Today was the annual party hosted by Peggy and George with a club ride before. We usually do a ride up Henry Coe, then down in the valley, before climbing back up to their house. However due to a fire in Henry Coe that road was blocked so Gary, Joe and I decided to do some hill repeats before regular ride so we could get in the climbing we wanted. We were also joined by Ken.

I rode from home and met Gary, then we rode over to Thomas Grade to meet Joe and Ken and did five hill repeats. This is a good hill to do repeats on because it is not too long (takes about 7 minutes to climb) and there is a fast descent down Dunne Ave. so you don’t have too long of a time between repeats.

I also checked the total climb and if we start the climb from Hill road we get just 500 feet, enough to qualify to be a billygoat climb in our club. The first climb I did in my big chain ring, ouch! I checked later and found the overall grade is about 8.2%. This chart shows my heart rate dropping, as we were stopping to pickup Joe where he parked. The No. 1 and 2 on the horizontal axis are the splits for the beginning and end of the climb. I kept my heart rate down somewhat because we were doing repeats.

Thomas Grade Climb (Click graph to enlarge)

After doing the five hill repeats we biked over to Peggy and George’s house for the ride start. The ride took us down to the valley and over some more moderate climbs over Willow Springs, then up Croy Canyon. On the way back the four of us were joined by Brian. Off of Sycamore we climbed a hill that Gary knew about but no one else had climbed called Armsby. It is a real nasty hill (see the chart below). I measured the grade on the way back down from points 10 to 11 on the graph and it came out to be 15.7% overall for a half a mile.

Armbsy Climb (Click graph to enlarge)

We then headed over to do Rolling Hills, another very steep hill. This chart shows the elevation and my heart rate going up (in my double crankshaft no less). I did a split at the bottom of the steep part to the top (points 13 and 14) and the average grade is 14.9% over 0.4 miles, a bit less than Armsby. The maximum grade on rolling hills is higher, I believe. Still I felt that Armsby was by far the tougher climb because it had a higher overall grade over a longer climb and there was no spots, as on Rolling Hills, to get any breather. It is a constant UP!

Rollings Hills Climb (click to enlarge)

This chart shows the entire day. I rode 90 miles, including the mileage back home after the party. (Click graph to enlarge)

Categories: Cycling Group Rides
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