Good Time!
So, I met a guy at work doing a presentation about stuff to do outside to some interns. We both got volunteered to talk to the interns, and I was listening to him talking and came to the conclusion that he was pretty serious.
Right now, he is working on training for “The Death Ride” (which ya gotta ask yourself … “Self, does that sound appealing… Well yes self it sounds painful, difficult and would probably involve nausea, sounds like fun). The death ride is a 130 mile road ride with 15,000 feet of climbing down in the Reno / Tahoe area. It climbs both sides of Monitor and Ebbetts passes and one side of Carson pass. So, I talked to P. about riding sometime and I hooked up to do the second half of his weekend training ride (Bogus Basin via the road). earlier in the day he road Deer Point which is a straight 4,000 in altitude with about 1,000 feet of re-climbing.
Anyway we headed off up Bogus (which is the first time I’ve climbed it on a road bike this year). I held it close to the redline (170-174 heart rate) for the first half and then backed off a little due to the nausea (and weak legs). Made it up to the main lodge with is 3,200 feet in altitude probably 3,400 in climbing in an 1:27 which is 6 minutes better than my personal best. I’m totally stoked, I figured I’d be down at 1:45 for the first time of the year. I’m guessing all the bike commuting has paid off.
After the main parking lot we did the bonus climb up to Pioneer lodges (another 800 feet in altitude) and then went back down. I passed a big old (well actually new) SUV coming down. I don’t think the driver was too thrilled to be passed by a geek in spandex shorts, but hey I though it was funny and he had no chance of keeping up on the turns.
So P. did like 10k of climbing today and still worked my butt of climbing, I’m sure we’ll ride again and I’ll just have to hold it at the red line to have a chance of keeping up.