Measured Improvement

[official results] [route map] [series description]

This past weekend was the start of this year's Low-Key Hillclimb Series, which I participated in last year. I will not be able to attend as many events this time because of schedule conflicts, but I really wanted to attend the opener. Most of the routes are changed each year, but the opener is always Montebello Road, an old favorite of mine.

Because I rode the same event last year and had my time recorded, I would see how much an intense year of training has improved my conditioning. Since last time, I have lost about 10 pounds, and have a Death Ride and California Triple Crown under my belt. I was curious to see how big a time improvement this would translate into. The other nice thing about the Montebello ride is that it is close to my home, unlike most of the other routes this year.

I rode to the staging area about 30 minutes before the start time. After registering, I chatted with some of the friends I made during last year's series. I talked a while with my friend Adam, whose report on the Death Ride last year was one of my primary sources of research for my attempt at it this year. (Adam wrote his own report about this ride on his journal.) Since I was wearing my Death Ride jersey, a few other people talked to me about this year's Death Ride.

As usual, I decided to start near the back of the pack. Even though I expected to be faster than last year, I am still not nearly as strong as most of the guys (and many of the women) who do this. One psychological benefit of this is that no one passed me, yet I passed several people. I kept pace with Adam and several of the other guys of the "slower group" in the steep initial section of the road. But after half a mile I increased my effort slightly and slowly pulled away from them.

By the time we reached the flat section in the middle, the groups had mostly spread out. I was close to a couple other guys in front of me. I had slowly caught up to them on the steep part, but they pulled away on the flat part. I knew that I would again gain ground once we reached the final steep part.

It had rained overnight, but it was bright and sunny in the morning when we started. The road was still wet in places, but was not difficult to ride on. However, as we neared the top, we were hit with fog and light rain. Fortunately it was not heavy enough to make the road slick.

Photo by Josh Hadley.
Panting and struggling to reach the finish line.

With less than one quarter mile left to the finish, I passed one of the guys in front of me on a particularly steep pitch. I was able to stay in front of him, but could not catch the next guy by the time we crossed the finish line. I looked at my bike computer and saw that my total time was 40:30, which was exactly the time that Adam had predicted for me before the start.

My time this year was four minutes faster than last. This may not sound like a large improvement, but on a steep road, it is difficult to make increases this large. It was actually a bigger improvement than what I expected, so I was very happy with it.

The Hills are Green Again

This weekend turned out to be great for cycling. The weather has warmed up. The rains that we have been having has turned the hills green again, and has replenished the creeks and streams that will go dry again in the summer.

I did a significant ride both days this weekend, the first time I was able to do that in a while. But there is nothing too interesting to say about them, so this report will be short.

On Saturday, I rode up Montebello Road and then followed that up with a ride up (the short but steep) Redwood Gulch Road. The ride ended up being 40 miles with more elevation that I have done in a long time.

Click to see a short video of this mini-waterfall near Stevens Creek.

On Sunday, I rode up Highway 9. This is only moderately steep, but a good 6 miles long. I ended up doing it in the usual 45 minutes, so it turns out I have not lost too much conditioning. In a couple weeks I should be back to doing some challenging rides with no concerns.

Winter Riding

Since my ride from Coalinga, I have only done some short rides. I did not have much to say about them, so I have not written anything for a while. It is not easy to keep an aggressive ride schedule at this time of year for three reasons:

1. Daylight is very limited this time of year (7am to 5pm).
2. The temperatures are lower. They are not so cold that riding is not possible, rather it is a nuisance because extra planning required.
3. We get all our rains this time of year, so the mountain roads can be slick and debris-covered.
   

It seems like we have been having more continuous days of rain than usual this year. This past weekend was the first time in quite a while that the rain let up for long enough to make biking possible. I was able to explore a couple places that I had not visited before.

On Saturday, I rode up Montebello Road. This was nothing new; I have written about this route a couple times already. What was different was that I did not turn around and ride back down. The road dead-ends at the top, but it continues (inaccessible to cars) as a gravel road for a few miles until it connects to Page Mill Road.

Normally, off-pavement riding is not possible on a road bike, which has very narrow tires. The problem is that the thin, high-pressure tires sink into gravel, get caught in ruts, and cut into soft ground. Mountain bikes have no such problems because their tires are much wider and low-pressure. But I had read that this trail is doable on a road bike, so I thought I would give it a try.

I was also very curious as to where this trail connected to Page Mill Road. I have been on Page Mill dozens of times because it is my standard mid-week ride in the summer. But I was never able to determine where the intersection was on that side.

Riding on the trail turned out to be mostly no problem. There were a couple places where I had to get off and walk. These were mostly steep uphill or steep downhill sections. It was not possible for me to get enough traction to do them safely. There was also one flat section where the gravel was too deep for me to keep the wheels in a straight line.

I discovered why I never saw the intersection with Page Mill Road. The Montebello Road trail stop short of Page Mill, and connects to a private driveway that leads to several private houses. This smooth paved road connects to Page Mill at an electric gate, with several mailboxes next to it. Riding on Page Mill, I always assumed that this was just a housing development. From here, I just descended on Page Mill and uneventfully went home.

