Week 15 - A Breakthrough

Sunday was a big day in the week 15 training; we covered 70+ miles with the famed climb over Grapevine being the peak of the ride. Grapevine starts about 4 miles west of Morrison, meaning there is 4 miles of steady climbing up the canyon before turning off the main road onto Grapevine. Grapevine itself is about 3 miles of climbing with the last two being on a dirt road. The bottom of the climb is very steep in parts, causing serious pain even when in a 25 tooth cog. Prior to hitting the climb out of Morrison/Grapevine there are already 2 minor climbs of 1-2 miles to start to wear the energy level (this after 30 miles on the flats to get to the foothills).

After reaching the top a quick descent (again partially on dirt) followed by another climb of about 3 miles to the top of Lookout Mountain. This is one of my all time favorite rides as it is long, has a few really solid climbs (and you can easily add in a few more 1-1.5 mile climbs and end up with an 80-90 mile day) and the dirt road climb up Grapevine gives you a true sense of accomplishment as it is a long, tough ride. Sunday I did this ride with Kelly, for those of you who race Winter Park he’s won Expert 35-39 overall in 2007 and 2008, which normally for me means a lot of watching him pedal away. Usually for Kelly it means a lot of waiting at the top or soft pedaling waiting for me. Either way I get a great workout because I’m chasing him so hard I push myself way beyond the normal boundaries of training. On Sunday though something strange happened, on the first smaller climb I stayed right on his wheel the whole time. On the second small climb, again on the wheel and feeling good. On the road from Morrison to Idealdale (where you turnoff for Grapevine) I managed to stay right with Kelly the entire 4 miles. At this point I knew something strange was happening as I’ve never managed to hang on that long. This motivated me enough to think, ponder even, how long can I stay with Kelly on Grapevine. Right away I figured I’d hit my limit. The steep pitches at the start don’t suite my riding style and I feel off a little, but only a little and then I quickly caught back on. Once we hit the dirt we rode side by side up to a set of hairpins where I actually pushed ahead (only for a moment but still) and lead on the climb. Now by this point I thought death was near and looking over Kelly still seemed at relative ease, but even with my breathing scaring wildlife for miles around I’d never been able to stick with Kelly that long on a climb. For my ego (I admit it) I pushed hard at the top to win the imaginary KOM.

The quick descent down gave me a chance to get the heart rate down from god knows what to a reasonable 170 bpm. Upon starting the climb to the top of Lookout I figured the distance and multiple climbs would finally catch up and I’d fall back, but still be pleased with the improvement. Strangely, on this climb I again managed to stay with Kelly and again even push it a little at times. I don’t know why I’m able to hang on the climbs this year. Maybe Kelly is in worse shape, maybe I’m in better (this is what I hope), but after a few years riding and chasing somebody it is nice to finally be able to stay with them on the climbs. Rising to the challenges, even if it takes years to accomplish a seemingly minor goal is what makes cycling fun. Now if I could only descend as well as Kelly does.