17 mile mtn bike race today - brutal heat.

Who all is doing Cedars of Lebanon?  I'll be there with our 11 year old.

The first time I rode the course the bridges concerned me. The 2nd time I went over them at normal speed. They are supposed to have some covering on the bridges. I don't think the grates are any more likely to cause a flat. The only real problem is when you come off the bridge. There is a difference in the bridge and pavement height by 1 or 2 inches. I was a little concerned hitting this and getting a flat.

Mike, I looked for the smoothness on the left side. I really didn't see much of a difference. As a matter of fact, on one stretch I found it to be smoother on the far right.

Stephen didn't have many pointers for the rough part. He just said the most important thing was your bike handling skills. He had his regular training group out there earlier on Saturday. He indicated one of them had wrecked on this portion.

Probably the worse part is not so much the rough pavement, but it looks like a bulldozer drove this road. Whatever it was left indentions pretty much thru this entire stretch. If you get in these tracks it really feels rough.

Did we have fun at Cedars, despite the early rain? 

I was so focused on our 11 year old's 1st triathlon; making sure he had all of his equipment, etc., that while we were sitting in traffic at the Park, and I was lusting after that Cervelo P3C on the back of the SUV in front of me, I noticed dude had Look pedals; it then dawned on me I forgot my bike shoes!!!  Ack!

Swim was 5'ish and some change; I forgot to set my watch.  I do know that I had to "walk" behind two ladies that were swimming side by side and clogging the whole lane.  Not sure what the bike time was.  I couldn't stand up and attack anyone or any hills as my feet would slide off of the SPDs.  (I tried a few times anway.)  The last 2 miles of the bumpy stuff was brutal; both feet came off a few times and scared the snot out of me!

Our 11 year old blew groceries on mile 10 of the bike and DNFd.  I told him numerous times to practice...  I've heard other parents say that their kid's 1st tri is a disaster or really hard.  He is still stoked about tri and wants to do a few more Team-Magic next year.

Run was okay, but that hill going up to the turnaround was hard!  Sprinted the last 1/5 mile.

Noticed a dead rattlesnake on the road, on the left side maybe the first mile or two onto Chicken Road.

I think I was 7th out of 26 in my AG (45-49).

Was it fellow BT'er BlueRadierZone dude that I met there?

I had a blast, despite some issues, and will definitely do it again next year!

Any other war stories to share?

I agree, Cedars was fun.  I didn't know what to expect when I arrived and it started to rain.  I was scared of those rough roads and being heavy overcast, I just knew I would be road kill.  But, as it turned out, the rain stopped and the bike was actually my best leg. 

What did you think of the swim?  I thought Team Magic was not allowing enough time staging people into the pool.  I saw several instances of people shoving their way around slower swimmers. : (

The run was great.  Having the overcast sky seemed to keep the temperature at a bearable level.  I was my typical snail pace but at least it was comfortable.