Climbing Club - June Goals

[Veronica]

Time to start thinking about them gals. :D

Let's see, I'd like to finish Eastern Sierra in a more timely fashion than Central Coast. :p

Later in the month we're heading off to AZ and UT for some mountain biking. I'd like to not crash too much.

V.

[Starfish]

I'd like to not crash too much.
V.

Just out of curiousity, how do you determine or define this? :p

[maillotpois]

Looking at the Death Ride training plan, we've got probably 25,000, maybe more, in team rides alone for June. I'm tired just thinking about it. :rolleyes: So I'll probably be around 35,000 for June. I hope to not spend the end of THIS JUne in the hospital. :cool:

ESDC is a good ride. You'll really enjoy it. The climbs weren't heinous like it sounds like that Nacimiento road was. There's a moderate climb out of Bishop and a long climb after lunch. Something like the last 40 miles are downhill. Get into a good paceline on that part and you can make up some serious time!!

Watch out for the donkeys.

[jobob]

Depends on what Coach MP tells me to do. ;)

But it will likely be at least 23,000 - and that's just from my long Saturday or Sunday ride each week. Could be close to 30,000 all told.
yikes

[Veronica]

I'd like to not crash too much.
V.

Just out of curiousity, how do you determine or define this? :p

Let's see, I don't want my handlebars to hit any body parts (arm pit and rib cage last time in UT.)

No bruises so swollen you can see them under my clothes.

And no broken bones. :D

V.

[maillotpois]

Depends on what Coach MP tells me to do. ;)
yikes


Heh heh heh... (done in the Jon Stewart imitating Dubya tone of voice).

Let's talk this week....

[Starfish]

Let's see, I don't want my handlebars to hit any body parts (arm pit and rib cage last time in UT.)

No bruises so swollen you can see them under my clothes.

And no broken bones. :D

V.

And here I was looking forward to riding with you one day...now I'm afraid...very afraid... :p

[Veronica]

I've never crashed my road bike. :p And every mountain bike crash I've had I've gotten up and ridden on - just a bit bruised and bloody.

V.

[SouthernBelle]

My goal will be to surpass what I did in May, which isn't over yet. ;)

[Trekhawk]

School holidays start here next Friday so my goal for June will be to just try and get out on my bike when I can.:( I also want to try and get in the other hill ride I didn't manage in May.

[mtkitchn]

Can anyone join in the "fun"?
I'd like to get at least 20,000 feet in June. Over a third of it should be in one ride, climbing Mt. Lemmon in Tucson. That has 7,000 feet of elevation gain in 27 miles and goes through something like 7 climate zones according to Bicycling magazine. Of course, if I don't make it up the mountain I'll have to think of something else.

[maillotpois]

Anyone can join the fun!! Welcome. I've always wondered about Mt. Lemmon. We regularly do El Tour de Tucson (dead flat of course :p ), and I have always wanted to give Mt. L a try when we're out there. I'll be interested to hear what it's like.

[GLC1968]

I never set a goal for May because I had no idea how much I was going to be able to ride. I ended up with almost 10K feet of climbing, so not too bad!

I'm shooting for 15K for June and I hope to surpass that goal. I also plan on doing at least one climb up Hanging Rock and one climb up Pilot Mountain (our two local 'mountains').

We've got a weekend trip planned for mid-July that will include some NICE mountain climbing, so I've gotta work on getting the goat-legs back. :)

[bikerz]

Alright - I'm in :eek:

I'm setting a modest goal for June (compared to you mountain goats!) -- 10,000 ft in June.

(I'm calculating like mad -- If I do the 3 Bears once each weekend, that will be 6000 right there, and I should be able to get another 4000 in on other rides... :eek: )

[easterbird]

Since I want to improve my climbing(go faster uphill than my usual crawl), that will be my goal. I will do that by doing hill work on 10+ % grade at least once a week and checking my time,etc. I will also use 18000' for my riding goal of 500 miles.
Wish me luck and perserverance. I really must be able to get better at these PA hills. I see men my age zooming past and feel like a wimp!

