Training in Phoenix
 

Is pretty awesome. There is a mountain only a few miles from my house. I just wake up eat a litte something and just ride over to the mountain to go up and down it a few times.

This is what the road looks like from the top.

http://criticalthrash.com/images/bik...hmountain2.JPG

And this is the elevation profile.

http://criticalthrash.com/images/bik...ainprofile.JPG

Does anyone have any mountain/hill interval workouts they could share with me? Id like to try something specific while I have such easy access to something like this.

whe i lived there i would do repeats up that first steady-grade section (starting from where the road splits (and going left starts you climbing all the way up and the other way is gated) and then stopping before the horseshoe turn). i'd do this in a variety of gears:

typically i'd go up once undergeared (spinning), once over-geared (still seated, pushing a big gear), and once at race-pace (whatever that ends up being for you). repeat as necessary. also, if instead of going left and heading up the mountain, you can go around that gate and head-out an ~8 mile out-and-back that's a lot of fun.

Aren't you racing this weekend? Don't do any intervals two days before the race. The day before the race you might do a couple of VO2Max efforts just to keep the legs working but I'd save your legs for the race.

BTW, did I mention I'm jealous? Next you're going to tell us that even when it's warm the air is dry so it feels cool when you're riding.

--Steve

I've been to Scottsdale once and I would move there in a heartbeat just because of the above picture. Great area to train for sure.

I would totally move to scottsdale if I could. Tucson is awesome too.

Steve,

I figure if I do a bunch of intervals tomorrow I can use those as my excuse for doing so bad at the race! Maybe I will go eat some super hot mexican food the day before too just to make sure.

I also have sunday and monday to ride so I was thinking I could at least get one day of intervals on monday.

That's south mountain, a very cool ride ... and you're racing the superior road race? ... it's gonna be fun and hilly!, what cat you're in? ....

thats the race
cat 5

me too,
i'll see you there then ...

awesome. i was starting to think no one on this forum was from out here.

I live there, I used to think it sucked until I started biking. =]

South Mountain has been my dad's annual birthday (Christmas Eve) ride for over a decade. I really look forward to it every year. It got so much nicer a couple years ago when they finally repaved the road. Now the ride down is as much fun as the ride up.

I grew up in the Northwest Valley, so I was never close enough to ride it regularly from home. I'm in Eugene now and there are hills galore around here. It's wet, but the summers are nice. I miss South Mtn, I'm jealous. Enjoy the climb!

little toasty there in the summer, no? i've never ridden in that kind of heat, but i imagine it has a similar effect to the winters in the northeast. which i've also never ridden in.

i dont find the extreme heat to be the same as extreme cold

I use to travel to PHX several times a year and wished I had brought my bike. I always wondered what that "radio tower" mountain was called. I'm jealous too. Good luck in your race.
Extreme heat is when you have to drive with oven mitts because the steering wheel is too hot to touch.

Or when there is no difference between driving with the windows down versus the windows up, when you can't run the A/C because the car will overheat.

Driving through Death Valley in July around 1 p.m. with the windows up and no A/C was really interesting.

I too enjoy cycling up and down South Mountain. A nice view from the top on a clear day.
Another fun day is around SM and up.

There are a couple of TTs from the Y to the Towers parking lot held every year.
My best and only TT on 48x17 (~76g") fixed gear was 23:38

The record is 18:43

This link lists has stats of SM and other climbs in Arizona:
http://www.hlhap.com/azroadclimbs.html

Attached profile from Stone House (which is a mile or so before the Y where the TT starts)

Al

Just try to do the Tortilla Flats RR serial form May to July ... then let me know. By the way it's an awesome course if you like climbing, not fo the weekends though ...

Have fun.

That ride is best done on New Years morning. Good group, light traffic, great weather compared to the rest of the country, cool bikes and motor bikes to look at, and a tasty breakfast in the middle. What more could you ask for? Of course, getting out to AJ by sunrise on New Years morning means you probably didn't have much of a New Years Eve, but bringing in a new year with a bike ride is better than a hangover.

Living and riding in AZ will make you a morning person, at least in the summer. I remember waking up as early as 3:30-4:00am to be on the trail before sunrise. Road rides were a lot easy to deal with on those 95+ degree mornings.

I remember when in AZ a few years back, heading to the hotel at like 10 p.m., and it was still 97 degrees out....that was awesome.

Many years ago I ran every morning before work. I remember one time the overnight low didn't get below 100F. At 7am run start time it was already 104F.

Al

I still remember the moment I decided to move out of Phx. It was August and I was at a party. We were all smoking a hookah, so we had to be outside on the patio. At midnight, with 2 ceiling fans going (yes, ceiling fans outside on a patio) we were drinking as much water as beer and never had to pee, the thermometer on the patio read 112F.

After spending my third rainy season in Oregon, I can't wait to move back to AZ.

ahhh one more day riding in phoenix then its back home to dc. I plan on doing some TTs up south mountain for my last hurrah.

I TT'ed it today and my time was like a good 3 minutes slower then your time on a fixie.

Is there an official start/stop point?

EDIT: Oops. I see from the graph that there are indeed start/stop points.

--Steve

For the 'official' time trials the start point is at the Y (with one branch gated and going to San Juan lookout) and the end point at the transition from road to parking lot at the top by the towers.

A lot of folks for 'personal' time trials time from the stone house to the parking lot. That adds about 1mi or 3min or so.

Al