It was only 5 days ago that we were in Utah and I rode up Alpine Loop to see the snow from a recent storm. I did not take a jacket and was very cold on the way down.  Today’s long ride out to the junction was HOT HOT HOT.  Kind of like out of the kettle into the fire.

I was leading a long ride for the bike club.  The official start was in San Jose, but I figured starting from Morgan Hill would be the same distance, please riders said they were going to meet us along the way.  To meet meet the timing I would have had to start biking from home at 6:30 am, but it was still dark so I asked Ann to drive me 6 miles towards Morgan Hill and I started there, at about 6:55 am.  It was warm enough, despite the early hour, that I did not need any arm warmers.  Ten minutes later I met Gary F and we rode together up Monterey to Bailey.  We then made our way over and did the first climb of the day, Metcalf.  I did the climb slower than usual because I had a long ride ahead.  We had to wait at the top for any riders to show up and then only two did.

We then started down the backside and were met by Russ and Joe F.  Not long after that Cindi S. was coming the other way and turned around to join the group.  We made our way of to Quimby for the second climb.  Quimby is a nasty climb of nearly 2,000 feet with some sections that approach 20% grade.  I had not really tried to time the climb up there for years so I did push a bit harder to see how I was doing compared with several years ago.  Since those prior times were all set on a short ride, I felt good with my time which was less than a minute off my best time ever and better than I ever did in 2004.

Russ and Gary had gone ahead of me but the others were all behind.  There was not waiting at the top of Quimby by the leaders so I headed down and to Mt. Hamilton road where I caught them getting water.  We then had the long climb up to the top of Mt Hamilton.  It was already getting hot.  We passed Louise M. on the way up, she had started the climb earlier.  Russ had reached the summit before anyone so Gary and I stopped just long enought to fill our water bottles then head down.

Due to the heat our plan was to turn around at the bottom and make the climb up Mt. Hamilton before it got too hot.  Gary, Russ and I stopped at the Isabel Creek to wait for others.  Then we started to talk about going to the junciton, per the orignal plan.  No one else showed up so we headed out to the junction, not realizing how hot it was going to be.

I had a simple lunch, a turkey sandwich and some potato chips.  Russ and Gary both had a big lunch with a lot of french fires.  I thought I could never eat all those fires and climb up the backside.

We didn’t take too long to eat because we knew the temperatures would continue to rise.  We each bought a Gatorade to stick in our back pocket because we knew that two water bottles would not be enough to make it back to the summit in this heat.  I ended up drinking mine on the spot then filled the bottle with water to carry.

On the way back we saw a couple of cyclists headed in the same direction, pulled off the road resting in the shade.  One yelled out that it was 112 degrees. I check my cyclometer and it was reading 112, although it tends to read high when in direct sunlight.  But then my body was in direct sunlight!

The three of us were biking together until the last climb before we descending back to Isabel Creek for the start of the big climb.  Then Russ started to move ahead and Gary started to fall behind.  As we started to climb up the backside of Mt. Hamilton, I slowed was gaining on Russ but I could no longer see Gary.  I caught Russ as we approached the spring at the 3 mile mark (3 miles from the top) so we stopped there to splash some water on ourselves and cool off.  We waitd for awhile and still no Gary.  I started to worry about him since he is a faster climber than I am.

A van was now coming up the hill so I flagged it down to see if they had seen a cyclists.  As it was stopping I could see that Gary was in the van.  I guess he had some issue so the driver offered to carry him to the top.  Russ and I got back on our bikes and finished the climb to the summit.  There we found Gary laying on the ground.  He had become dehyrated, was cramping and even had the chills.  I rush up to get him a cold drink and then he used some water to cool himself off.  We knew we needed to wait for him to recover.  Here is how fast I climbed the backside, but did stop at the spring, so I had some rest midway.

Eventually he wanted to go ahead and bike so we all started down the hill.  Then it was a climb back over Quimby. After reaching the San Jose Valley we could really feel the heat again, after a bit of cooler temperatures at 4,000 feet summit of Mt. Hamilton.  Russ headed his own wan and Gary and I headed back to Morgan Hill.  Gary was not feeling well so we stopped at a McDonlds to cool off and have some drinks.  I wanted him to have more time to hyrate.  We filled our water bottles with ice and water there and then headed back home.

I dropped Gary off in Morgan Hill and then biked home.  It was past 6 pm when I finally finished.  I had biked 135 miles and climbed nearly 13,000 feet.  My HRM showed only 11,900 feet, but last time I did this same route it was 12,700 feet.  We’ve been under a high pressure system resulting in a reduction of accumulated gain. I will use 12,800 since I did an additional climb up Santa Terresa to Miller this time.   This was therefore the most climbing ever on a training ride.

If I had done all five passes on the Death Ride, I would have biked 6 miles less and climbed 2,000 feet more, so this was some training ride.

I took a quick shower and Ann and I went out to dinner. I was felling fine, despite the hot weather, long distance and considerable climbing.  I was more confident that I was ready for the Everest Challenge.

This is the profile of the ride.

Categories: Everest Challenge, Training Log, Training Program
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This morning Ann and I got up to stormy weather.  We had heard the rain all night in our Utah home and figured we would not be able to get in any running or cycling.  Later in the morning the rain stopped so we decided to go out for a 6 mile run on the Provo canyon trail.  It was unseasonally cold since even with jackets on we were feeling a bit cool.  Up on the mountains we could see some SNOW from the storm!

Later in the afternoon the sun finally came out so I head out on for a bike ride.  I was fooled into riding with only short sleeved jersey and cycling shorts.  But it was now 60 degrees so it was okay. I had intended to ride up Squaw Peak, but having done that four times in the last two days, I decided to go further and ride up the Alpine Loop.  That road goes to over 8,000 feet so I figured I would be riding up by the snow we could see from the valley floor.

As I continued to climb, the temperatures kept dropping.  I finally reached the summit and noticed the temperature was now down to 49 degrees. I had tried to do a good time up the climb and had set a new record.

I still felt warm enough due to the climb but the descent down the Alpine Loop was COLD.  I should have brought a jacket.  I did make one stop to warm up a bit and take this photo with my iPhone to send to Ann. You can see a little snow in the distance on the hill top.

Being Labor Day, there was a lot more traffic than I usually found on this rode.  This was especially true from Sundance down where I had many cars behind so I descended down quickly to not be in their way.  That made me even more cold.  In fact I was cold all the way back home.  Quite an unusal ride for this time of the year.

Categories: Training Log
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When in California my favorite place to do hill repeats is up Thomas Grade. There each climb is a 400 ft. elevation gain and takes about 7 minutes.  This is similar to doing mile repeats when I am running.  Being in Utah I didn’t have the same type of hill but I do have a longer climb of a similar grade up Squaw Peak.

So yesterday I set out to do repeats up this hill.  I watched the elevation on my Polar heart rate monitor to know where to start and stop each interval.  I pushed hard to climb 400 feet vertically, then biked easy for a 200 foot climb, then repeat.  I was able to do three repeats when I reached the summit.

This graph shows my heart rate increasing for each of the three repeats.

My times were not quite as fast as when I did a similar 400 foot climb up Thomas Grade, but then I had ridden 120 miles the prior day and was not yet recovered.

Click here to see all my cycling repeats and intervals training.

Categories: Speed Workout
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