[kelownagirl]

I did 6820m in May (22,160 feet). I had no idea I could climb so much. I <3 my new Garmin. :) My goal is to surpass May.

[RolliePollie]

A newbie would like to join...is that ok? :o

My normal 20-ish mile route has approximately 1,400 ft. of climbing. In looking at the calendar and my days off, I plan to do this route 13 times in June. That would bring me to just over 18,000 feet. So that's my goal...18,000'. Ahhh, can I do this?!?! :confused:

[Starfish]

My normal 20-ish mile route has approximately 1,400 ft. of climbing.

Wow, Sara, that's quite a "normal" little route you do!

I'm late to the goal-setting party for June...I think I will shoot for 18,000 for June. I got in 4877 this weekend!

[SadieKate]

June is my biggest month for the year. I'm hoping for 20,000. 3,600 already in the bag and a 9 straight days of riding in the middle of the month. If all goes well, I'll make it.

[maillotpois]

Yay! I have done almost 11,000 so far. One measley 100 miler had 10,800 feet... (It's our Terrible One route that we use for Death Ride training... :cool: )

Last year I had 37,000 feet for this month and I expect to be right about the same this year.

[SadieKate]

What - ever - loser. :rolleyes:

[jobob]

yeah, what she said. :p

[maillotpois]

This ride we did has some of the longest very steep climbing I think there is in the area. It is SO tough. This year my goal was not to walk any of it - and I didn't! Yay! Last year there was one very steep section at Ft. Ross that I did walk. The ride felt SO much better than last year.

2 of our team completed their first century on this ride. I can't imagine a tougher first century.

[onimity]

Hi all,

I'm trying to get better at climbing and would like to join in but I only know that I want to climb more, since I don't know exactly how much I am climbing...

I have a Garmin 305 but from what I've read here and elsewhere, it isn't exactly to be trusted on the ascent/descent readings...so if my 305 reports that I am climbing 10,000 ft a week (at +/- 160 miles) any clue as to what I am actually climbing?

Maybe the best bet is just to increase the reported feet climbed by 10&#37;, but I don't know if there is an average amount by which the GPS-only devices are off or if (as I suspect) it varies?

Another thing I've been thinking is to try to keep my regular routes roughly as they are and add in more repetitions of the hill ride in my backyard, a known quantity at a little over 3 miles of 10+% grade.

I used to say that I hated hills but I don't say that anymore because I think it is representative of a bad attitude. Of course I'm still not saying that I love them... but I am planning to ride a century in August that has a steady 3,500 foot climb that ends in a killer pair of switchbacks. Nothing compared to what a lot of you are training for (!) but I'd like to not embarrass myself. Plus, I live close to the mountains and all of the really pretty places to ride involve, you guessed it, hills. So maybe I'll end up liking them after all...

Anne

[Starfish]

I used to say that I hated hills but I don't say that anymore because I think it is representative of a bad attitude. Of course I'm still not saying that I love them...

I like to say I laugh at them. I don't have to love them in order to laugh at them, but when I laugh, at least I'm smiling, and I'm not giving them the satisfaction of seeing me cry! ;)

[onimity]

that's fantastic. :D I'll have to steal that one.
Of course knowing me I'll laugh so hard I'll cry... :cool:

[RolliePollie]

I think a monthly climbing goal is going to be a really good thing for me! I'm only at 65.7 miles so far, but approximately 4,500 ft. of climbing.

I am already wishing for a more accurate way to figure this all out. I've created maps on bikely.com of the different legs of my route and then I have to calculate the total elevation change by combining the different maps based on which way I go each day (I like to vary my route...I just can't go the same exact way each day, right?). I am running on the assumption that my bikely maps are only approximate because it's completely dependent on where I've put my "clicks" on the map. This method is tedious...I think a spreadsheet may be in order to sort it all out. I love spreadsheets so just thinking about this is getting me all excited! :)

Someday I'll just get GPS!

[Starfish]

Well, everyone, I've done it now. I've just registered for a ride called the Tour de Blast. It is an out and back climb up Mt. St. Helens.

