A plan is forming: 10K in a Day

Well, I spent some time on Google Earth scoping out local stuff that seemed to qualify for a 10K day attempt. There is no one climb in my area that gives you that kind of up-ness in one shot, or even two, so either I do a major mileage day to get to 10K' or I do laps on a loop course and maximize the time spent pedaling. In other words, either up or down, but little across. Any pedaling that does not go directly toward up or down is just wasted time and energy.

It would be nice to have it be relatively non-techy, most fireroads around here qualify, and if it was close to town for lunch breaks at the local fast food/gas station mart, even better. Also, it would make for a relatively easy bail out point if things got too ugly.

There is a local climb some call The Beast. I don't know, it is not THAT hard, usually about an hour climb to get 1,500'. A middle CR climb for fit and FRESH riders, it would be a pretty wicked hill after a few hours of climbing. Just a bit down the road at the summit is another fireroad that has approximately the same number of elevation gain. The plan would be to begin in town, climb The Beast, drop down the other fireroad, turn around, climb back out and then down The Beast (kinda silly name) for one 'lap'. Should be just over 3,000'. Repeat until 10K.

Anyway, maybe a bit contrived as I am sure there will be days to come, God willing, that I hit that kind of gain in the course of a day of XC riding in some event or another, but as a benchmark to shoot for, it qualifies.

When I get past this plague that has me sniffling and shuffling around like a zombie, I will do a test ride and see exactly what one lap gives me. I figure 3 hours per lap when I am fresh, much more time later when I am waaay past fresh. Much, much more.