Yesterday was the first of a 3-day training camp. Our ride took us around the Woodside area and north along Canada Road for about 2 hours. Then it was time to do some repeat climbs up Old La Honda (OLH). Those of you in the area know it's pretty much the baseline climb used by folks in this area to test their climbing ability.
The goal yesterday was to ride OLH three times, with each successive climb being faster than the previous attempt. This sounded easy, but it takes focus to restrain yourself at times when climbing. The first time up I stuck it in the 25t and managed to make it up in 25:47 (average HR was 152). After descending on Hwy 84 and toodling back to OLH, I hit it again. This time I did it in the 23t and proceeded to clock in at 23:40. Now on to the real fun...
I don't usually do repeats on the same climb during my training rides, but now I was becoming much more familiar with the climb since I had done it twice in the past hour. I knew that I could easily go faster on my third attempt as I remembered areas where I could downshift and gain some valuable time/speed.
On the third and final attempt I stuck it in the 21t and proceeded to hammer away. After about five minutes the HR settled in around 172 and I was averaging 390 watts. Things were hurting but I figured since I had never climbed OLH for time I might as well trudge on and see what would happen.
As I neared the top my HR was around 181 and the finish line was in sight. One of my goals for 2009 is to break 20 minutes on this climb. I clocked in at 19:17! A victory for all tall and lanky cyclists who can't climb. Scary to think this was with my heavy training wheels, a saddle bag full of stuff and it being my third time up the climb.
With the San Brutal (Bruno) hill climb coming up on New Years Day I'd say I'm ready for this race. Not that I'll be winning because that's probably unrealistic, but I should be able to set a new personal best on that climb which will be a personal win in its' own right for myself.
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3 comments:
Hey good job on the sub 20!
See you New Year's Day!
Thanks!
I was just doing my research on the USA Cycling results search page to see how the rest of the Cat 3 field looked for their past results. There are some fast guys. I'm hoping somebody will drag me up far enough the hill that I can at least be in the slipstream of anybody and then do my best to set a new personal best on the climb.
I did 32 min up OLH a couple of weeks back ...but it was only my second climb of the last 6 months and I was just seeing if I could do it, not how fast.
How fun at San Brutal. Been there for the past two years, but this year I will sleep in on the first.
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