Thursday night, back to normal

It was Thursday and time to ride Rocky Butte hill repeats. The last several weeks I've been busy at work, attending meetings, or just riding easy social pace visiting with fellow hill climbers. Tonight I rode harder, sort of by default.

8 of us rode tonight, one being a new member, this being his first ride with our group. He had a nice bike and did a lot of riding. We started off up the hill and he was right on my wheel. I pushed a bit harder, he matched my pace. Finally about half way up I started to pull away. The route up Rocky Butte climbs, descends a bit through a saddle, then has one last steep pitch to the summit. As I was going through the saddle I noticed a rider in my mirror back about 75 yards. He was moving fast and gaining on me. My heart rate was in the 150's. I shifted up a couple of gears and got on the pedals a bit harder. I was climbing the 12% grade at 10 mph with a heart rate in the high 160's. The guy was still gaining! I pushed a bit harder yet. Now the heart rate was in the high 170's and the guy was still gaining, a bit more slowly, but gaining none the less. I had about 50 yards to go and I was not going to let this guy catch me. (a female friend calls this "testosterone poisoning") I pushed harder yet. As I reached the summit I was still leading the guy by about 40 yards, and had a heart rate in the high 180's. I'm getting too old for this stuff! I made the first ascent and matching descent in just under 11 minutes. I decided to see if I could keep sub 12 minute laps.

I worked harder on this hill tonight than I have in quite some time. As the 90 minutes expired I was on my 8th lap, about 2/3 the way up. Not bad for not riding hard lately.

We started off with 8 of us tonight. 2 left immediately as our 90 minutes were up. The rest of us stood around and talked bikes for an hour before some split off to return home and three of us retired to burgers and fries!

It was a good evening for a ride. Dry roads, no noticeable wind, cooler temperatures, just perfect for climbing hills. I'm not likely going to be able to ride at all this coming weekend. I'll be helping out with Race Across Oregon

........road bike.......rollers.........mtb.....lifecycle.....total
Today........22..............0.............0..........0.........22
Jan.........474..............0............21..........7.........502
Feb.........530..............0.............0..........0.........530
March.......502..............0.............0..........0.........502
April.......524..............0.............0..........0.........524
May........1003..............0.............0..........0........1003
June.......1016..............0............10..........0........1026
July........835..............0.............0..........0.........835
YTD........4888..............0............37..........7........4931