Montebello Biking and Wine Tasting

I had no route planned for my weekend ride. Earlier in the week, I got in touch with Paul, my former co-worker at Rearden. I had not talked to him for a few months. He suggested we meet again at Ridge Winery on Saturday for some wine tasting. Ridge is on Montebello Road — one of my favorite roads to bicycle on.

I first rode on Montebello Road last summer, and have ridden it many times since then. The road is fairly steep and medium distance. There are wineries at both the bottom and top of the hill. The first time I rode there, I thought it was peculiar that the winery at the top was fairly big yet nondescript. It did nothing to advertise itself.

The Santa Cruz Mountains are not a significant wine growing area like Napa or Sonoma counties. I assumed that the wineries here are small, insignificant operations. I found out later that this is true for most of the wineries, but definitely not true for the one at the top of Montebello Road.

Ridge Winery is actually a famous and historically important one. It was one of the participants in the 1976 "Judgement of Paris" wine tasting that established California wines as world-class. To this day, Ridge produces highly regarded wines. They grow grapes in different vineyards across California, but their premium wines come from their Montebello vineyard.

I had planned to meet Paul at 1:00pm, so I decided to ride the hill in the morning. The days have been getting colder, and this is the coldest ride I have done this season. I was generating plenty of heat pedaling uphill, so I did not feel cold. But I could tell that the air at the top was much colder than it was at the base.

I really felt the cold coming back down. It was warmer and sunny at the bottom, so I warmed up on the flat stretch back home, but I was still feeling chilled when I got back to the house. I had enough time to shower and eat lunch before heading right back (by car this time) to the top of Montebello.

The wines were excellent. I bought a couple bottles (their cheaper stuff).

Low-Key Hillclimb: Montebello Road

[official results] [route map] [series description]

After some internal debate, I decided to participate in the Low-Key Hillclimb Series. At least I felt I should try the first event, Montebello Road, and decide based on the results whether I would continue with the rest.

photo by John Gale

I rode from home to the staging area to register. This was a good time/distance (30 minutes / 7 miles) to warm up. I was there by 9:30 so I had plenty of time before the official start at 10:10. There were quite a few others waiting around too. Some had driven to the start, so they pedaled around on the road to warm up. I chatted with several of the guys who were waiting.

Last year less than 40 people participated in the event. This year there were just under 100. Of course, most were experienced, strong cyclists and even amateur racers. Clearly my goals were to basically enjoy the challenge, and hopefully not finish so slowly that people would have to wait for me.

We started as one big group riding slowly from the staging area to the start which was about one quarter mile away. I made sure to ride at the back of the group because I knew most people would be finishing ahead of me. Some people started out very strong, but I decided to keep a slow initial pace. The first two miles of the five mile route are the steepest, and I needed be sure my adrenaline did not mask sensibility.

Pacing myself was very easy with the group. Pretty quickly, the faster and slower riders dispersed and I could tell who all would be keeping the same pace as me. I basically kept the same speed as those around me. Not many people passed me because I had already started at the back. I passed a few people in the first mile and a half.

The middle one mile is a relatively flat section. I usually ride this part slowly to recover my strength. But today I actually kept pedaling hard. I wanted to at least try to attempt a record time for myself.

Towards the end of the flat section, I caught up to and kept the same pace as another cyclist. We kept the same speed and chatted for about a mile. In the final mile, I increased my pace and was riding by myself. I had kept a much faster pace than I usually do and I was feeling it now.

I was almost panting by now, whereas I usually keep a pace where do not have to breathe too heavily. Knowing that the finish was coming soon, I kept the fast (for me) pace. I even increased it for a final burst. You can see me panting heavily in the second picture.

photo by John Gale

There was a big group of riders at the finish. I had seen a few descending while I was ascending, but the majority were still there at the time I finished. I stood around for a short while to catch my breath. They had some refreshments there, so I ate a banana and several small cookies.

I felt pretty good except my left hamstring started to tighten. Although I had stretched before I started, my legs probably were not used to the sustained peak output that I had just done. It start hurting more, but then it got better quickly. By the time I finished snacking, it seemed like all the cyclist had arrived at the finish. People were slowly leaving, so I also left.

My original plan was to do more riding after the event, including some more steep climbs. But that did not seem practical with my hamstring problem. It was not too bad at this point, but I could tell it was not normal and I did not want to risk injury. Not wanting to go straight back home, I decided to ride some more but not anything steep. I continued on Stevens Canyon Road until it dead-ended in the park, then turned around and went home.

I did not do any biking the next day in order to allow my hamstring to fully heal, not that I was having any serious problems with it. By Monday, it was 100% normal.

Overall, I felt the event was a great success for me. When the results were posted the next day, I found that my time was 44:18, which is about 4 minutes faster than my best time. This is an amazing improvement. Plus I had a great time and did not feel I was in anyone's way by being too slow. I think I will do the whole series for this season.