2007 November 22, Low Key Hill Climb, Mt Hamilton

CTL: 110
TSB: 10
Teammates: Jay, Lucia, Luke, Phil, Rich and Saturday ride regular Dan.

Local superannuated track star Leo and I smack talked a bit before the race and I told him my best time up from the bottom to the observatory was 2:12 and he told me he did 1:57 two years ago so now I had a target to match!

Really big turnout and not much to say other than I cracked on the first climb! Took about 29:00 on the first climb and was right at FTP for NP but got a little ahead of myself and started leading a little group of LGBRC riders to help get Lucia up the road from the other ladies. We did drop one of her competitors at this point, and put the other on the ropes. Then I overdid it a bit and lost it. This was probably the worst spot to do it because there is a descent and a long section (most of the second climb) where drafting would be of significant help that I rode a solo for a large percentage of the time.

Anyways, duked it out with Dan for the next two climbs, taking 15:00 minutes for the second climb at NP of 234 and then struggling in the last climb at 41:00 minutes for a NP of 229. Probably harder than any of the road races I have done this year, but then again, probably need to try harder during the road races.

On the plus side, set a PR by about forty five minutes, and never sprinted so hopefully will have a good kick tomorrow at the track.

Now for the turkey...

Pavg: 221
Pnorm: 233
T: 1:33:15
C: 80
S: 19.2
D: 29.9 km
H: 177

2007 Nov 18 - Low Key Hill Climb, Sierra Road

Teammates: Dan, Rich, Jay, Luke, Eric, Rob? and Dan from the Saturday ride.

TSB: 11
CTL: 106

Based on the approximate 19 minute times for the pros, gave myself a target of 30 minutes using a 50% handicap per my best time on OLH versus the pros.

For a warmup, managed to park near where we do our informal Mount Hamilton rides and had to hustle to make the start on time.

There was a huge turnout for this hill climb, forebodes well for the Tour of California when they do this climb.

Managed to gain even more weight this week so left myself plenty of room for improvement next time I do Sierra.

Met up again with Francis from the dirt Alpine hill climb and RoadBikeReview.com and he claimed it took him an hour to do this last year on his MTB. Well we went back and forth taking turns passing each other. Dan also alternating passing and getting passed with me for quite a while. We talked about this afterwards and he thought I was surging a lot, I was mostly trying to keep my power output below VO2max power so I didn't blow so I slowed up a lot on the steepest sections and went much faster on the flatter sections where some others were recovering.

The hill lived up to the description - even though I had a 34-26 low gear, this was not enough for my abilities as I struggled to just keep moving on several sections. Since I have never done this, wasn't sure of the finish, but tried to pace myself for a thirty minute effort. As the minutes added up to twenty six, twenty seven, I thought for sure the summit would be at the next crest and I would be finishing in much less than thirty minutes but was met with another riser several times. Finally I could see people at the top of yet another rise. This was not that far away and there was a dip before the final bit so put it in the big ring and went all out and someone yelled out to me that there was more to go! The top was about twenty meters after this point where the road flattened out a bit so I had to restart and go a bit more to finish.



T: 29:21
S: 12.1 kph
C: 70! Pretty low average even though I consider myself a grinder and not a spinner.
H: 182
PAvg: 266
PNorm: 273

2007 Nov 11 - Low Key Hill Climb, Alpine Dirt

Teammates: Lucia

TSB: 17
CTL: 111

Daily diet of ice cream and leftover Halloween candy finally starting to catch up with me as weight is 2 kilograms more than the last Low Key Hill Climb...

Last minute venue change from Windy Point to the Alpine fire road from the end of Alpine Road to Page Mill. Did this last month on my road bike so the cross bike seemed like a good choice, used Michelin Jet tires with 40 PSI. On the way up Alpine we formed the largest mountain bike pack I have ever been in since I've done the Sea Otter Cross Country.

The first surprise on the course was a new layer of coarse gravel on the fire road right up until the single track. The found myself at the back of the lead pack of riders, the sight of the fellow on the road bike spurred me onward. There were a couple of lines that had a thinner layer of gravel that every one gravitated towards.

