We took Old Page Mill up to Arastradero and over to Alpine. Left on Alpine, Right on Portola and now we are heading down towards Old La Honda. I decided to spring my plan on Mark - I want him to pace me all the way to the top of the hill. You see, if left on my own, I get too comfortable and start to slow down to the casual pace. If I have Mark in front of me I can force myself to hang on - no matter how much I feel like giving up - all the way to the top. At least that is the plan.
Mark agreed to be my rabbit. I downed a tube of GU in preperation and pretty soon we are making the left hand turn onto Old La Honda. At the bridge, I hit the lap counter on my Polar cyclometer and the clock is ticking....
Mark sets a relentless grinding pace from the very start. The next thing you know I'm 1/4 mile into a 3.25 mile climb and I'm already to give up! But I don't - I hang on.... I just keep hanging on for dear life.... We get to the 1/2 way point and I am really stuggling but I know that some relief is coming - nothing more than 100 ft of 5% grade vs 8% grade. Yipee!
I've got my iPod on and I'm listening to my go-go cycling tunes and staring straight at Mark's back wheel and I'm bound and determined to not let him get more than 10 ft in front of me. Along the way we pass a few people here and there but Mark keeps the grinding pace going and I'm feeling like I'm going to pop at any minute. How does this faulker do it? Constant grind, heart rate at 180 bpm, more uphill, more, faster, more....
Finally we hit the tar snakes near the top. Mark gets out of the saddle to make the final charge - I know I have no choice but to join him. I can feel my back wheel slipping on the wet tar snakes and I try to find a dry patch with less pavement repair so I can get some traction. We round the last bend and there is the stop sign... got to put everything I've got into this.... HR is 185... 100 ft more to go... faster... harder.... I'm there! I fumble to hit the lap button on my cyclometer but I'm so bleery-eyed that I think it says 22:22 - later on I'll find out it was 22:34. Just remember I'm operating in a complete oxygen deficit right now and things aren't exactly clear to me at the moment. Except one thing - I didn't give up and let Mark drop me the whole way up! And I'm in the 22 minute range on my hill climb!
We complete the rest of the ride down 84 to Portola t0 Sandhill to Foothill to Peets. Timer to relax and take a well deserved latte! I did it! A special thanks to Switch for towing me up the hill. No matter what my personal best was today, he was still 1 second ahead of me the whole way :-) Great job dude!
Old La Honda Stats:
- Time: 22 min 34 sec
- Distance: 3.29 miles
- Pace: 6 min 51 secs / mile
- Ave HR: 176 bpm
- Max HR: 186 bpm
- Ave Speed: 8.7 mph
- Ascent: 1,305 ft
- Grade: 8%
- Temperature: 45F
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