Registration opened today. For those who haven’t heard of it, it’s the Off Road Assault on Mt. Mitchell- 63 mile/100 km mountain bike race with nearly 11,000 feet (3350 meters) of climbing in Pisgah:
Most of the climbing is on gravel roads and most of the descending is on single track, with a short hike-a-bike at the top of the longest climb.
This will be my first time doing it and my A race for 2020 (first true A race in several years, actually). Figure I’ll follow the SSB plans followed by sustained power build due to the length of the climbs and likely the century specialty to prepare, along with some traditional XC races in the spring if life allows.
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I’ve been doing Blue Ridge Adventure races for over a decade now, they do a great job. I’ve done ORAMM 3-4 times over the years so I’m probably not going to do it this yeah. I’ve been focusing on their short course versions, which in that case is the Jerdon Mountain Challenge. 30 miles and less than half the elevation gain. Good luck - I would focus strongly on sustained build after working in a strong base. Then go to the marathon XC specialty. It’s a long day for most riders 6 hours plus.
Do you live in the area? I haven’t met any local TR users yet.
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Thanks! I was debating marathon vs. century since they’ve talked about using the century plan for events in the neighborhood of 6+ hours on the podcast. But marathon would make sense especially since I’d like to do more races in the months following as well. I did the Jerdon back in 2017, before I got TR and on a comically bad pre-race prep (long story). I was right at 3 hours for that. So this is a redemption of sorts!
I live outside of Winston-Salem so not too far. I mostly stick to local stuff, but will try to go up and pre-ride everything in the spring and early summer just to get some climbing in my legs.
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I just signed up for ORAMM 2020! My only bike racing has been enduros (mostly in CO) so this is a big change of pace. Planning on doing some gravel racing throughout the spring (Boyd series, Bootlegger) to figure the long-race pacing/tactics/nutrition/etc. Also doing the Pisgah enduro in June to get some familiarity with the ORAMM trails (I live in Greenville, SC and so more regularly ride the brevard area pisgah trails)
In terms of TR stuff, I just plugged the races into plan builder and selected low volume. I figure I’ll supplement with long outdoor mtb and gravel rides to add TSS
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