It is in two weeks (6/23), and I do NOT feel ready for this 82 mile, 6200 foot ride! But, since it is only 6 weeks from that ride until the Shasta summit century, I guess I'd better make myself ready! :eek:

Is anyone else in the climbing club planning to do this ride?

Oh, and a question for you experienced ladies ( ;) ), how early do you get up and on the road in order to drive to a ride? I think this ride is about 3.5 hours away from me...and the ride starts at 6:30. Would I be crazy to leave at 3am and drive all that way instead of spending the night down there?

[Veronica]

We're going to do it. :D I think.

Does it start in Longview? I'm trying to figure out driving times.

V.

[maillotpois]

That sounds cool!

Driving: I have never driven 3.5 hours to an event on the day of the event. If it is that far, I stay the night. Even for Davis double, which would take less time to drive to in the morning of the event that it does the day before (because of traffic), we stay the night. I think probably DMD was the farthest I have driven to an organized ride, and I left at 3:00 or 3:15 I think to get there by 4:15. The hard thing was driving home after 21 hours on the bike....

[Starfish]

We're going to do it. :D I think.
Does it start in Longview? I'm trying to figure out driving times.
V.

Oh. My. Gosh. That is so great!!

I have never done the ride...I think it starts in a little town called Toutle, but I'm not sure. I know all the info is on the Tour de Blast website (not sure of URL, but Google brings it up quickly enough). I am going to have to get on the ball and look it all up, too, because I need to find a place to stay that night.

Also, like an idiot, I got all excited about the ride and registered in a fit of determination, before I realized it is on one of the days of our 2 day estate sale. I think my brothers and sister-in-law will cover for me, but that's why I was thinking of driving down there in the morning instead of spending the night. But, that does sound crazy.

[Starfish]

http://www.tourdeblast.com

Just with a quick look at mapquest, the starting town of Toutle looks to be roughly 20 miles northeast of Longview.

[Veronica]

I have a thing for volcanoes and interesting geological areas. I don't know anything about geology, but man our planet produces some cool stuff!

We're camping at Seaquest State Park. There were pretty slim pickings for hotels/motels in the area. I am kind of a princess about that sort of thing. I'd rather camp than stay in a cheap motel. :)

We're camping on the way up and doing a little mountain biking at Redwood National Park. Then on the return we're going to spend two nights at Steamboat Inn on the Umpqua River and then camp some more and mountain bike there.

And I'm hoping to get a road ride in around Crater Lake since we'll have all 4 bikes.

Oh, I almost forgot... I don't want to start at 6:30. Can you hear the whine... maybe 7:30.

V.

[Starfish]

V, I'll PM you...

[Fredwina]

I think I 'm got to go for 30,000. That way, I'll at least have a challenge

[maillotpois]

Looking at the Death Ride training plan, we've got probably 25,000, maybe more, in team rides alone for June. I'm tired just thinking about it. :rolleyes: So I'll probably be around 35,000 for June.

34,225 as of today. And only 5 outdoor rides. :eek:

I hope the Tour de Blast was fun. I expect a full report from Crash when she returns. :cool:

[Kano]

It's been fun to read this thread again! I never posted anything for June -- this year, my goal has been to get up hills any which way I can, but I think I've gotten to where I can get up them any which way now, and am working on adding a bit of speed and possibly a bit of "grace" to the process. I nearly caught DH on one of my most challenging ones a couple of weeks ago, and have left the poor guy in the dust on another not-so-big, but steep one that's starting to feel easy most trips. So, anyway, I guess I'm on track for this year's goal of being able to climb hills without too much embarrassment!

And, you know, ladies, this whole garmin/GPS thing is getting awfully tempting!

Karen in Boise

[Starfish]

well, this month is shot for me, for climbing goals. haven't been on the bike for 2 weeks as of tomorrow. but, estate sale is now done, the shasta ride looms large, so back in the saddle, maybe tomorrow.

[maillotpois]

So no Tour de Blast? Bummer! :( Glad the estate sale is behind you, though.

[Starfish]

So no Tour de Blast? Bummer! :( Glad the estate sale is behind you, though.

Yeah, thanks. I was seriously bummed :( , but I seriously underestimated the physical and energetic toll doing that sale was going to require. I was simply exhausted, and felt that I shouldn't really even be behind the wheel to get down to the ride.

