Adding a little spice

I do a lot of riding up Hicks road south of Los Gatos. Depending on what I want to accomplish it can serve many purposes: pre-race opener to the base of the hard climb, taskmaster when I decide to climb up the 10%+ gradient all the way to the top, easy recovery ride to just chill.

Today was a bit different. I decided to tackle two of the side roads that I routinely pass:

• Pheasant Rd
• Mostly shaded and about 0.6 miles long. The average gradient is probably around 6-7% and it kicks up to around 8% for the final 200 meters. I didn't go too hard and it took about 4:40 to get up to the top. This would be a nice little hill if you want to do some 4 minute intervals on a hill. Absolutely no traffic either way.
• Reynolds Rd
• Immediately noticeable is the steeper gradient when compared to Pheasant. It's probably 8-9% the whole way up (it could be steeper...but I don't have that data in front of me). Total distance is 1.2 miles and it took a lazy 13 minutes for me to climb. Pretty constant gradient with some shade, but more exposure.

Now that I've explored these dead end climbs, I'll probably use them as needed for intervals. It's "nice" to have some additional options for more pain-induced intervals.