No rain and warmer temps – I went for a bike ride with the folks from Scott’s Cycling.

We did the short MacLeay route, which means we got to climb MacLeay hill. It was my intention to contest the hill, but Earl and another jumped before at the very beginning of the climb. By the time I realized what was going on, Earl was about 100 feet off of the front and he was chasing someone 50 feet in front of him!

I began chasing.

I never caught Earl, but I did not let him increase the gap and I did not let anyone catch me. My average power output was 268 watts, and my recorded max heart rate was 235 bpm (I don’t think so!).

All in all, I am happy with my performance as I see it steadily improving.

Tomorrow will be a rest day. I intended to ride hill repeats on Saturday, but I am now attending a funeral mid day. So what I do for training on Saturday is up in the air.

Three of us rode tonight; Jim, Joanne and myself. The temperature was in the mid-forties, which seemed like a heat wave after the very cold temperatures of the last week.

We took it easy, just enjoying the ride.

The high-light of the night was when I broke a spoke. Hopefully, I can get it fixed before the weekend.

Distance: 15.81 Miles
Average Heart Rate: 93

My legs need a day off. So I did not train tonight. Instead, I thought of what I could do this weekend. I wonder how many loops of this I could do?

Today was recovery ride.

It amazes me just how tired and leg sore I was today. Yesterday must have been a harder ride than I though.

I left my house to ride down to the Red Lot at 9:10 am. It was 26 degrees, but the sky was clear and the sun would break through the clouds soon.

I took it very easy riding to the Red Lot. My legs felt tired, and just spinning along at 14 miles per hour was just fine with them.

At the Red Lot, I had to make a decision – ride with the Salem Bicycle Club or Capital Velo. SBC was riding to Monmouth out River Road and back via Hwy 22 which is not one of my favorite routes. Cap Velo is less organized. Early arrivals thought their ride would be slow, so I decided to join them.

It may have been slow, but they headed for the South Salem hills and beyond – more elevation and distance than I wanted. So I dropped to the back and continued straight when they turned to climb prison hill.

I spun my way home after a lunch at Taco del Mar. I am happy.

Distance: 28.92 miles
Time: 2:50:00
Average Heart Rate: 107
Average Watts: 103

Like I said, a recovery ride.

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 and Heartrate

Elevation and Heart Rates for the ride