I can hardly wait for the ride report from Veronica, though. :)

[maillotpois]

Yeah. Me either. Ahem. Did you talk to her when she was up there? Did you hear about the "incident"?

[Starfish]

Yeah. Me either. Ahem. Did you talk to her when she was up there? Did you hear about the "incident"?

No in-person talk. Swapped v-mails. Heard about "7 results" :rolleyes: of what must have been the incident, but no details! I did hear she was tough enough (of course, it is V after all) to do Tour de Blast 2 days later, anyhow.

Don't want to blow the story! I'm sure we will be graced with a great write up! :)

[RolliePollie]

I just tallied up my estimated climbing for the month so far and I come up with 22,600'! I did not think I would make it to my goal, let alone go over 20,000'. I should be able to get in another 3,000' by month's end.

Since I don't have GPS and I'm using bikely.com maps, I deducted about 100' to 300' off of each ride as I just have this feeling it's over-estimating my climbing somewhat.

Best climbing ride was up Iron Mountain Road - bikely tells me 3,500' (we didn't make it all the way up...I think then it's over 5,000'). Best descent was on the same road - 44.6 mph - my fastest yet.

Seeing these numbers is a great motivator for me. Yahoo!

[Starfish]

Good heavens, Sara, if you can do 20,000 feet in a month, you can certainly go up Hurricane Ridge! (To reference your doubtful comment on another thread.) :D

[Zen]

I saw Nacimiento Road mentioned here earlier and it just reminded me of a place I was stationed while in the Army. It was called Fort Hunter Liggett, in Jolon, near Paso Robles. Out in the Middle of Nowhere but it was pretty. We could go to the beach, camp in Los Padres or drive down the coast to Pismo Beach, Clam Capital of the World!.http://virtualguidebooks.com/Central
Calif/BigSurCentralCoast/NacimientoConePeak/HalfwayNacimientoRoad.html

[RolliePollie]

I'm done for the month of June...no riding tomorrow cuz I'm leaving on a trip.
Trip = :) , No Ride = :mad:

My total for June is 25,800' (maybe a bit more, maybe a bit less...I want GPS!!!). I am very surprised with myself! My stamina is improving dramatically and the hills that seemed like monsters a month ago are now part of my normal route! Woohoo!!!! :D

[Veronica]

"Crash" is home with 7 stiches from an endo that was NOT my fault and several large bruises from tumbling down a 20 foot cliff when the ground gave way beneath me. Yes really... it still gives me the willies. Details will be coming I promise. We pretty much just walked in the door.

So much for my monthly goals! :p

V.

[Fredwina]

:eek:
{{{v}}}
ouch!

[Veronica]

I saw Nacimiento Road mentioned here earlier and it just reminded me of a place I was stationed while in the Army. It was called Fort Hunter Liggett, in Jolon, near Paso Robles. Out in the Middle of Nowhere but it was pretty. We could go to the beach, camp in Los Padres or drive down the coast to Pismo Beach, Clam Capital of the World!.http://virtualguidebooks.com/Central
Calif/BigSurCentralCoast/NacimientoConePeak/HalfwayNacimientoRoad.html


That would be Nasty Mental Road - part of the Central Coast Double. :D

http://tandemhearts.com/coppermine/albums/central-coast-double-2007/ccd-2007-020.JPG

This is the view from about two miles up it. You only have 5 more miles of climbing to the top. Of course you're only 110 miles or so into the 209 mile ride at that point. :D

V.

[Starfish]

Hey, Veronica, great to see you back (in one piece, too!). What a picture. WOW!

[Veronica]

Thanks! It was a rough vacation. Probably have write ups and pictures tomorrow.

It's a good thing that after my endo last Thursday I bought two helmets to replace my pink one. I couldn't find any vsible damage on the pink one, but I replaced it anyway - with a black one. There's definite damage though from falling down the cliff on Monday to the black one. So now I'm sporting a white helmet with a green floral design.

V.

