Climbing Month

My next scheduled ride was the Eastern Sierra Double Century on June 2nd but this was cancelled due to road works (there aren't a lot of reroute options in that area). So I decided to do the Sequoia Century which is put on by my local club, the Western Wheelers. I chose the 200K option which had about 10000' of climbing and a few steep pitches, none more so than Redwood Gulch where, if you aren't careful, you can easily lose traction on the front wheel. The ride went pretty well and I met a bunch of people I knew on the way. The only bad thing was queues at the rest stops. It's been a while since I went on an organized ride with that many participants and I confess I have got used to fast in and out given the small number of riders that participate in the California Triple Crown rides.

The body seemed to handle the climbing pretty well and there is no question that climbing is an excellent way to get into good riding shape. On the flat you can always coast and you have to force yourself to work hard. I find that much easier on the trainer with the Spinervals coach in my ear! But when you climb you just have to work hard otherwise you'll never get up the hill, especially the ones around here. So I decided to dedicated the month to climbing rides. In the end I did seven, including one set of three days in a row, when I had originally been signed up for the SFR 1000K. I decided that was too many miles per day but figured I'd ride a century each day instead. I finished with a really hard climbing ride; most of my Peninsula Death Ride, with 111 miles and 13000'.

Overall, about 750 miles for the month of June and about 70000' of climbing. Now a week off to let my body absorb and process the hard work before the SFR 200/200 Cloverdale weekend on July 14/15th.