training for the upcoming century has lead to larger and larger bike rides that are the highest i've ever climbed on pure manpower and the furthest i've ever biked.
Feb. 27, mike and I decided to try and tackle a mountain we've always said we wanted to do but never had the full time to do it (it takes 4 - 6 hours to complete).
Starting from our houses and biking to the top of Mt. Hamilton to the Lick Observatory. It is the tallest mountain in the Bay Area, towering at 4200 ft. of elevation and 18 miles of road to the top (with 2 descents of 1 mile each... yeah that's right... you climb up and then you go downhill and lose about 200 ft. elevation each time, so all in al... you're climbing about 4600 ft. all together)
For more information on the bike ride and the ACTUAL website where we got our inspiration from to do this crazy ride at the end of february GO HERE
Mike and I started at around 11am knowing that the sun will set at around 5:30, it didn't leave us much time becuase from our houses we still had to bike there to the actual mt. hamilton road, and THEN start the climb. Starting from mike's house we went down penitencia creek, then up alum rock park and finally crossing over to Mt. Hamilton road highlighted above.
once we started the trecherous climb, we knew we were in for a doozy. the first half of the climb to Grant Park is our first original PR. 8 miles up the mountain there is a national park with a beautiful view of the mountain and climbing up was actually a lot easier than the first time around (maybe we got better?)
but the gradients didn't feel all that bad. A few 5 percent grades (i know 5 doesn't seem that bad in your eyes but its actually a lot harder than it may seem)
Once we reached grant park decided to take a food, physical, and mental break.
yes, our food of choice was Uncrustables: Peanut butter and jelly sandwhiches (HELLA GOOD!!!)
with spirits high and still excited to reach the top, i decided to take a video and snap a few pics:
and YES... that is SNOW at the top of Mt. Hamilton.... RIGHT?!?!??!?! after seeing the top from Grant Park. Another 8 miles and 2400 ft. of elevation to go, we weren't sure if we would make it to the top. but we were already here, and determined to do it for the sake of becoming better cyclists so the second half began and the second half is like a night and day comparison to the first half. it kicked my ass every single way. I am not sure if it was fatigue that set in or the gradients just getting harder but the second half was much tougher than the first.
and the last 5 miles is what killed me. i had to stop very frequently and hit a point where I wasn't sure if i would make it to the top. Luckily mike was there to push me and prevent me from mentally breaking down and starting back down the mountain. i became quiet, purely focused on each pedal one after another.
seeing the observatory at the top and knowing that its only hundreds of feet more of climbing, but a few more miles of actual climbing. mentally i was reaching my limit. i didn't know what to do other than just keep pedaling and hope that the top eventually comes. we later found out that what happened to me was that i "bonked" meaning i wasn't properly energized to go the last leg. i needed food because my blood sugar was low and that's what started affecting everything else in my body. pure fatigue and unable to replenish the nutrients.
but eventally.... FINALLY.... we hit the top!!!!!! the snow covered top. temperatures dropping to the 20's (yeah it has to be that cold in order for the snow to be there) and MAN was it cold!!!!
BUT WE MADE IT!!!! ACHIEVEMENT!!!!
had to take a few pictures to validate where we were as proof to ourselves
yeah, we JUST biked through that entire valley of mountains right there
THe Lick Observatory Telescopes with snow all around
and all i gotta say is our bikes are so fucking cool.
2001 Trek 5200 Carbon and 1999 Trek 5200 Carbon USPS
btw, i also tried to save some snow in my water bottle for the a souvenier but all but a lump of ice was melted by the time i got home. =/
and as happy as we were for reaching that mountain top. i was exhausted. thrilled that we finished, freezing, hungry, and not looking forward to the 18 miles of downhill that we need to descend through the icy conditions.
but alas, we needed to do it. i was very tempted of bribing someone at the top of the mountain to just throw our bikes in the back of the pick up truck along with me and mike and just hitch a ride down the mountain. i wanted to. but we decided not to.
so we started down the long, treacherous ride down 4200ft. mountain. The first part was absolutely FREEZING. twisting and winding roads in 20 degree weather. my thumbs felt like there were going to fall off, and i was holding on for dear life because the level of concentration needed to safely go down the mountain is the most focus i've ever been in my life. imagine, 20 degree weather, reaching speeds of 25 - 30 miles an hour, twisting and winding roads with blind turns, keeping your head up from a downhill position, all while trying to hold on to your breaks with frozen fingers.
plus, motorists are complete assholes to us. revving their engines and intimidating us. like we could just stop on the side of the road. they were being complete dicks while we were trying to descend. but i must confess. as we were making our way down the mountain, each time a pickup truck overtook us, i thought to myself "there's another person we could have bribed for a ride back down the mountain.... shoulda asked him" but we kept on going.... kept on freezing.... kept on concentrating.... hanging on for dear life with the mountain cliffside on either side of us...
it took us an hour to go down the mountain. the sun was setting and the temeperature was dropping even faster. it was close to 5 by this time and we weren't sure if we'd hit the bottom before it got really dark. we had to stop several times to warm up our fingers and the 2 1-mile climbs going back were just as hard as the 5 mile climb at the last leg of Mt. Hamilton. My legs were jelly and my mind was only fixated on a few things. going home to lena, eating tacos, and my warm bed. that's what kept me going the last 2 climbs. one foot after another was what i kept telling myself.
once we reached the bottom of the mountain, sadly we realized we still had another 7 miles to go to bike back home. the sun was practically all gone and we feared for catching pneumonia from being out in the cold for so long. at this point, after reaching our goal of the top of the mountain we decided to take refuge at a starbucks on the way back home at the corner of Alum Rock and Piedmont. I decided to call lena to come rescue us from ourselves as me and mike sat inside the warm starbucks with our bikes. a cup of $1.50 coffee was the best damn coffee i've ever had. downed it like it was nothing, and the sugar i'm sure helped me.
lena drove my car to the starbucks where i already had the bike rack on my car. racked up our bikes, drove to jack in the box for some tacos and ended the night warm in my bed with lena after a well deserved hot shower.
Looking back at the whole ordeal, i shit you not, that this was the hardest thing i've ever had to do physically in my entire life.
the final numbers. in order to bike up to mt. hamilton road, the final elevation of climbing was roughly 5000 ft. from our homes. and also since i started from my house, the final distanced "biked" from my house to the end was 45.7 miles
In the end of all ends, with me and my video game head, this is what popped into my head:
XBOX live achievements are the best thing to ever happen to video games in a long time. =)
next on the list:
Sierra Rd. (THE HARD WAY)
Henry Coe Mountain (the actual mountain we are doing on century)
3 comments:
wow man! AWESOME!!
half moon next?
That sounds like a great ride. So glad you did it, 3% grade completely kills me, I couldn't immagine a mountain. The farthest I've ever ridden in one day was 56 miles, but it was mostly 1-3% paved over railroad, nothing compared to what you did. We pass people on the way up mountains all the time, I'm always impressed with their strength. I would just turn around and coast home.
hey thanks for the comment! yeah, we were motivated to get up there but didn't expect the snow to be up there with us. we're training for a 100 mile century ride and it has a climb in the middle so that's the one thing we're trying to build our endurance for.
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