[onimity]

Motionbased says I've climbed 30,706' (so far :D ) this month. I realize that it's probably a bit high (I am using their gravity service). Does anyone know roughly how accurate this is? i.e., what have I really climbed?

Anne

[Fredwina]

i came up with 27,871, based on Bikely.com

[maillotpois]

Anne - I have found Motion Based to add 2-3000 feet for a 10000 foot ride. so that's what 20-30 percent increase?

[maillotpois]

I had fewer miles this month than the last 3, but (interesting statistic) more feet climbing per mile - almost 100 feet per mile!!!

Jan: 317 miles, 17,040 feet - 53.75 feet climbed per mile ridden
Feb: 173 miles, 9,645 feet - 55.75 ft per mile
Mar: 580 miles, 31,889 ft - 54.98 ft per mile
Apr: 673 miles, 48,609 ft - 72 ft per mile
May: 568.81 miles, 33,650 feet - 59ft per mile
June: 419 miles, 39,691 feet - 94 FEET PER MILE!!! :eek:

And I was feeling all lazy the last couple of weels... :rolleyes:

[easterbird]

Since I want to improve my climbing(go faster uphill than my usual crawl), that will be my goal. I will do that by doing hill work on 10+ % grade at least once a week and checking my time,etc. I will also use 18000' for my riding goal of 500 miles.
Wish me luck and perserverance. I really must be able to get better at these PA hills. I see men my age zooming past and feel like a wimp!

Well it was a great concept but I could not get myself to just go and climb...So what I did is what I like...just ride. I am quite pleased with my ride total(801 miles) for the month. That is the biggest number I have ever ridden since I started in 2005! And per my VDO MC 1+, I logged 37,777'.

I still feel like all I do is crawl up the hills. I am usually the last one up. Yesterday's club ride was particularly humilating for me. It was supposed to be C+(avg 13-14) but a lot of the riders were from the 14-16 range. The sweep had to just ride in circles while I pumped my way up each hill. I finished at a 15.3 mph(note NOT C+ pace) because the last 10 miles were flat and I can push 18-21 on that section. It was the first time I wanted to drop out of a ride. Not fun for the most part.
:(

[onimity]

Thanks Sarah. I keep hearing that the MB gravity readings are off, but it is hard to have any idea of what I am actually climbing and I'm not exactly so worried about an exact number that I want to go out and get *another* device.

According to MB I logged a total 614 miles and 37,209' in June. With error adjustments factored in that's still kind of like climbing Longs Peak twice...from sea level. :D

You all are amazing with your numbers! I'm so impressed.

Anne

[GLC1968]

I never set a goal for May because I had no idea how much I was going to be able to ride. I ended up with almost 10K feet of climbing, so not too bad!

I'm shooting for 15K for June and I hope to surpass that goal. I also plan on doing at least one climb up Hanging Rock and one climb up Pilot Mountain (our two local 'mountains').

We've got a weekend trip planned for mid-July that will include some NICE mountain climbing, so I've gotta work on getting the goat-legs back. :)

I fell short once again. Did just shy of 10K in June. Considering that I lost almost 2 weeks of riding to work issues, I guess I did ok. I did not make my goal of 15K nor did I climb the two mountains I'd planned. :mad:

I guess I'll have to work on kicking it up a notch in July! :D

And can I just add that all you ladies out west just amaze me with your photos!!! What I wouldn't give to have places like that to ride just outside my door. I mean, NC is pretty...and we do have quite a few beautiful places to ride (with plenty of climbing) but I have to drive an hour or two to most of them. When work is crazy, I can't get there...and well...local riding is nice, but it's not spectacular or anything.

[Starfish]

Well, I did not come close to my goal this month. I don't have my numbers handy, but it was somewhere between 7,000-9,000', probably closer to 7,000'.

Ah, well. They say it is not how many times you fall, but how many you get up, that counts. I'm planning a long ride for tomorrow to kick off July, so we'll see!

MP, as usual, you astound and inspire me with your numbers! Thanks to you, and all you climbers, for this wonderful climbing club!!

[maillotpois]

Yup. Just keep getting up. You're doing great!

[jobob]

In June I climbed about 28,000 ft in about 650 miles.