By the time we reached the single track section, the group had blown up into small packs of ones and twos. Was able to pass a few riders in the single track, one of these was a cross rider that I exorted to get back on his bike, because riding the steep section was killing my legs. Once it leveled out he passed me back as I struggled to recover a bit and keep the gas on. I was not sure how much more we had to go after the single track so tried to push hard and eventually caught back up to the other cross rider, and then was passed by Dan who ran most of the singletrack, and then caught sight of Dennis P. Was thinking maybe I should begin my last ditch effort when the next turn brought on a view of the finish within 20 meters so I just sprinted with all I had. Left a bit too much in the tank especially since I went harder up King's Mountain which is much longer!

T: 18:18
S: 12.6kph
PAvg: 267
PNorm: 270
C: 73
H: 186

2007 October 27 - Low Key Hill Climb - 84/WOLH

CTL: 113
TSB: 21 (AKA it's too dark and cold in the morning to keep riding hard )

Teammates: Luke, Rich, Kwan, and Dan from the Saturday ride.

Can't make the cross race tomorrow so put more focus on having a long day in the saddle today. Mapquest said it was thirty miles from my door to the start and figured it would be better for me just to ride there, finish the climb and crawl back home.

Took two hours to get to the start and burned approximately 900 calories even after going super slow up OLH, had to eat most of the food I brought with me to stock back up. The roads were nice, mostly dry and in the case of 84, freshly paved with as Rich noted, a slightly narrower shoulder than before the paving. Going backwards over the course was a good reminder that it is mostly uphill from the start with lots of small undulations. Got to spend some time enjoying the views of the beach as the nearest portapotty was at the state park about one mile away on Highway 1.

Started twenty seconds behind the fellow with SPD sandals who I traded pulls with at Diablo, and forty seconds behind the woman in the Lifestyles RX kit who wanted to know where Lucia was so they could have a little head to head competition. I told her she won by default. Joked with the sandals guy (sorry no name) that he inspired me to go faster as I did not want to get beat by the guy in sandals!

Went out hard for one minute and was surprised that both of the folks in front of me were keeping pace, then against better judgement I kept a higher than threshold pace for the next eight minutes and very slowly reeled both of them in at the same time. "Sandals" caught Lifestyles just a bit before I caught them and then I passed him. Tried to not draft but since the shoulder was narrow had to balance safety with sportsmanship there, once I felt myself easing up, force myself to pass. Then he passed me back. Then I passed him. This repeated itself for the next ten minutes. Was trying to figure out how far back I should stay when Lifestyles told me in a friendly voice to not draft, and figured I'm too close so I passed again. There was an intermediate timing point at Pescadero Road so I made it there in twenty minutes and change, maybe five seconds ahead of "Sandals". We exchanged passes a couple of more times and passed a few other riders before we got to the bottom of WOLH. Here he opened up a small gap to pass a Sierra Nevada rider.

It only takes about twelve minutes to climb WOLH so I comforted myself with the short amount of suffering left. Rode it earlier this week and knew there were a couple of spots where the big ring would be useful and finishing in the big ring was a good bet. Not a few times I thought of easing up but "Sandals" was always just a little bit ahead, sometimes more than twenty seconds and sometimes less. We got to the last bit where if I was just trying to finish the climb I might use the small ring but since we were racing I kept it in the big ring and almost caught "Sandals" at the finish.


T: 50:38
PAvg: 255
PNorm: 257
C: 84
H: 177
S: 26.7 kph

2007 Oct 20 Low Key Hill Climb - Mt Diablo

CTL: 115
TSB: 21

A lot of people use one hour as a bench mark for themselves on this particular climb, I've only done it once before on my mountain bike and it took me about 90 minutes so I had a much easier goal to meet. :)

Tons of club members for the ride and the after climb ride - Luke, Rich, Rob, Dan, Lucia, Kwan for the climb and Spike, Yvette, Garrett for the after climb ride.

