Today Fight Club happened in Helgin. My legs were feeling ruined after the threshold workouts this week. I was hoping to get in 3 climb intervals to finish out the week, but I wasn’t too optimistic it would happen because I was really feeling fatigued yesterday. So as the wind blew me into Elgin, I had one objective on my mind, climb repeats on Moore Hill. What is Moore Hill? I just found out today.
While rolling through the streets of beautiful Helgin, I ran into the club ride just as it was forming. I introduced myself to the ladies and informed them of my intention to do the first climb on PJ road. They said, “Game on.” Fight Club was commenced. Fortunately, Tyler heard about the FC throw-down and he showed up just in time for the climbing. Once we hit the hill riders scattered. I’m thankful for the incentive, because I was able to hold my target intensity very well. Tyler still took me by about a minute on the climb, but that isn’t too far away considering how steep it is. We repeated the carnage 3 times, and each was a successful push.
It was during my meeting with the gals that they informed me that the first climb to PJ is Moore Hill–as in, when the road crests and you think the climb is over, there is Moore steep climbing to come. I’ve been riding PJ for 6 years and everyone I asked to name the climb wasn’t able to. No map that I’ve seen has a name listed. I’ve referred to it as the Terry Ranch climb because that is the only name I’ve heard. This climb has always been a favorite of mine for early season repeats because it is the steepest paved road around and the climb lasts about 10 minutes if you start from the creek crossing. It is also a good climb for the steep repeats of 3-4 minutes that I do in race season because the first half of the climb is about that long and consistently steep. The other climbs out there have some names too.
I’m just now finishing my first arts & crafts project of the year, gluing a new tubular on my front racing wheel. I plan to take my TT bike into the lab for some video this week. There are some set-up changes I want to make. If the weather holds out, I might take the bike out for a TT this month.
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