Daily Archives: January 1, 2011

Skyline Hill Repeats

It all started when someone told me that a very successful female racer trains by climbing Skyline Drive ten times in a single training session.

Wow.

Now I have climbed Skyline before, but it is one of those hills that you avoid.  Even when you want to climb hills, you avoid Skyline.  It is that ugly.

So, I decided to do hill repeats on Skyline.

I parked my van on Riverside Drive at the southern edge of the flat agricultural fields just north of the railroad crossing.  This was about one mile from the intersection of Skyline and Riverside, with one hill to climb to get to the intersection.  Sort of a warmup hill.

My ride plan was to climb Skyline at least five times, and at a pace that would allow me to do this.  This was an endurance ride, not a hill climb time trial.

Being the first day of January, it was cold.  The temperature at 10:00 am was 32 degrees.  There were ice covered mud puddles about, but the roads were dry.  There was no wind.  The sky was mostly cloudy with some blue patches to the north.  There was no rain in the forecast.  I would stay dry.

I rode my Colnago CT2, the bike I like to climb with.  I used my PowerTap (for watts) wheel and my Garmin Edge 305 (for elevation).  For clothing, I worm my Hammer bib shorts, a set of tights, a long sleave base undershirt, my 2010 508 jersey and my “Super Soaker” neoprene jacket.  Booties and long fingered gloves completed the outfit.

For calories, I decided upon a combination of Heed and Perpetium, one scope each in a large water bottle.  A bottle would contain about 400 calories and this has worked well for me in the past. I would consume three bottles for a total of 1,200 calories during the three and one half hour ride.

When I tuned onto Skyline, I was amazed that I had forgotten just how steep this road is.  It starts off at five percent, but quickly moves up to nine percent.  But, there are several places where the incline exceeds 15 percent and at the top reaches a leg breaking 25 percent!  This hill in not fun.

I did climb it five times.  The first was my easiest, but I did obtain my highest heat rate of 159 beats per minute.

The second climb was harder, and I was passed by 20 plus Harleys as I suffered up the steepest section.

The third climb was not as hard as the second.

The fourth climb was getting to be very hard.

The fifth climb was very hard, I decided that my legs could take no more.

But, half way down, I came upon Josh and Ashly who were climbing. I asked if I could join them (I wanted to end the day with 5,000 feet of elevation gain). The pace was easier than I had been doing as Ashley is a new cyclist and was working at her limit. She just started riding last year! And now she was climbing Skyline! She will be an impressive rider.

I am satisfied with my workout. It was hard, but not so hard that I destroyed my legs. I will be able to do an easy recovery ride tomorrow.

Route Map

Watts
Watts and Heartrate

Skyline HIll Repeats
Elevation and Heart Rates for the ride