New PR - Old La Honda Bike Climb
Finally broke a personal goal on Father's Day.
There is a ~ 3.3 mile bike climb called Old La Honda road; it climbs 1260 feet from portola valley to Skyline Blvd. The ride ends with a short steep uphill filled with potholes and rough that truly adds insult to injury.
Previous record was 20:04, on 7/7/04. On 6/19/05, did it in 19:55. Amazing how hard it is to average 10 miles per hour!
Here is what pain looks like:
This essentially means the heart rate was pegged at 170+ and remained above that for about 19 minutes straight. I averaged 176 bpm (97% of max) and touched 188 (103% max). To ride this hard, you have to be at 100% physical effort with complete mental focus. The key is to "red line" your heart rate yet back off slightly to recover if you start to blow up. You can do this by standing or shifting to lower gear and spinning more. But once you've recovered, you need to push up the pace again from the "not comfortable" to "really not comfortable" zone. There is something very intriguing about being simultaneously mentally and physically focused-which is rare in typical daily life. In any case, a 20 minute effort is 5 minutes longer than is humanly very tolerable--it's almost impossible to not let your mind wander and loose focus.
The most impressive display of physical and mental focus like this is Lance Armstrong's climb up L'Alpe d'Huez in 2004. That climb is 9.6 miles long-and he did it in 39 minutes, with lunatic fans spitting at him and standing just in front of him. I can't imagine all that additional distraction piled on top, let alone holding that intensity for not 15 or 20 minutes-but 39. Impressive.
There is a ~ 3.3 mile bike climb called Old La Honda road; it climbs 1260 feet from portola valley to Skyline Blvd. The ride ends with a short steep uphill filled with potholes and rough that truly adds insult to injury.
Previous record was 20:04, on 7/7/04. On 6/19/05, did it in 19:55. Amazing how hard it is to average 10 miles per hour!
Here is what pain looks like:
This essentially means the heart rate was pegged at 170+ and remained above that for about 19 minutes straight. I averaged 176 bpm (97% of max) and touched 188 (103% max). To ride this hard, you have to be at 100% physical effort with complete mental focus. The key is to "red line" your heart rate yet back off slightly to recover if you start to blow up. You can do this by standing or shifting to lower gear and spinning more. But once you've recovered, you need to push up the pace again from the "not comfortable" to "really not comfortable" zone. There is something very intriguing about being simultaneously mentally and physically focused-which is rare in typical daily life. In any case, a 20 minute effort is 5 minutes longer than is humanly very tolerable--it's almost impossible to not let your mind wander and loose focus.
The most impressive display of physical and mental focus like this is Lance Armstrong's climb up L'Alpe d'Huez in 2004. That climb is 9.6 miles long-and he did it in 39 minutes, with lunatic fans spitting at him and standing just in front of him. I can't imagine all that additional distraction piled on top, let alone holding that intensity for not 15 or 20 minutes-but 39. Impressive.
posted by Twain at
8:00 AM
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