I saw one guy who had so little body fat one could see the veins on the front of his legs and he also was using a $5000 pair of Lightweight brand wheels, so I was pretty sure I wasn't seeing him again after the start!

We went off in small groups, Lucia and another woman I that rode in my group at King's were in mine, plus a guy with a Everest Challenge jersey - this one little climb had to be tons easier than the Everest Challenge, but he said he was a slow rider. So of course he guns it after we pass the rough descent near the start and pulls away from everyone.

I consider being rational and pacing myself but can't help myself and go for it, and start reeling in riders from the group ahead and finally the Everest Challenge survivor. Look down at my time/average power and it's pretty good for me for 20:00 and I'm feeling good about myself when a fellow wearing a Camelbak catches and drops me easily - I dropped everything unnecessary from the race bike save one tube and the micro pump. By the one third point, the road starts to flatten out quite a bit and I regret having dropped every one else in my group. The headwinds are strong enough that a draft would probably help here. This proves out when two riders from our group catch me in the middle of this section. I satisfy myself with drafting for the most part for the next third or so of the climb.

The climbing resumes with a tortuous section exposed to the wind but the view is pretty nice to compensate. A few times even though I am working pretty hard I start to shiver uncontrollably which is a bad omen for the descent. Luke catches our group and we follow for a bit and then one by one let him go off at his own pace. There are scattered riders ahead of us and we each surge a bit trying to close the gaps and then my two companions gradually fall off the pace. I spent the last quarter of the climb going back and forth with one rider. At one point it is so cold and windy I can see his breath streaming behind him for a good four or five feet. Finally we see Camelbak, but also signs of the top so I dig really hard and close to within a few seconds of Camelbak but fall just short.

Probably should have paced the entire climb more evenly but unfamiliarity with the course makes that hard.

P.S. Checked out a creaking I heard during the warmup and there was a loose spoke and my rear wheel was rubbing on the brake! Doh.

T: 1:02:49
Pavg: 243
Pnorm: 250
C: 80
S: 17.2
D: 18.09
H: 175

2007 Oct 6 Low Key Hill Climb - King's Mountain

CTL: 123
TSB: 14
Teammates: Jay (week off the bike and recovering from cold), Luke, Rich, and Saturday ride comrades Erik B and Dan

Somehow got talked into this even though I am not a climber. Started off the day by misreading the start time by an hour due to either dyslexia or dementia. Dog Gam! Anyways showed up early by time trialing to the start thinking I was late, so got a super long warmup with time for extra jibber jabber.


Based on the finish times for Luke and Rich at Montebello, decided to go with the slower group behind them. We warmed up by riding from Alpine/Portola Valley and Dan remarked that he wasn't sure why we were going so fast - most of the riders in our group were unattached and perhaps did not race that much. I didn't think it was that bad but we went so hard we caught the group ahead of us on their warmup.

This was a portent of things to come - Dan and I eventually dropped every one who started with us. We staged in on Greer with Dan and I at the rear about ten yards back of the front of the group. Usually I time from the stop sign at the bottom to the stop sign at the top so I *think* this would be a slightly longer distance from Greer to a little bit short of the stop sign at the top.

The riders at the front went really hard at the start. I just tried to follow wheels and close gaps when riders got dropped. We still had eight riders when we got close to the park entrance when I got tired of the surging and just went to the front. I didn't feel that bad but noticed our intensity for the first ten minutes was almost as hard as I do shorter five minute VO2max intervals!

At this point, it was a matter of reeling riders in front of me from other groups, go hard but not hard enough to blow. Saw lots of folks I know but could only manage a short "hey" or "hi" between gasps for breath. Pacing myself behind people or trying to catch people *seems* easier than just pacing by myself because I managed to set a new PR by about two minutes. Riding the lighter, race bike setup probably helped a lot, too.

This was a really well done event with snacks at the end and free energy gel at the start. May have to do more of these, even though it's not the best prep for cross racing the next day.

30/72

T: 25:59
S: 16.0
C: 83
H: 184
Pavg:274
Pnorm:276
D: 6.879 km

mass: ~65kg