Blather on Bicycling

With a solid week of ice and snow on the roads in La Grande, Oregon, I’m longing for the days I was riding in shorts. No, I’m not talking about 4 months ago. I’m talking about last week when I was in Southern California tackling some awesome climbs on my bike. My brother lives in Murrieta, and the mountains surrounding this city offer some unbelievably steep climbs. I didn’t know roads that steep could be paved. The number of climbing roads, combined with the warm weather, makes this a training heaven. It is also perfect for Steep Hill Interval Training (note the acronym), a term coined by Floyd Landis, who is also a Murrieta resident. 

On Friday, I got the opportunity to do the Palomar Mountain climb. I also did this climb last January, but didn’t do it from the true bottom that is demarcated by Jilberto’s taco stand (the one on the south side of the road a few miles past Pala). Starting here truly makes is a monumental effort. Special thanks to the boys (and gal) of IE Bikes for instigating this post-Thanksgiving group ride.

The climb ranks as one of the best climbs I have ever done. The views are unbelievable as you wind up this mountain. On this attempt, we climbed up above the marine fog layer, so it felt like we were really high up because we were above the clouds. The road is busy until the turn onto south grade road, where it really starts to twist up the mountain. In January, there were quite a few motorcycles going up it, which you have to watch out for because they lay it over on each corner. We went early in the morning and there wasn’t much traffic this time. I think it is worth it to go from the very bottom, even though some of the motocross hauling trucks and gambler RVs can be a hazard. After the turn left onto South Grade Road, the traffic is lighter. These 2 websites have good features on the climb, which we found helpful before first going up there: http://www.socalvelo.com/sub/palomar.html  &  http://www.mountainbikebill.com/NateHarrisonGrade.htm

The climb goes from 520 to 5,245 feet in 12.4 miles and took me about 1 hr 20 minutes. Apparently, the climb has the same number of switchbacks as Alpe d’Huez. It isn’t terribly steep like the other climbs in the area, but it did keep me in my 39/25 just about the entire climb. The proper climb is from the bottom to where South Grade Road tops out. There is a place to eat at the top. Also, it is a nice ride over to the observatory if your turn left. There are many other climbs around this that can be added into a long ride to build up some massive vertical gain. (I recommend Couser Canyon Road which has a 1,000 ft climb that is steep.) Shortly after I rode Palomar last January, Bicycling magazine featured Floyd’s favorite loop, a 100+ miler that included the Palomar climb. Click here for the map of the elevation profile I pulled from my GPS (check out my heart rate in red). See the map link here.

Here is a picture I took of my brother last January on the climb:  

The new year is just about here, but the most significant event for me is the equinox, which happened a few days ago. Even though our worst weather is yet to come, I look at the equinox as the turning point for winter training because the days begin to get longer. The short days of winter make training difficult; but once the days begin to get longer I start getting excited for the approaching racing season.

Right now I’m spending a couple weeks in New England. This has presented a training challenge because I didn’t bring my bike. Running shoes are much easier to transport. The cross training will be good for me, but it’s weird because I’m exhausting muscles that I haven’t used for awhile. My lungs are there, but this inferior form of exercise requires eccentric contraction which is playing havoc with my leg muscles and tendons. Running has been fun because I’ve been on the trails that flank the Charles River in Boston and today I was running some backwoods trails in north central Mass. All of this running might inspire to me try a tri this spring.