Now that I've finally made it up my Nemesis Hill in one shot and lived to tell about it, I figured I would make that my personal 'uphill time trial' to gauge how I'm doing. ( This is a hill in the Coyote Hills park where I often ride ; there used to be a Nike missile control station on that hill but now there're just cell phone towers )

It's pretty short but fairly steep so I figured it would be good for high-intensity work; I envision myself someday doing it mutiple times in one ride (bursts out laughing).

It's only about 0.4 mile of climbing but it goes up about 240 feet; Jo Math Whiz figures that averages out to 240'/2112' => about an 11% gradient overall, except about two-thirds of the way it levels off a bit and then kicks UP. So nerd I am, I bought myself one of those bubble inclinometers (tres low-tech, like me!) and rode it this morning to get a better idea of the profile:

1st ~ 0.25 mile: 10-12% (huff puff)
next ~ 0.05 mile: "levels off" to 3-4% (well in comparison it seems level !)
last ~ 0.1 mile: kicks up to 15-18% (ack!)

For the longest time I would get up to where it (sort of) leveled off but then bail when I got to where it kicked up again, it's been as much a psychological barrier as a physical one!

To add to the perversity I thought I'd time myself - it took me a few seconds shy of 4 minutes, which surprised me, since it felt more like a half hour though I care not to share how long it took me to catch my breath ...

But there you have it, it's my stake in the ground, and now that I've gotten over the psychological barrier and shown myself that I can get up over that last hump (gives self pat on back) there's nowhere to go but, uh, up?

next stop Mt. Diablo