I did the most pointless, dopiest thing today, but I don't remember the last time I laughed at the thought of what I was doing on the bike or smiled so big.

A little background: On River Road in Palisades State Park, the way out at the north end is Alpine hill; about a mile at 7%. Before the climb there is a sort of traffic circle with a 0.2 mile 6% grade leg that leads down to a boat basin. I had come down from the north and decided to do a couple of repeats of the boat basin-to circle segment.

Well, due to favorable climatic conditions, I found it extremely easy to climb that segment. So easy, I practically sprinted up. But when I turned around to return to the bottom, I felt like going slow. I made a point of going slower on the descent than I went on the climb - about 11-12 mph down the hill I'd just averaged 16 mph going up, and maxed out at 21 - not in a run up to the base, but in the middle of the climb. It turned out to be five seconds short of a PR, but it had felt ridiculously fast, and as I toodled downhill at a leisurely pace, it just seemed hilarious.



I thought it would have been nice if some riding mates had been around to join the fun, but then again, they may have realized I was nuts.

I tried doing it again faster, and in the big ring, but that turned out three seconds slower. The third time I took it easy, because I had the whole hill to climb.

Its always fun to change things up! I was out there yesterday as well - the weather was a welcomed surprise after Saturday. Fit a nice ride in out to the Market and back

What is this mythical weather which makes hill-climbing easy? A helium storm? Anti-gravity showers?

I climbed a mild hill on Sunday that didn't give me a hard time when I started road biking initially. However, it became kind of moderate in effort until I figured out my training was wacked a couple of weeks ago.
So on Sunday I cruised up it without effort, even got out of the saddle and made exaggerated swish-swish movements and sounds. I also started whistling right up until another road biker came down the hill I was going up. He looked so perplexed, I just made a stupid huge grin to match my shenanigans.

Later on, I took a slightly different route by adding to it because it sounded fun. I think I got the hang of this having fun thing.

Tides are only partly a weather thing, but high tide = gravity assist from the moon.

The ideal time to climb isn't necessarily exactly when oceanic high tide hits, though. There's some location-dependent phase shift between the moon cycle through the sky and the tides actually rising and falling. The important thing is to climb when the moon is as perfectly overhead or as perfectly underfoot* as it'll get.

*Antipodal and sublunar timing should both offer a gravity assist.

Come on now, haven't you ever heard of a tailwind? Actually, what made it extra nice was the fact that it was markedly warmer and sunny down at the boat basin. Not only was the wind favorable in terms of cardinal direction generally at the time, there was a rising current up the hill as well.

I saw a LOT of folks out there, including some guys from Weather Channel, ironically (one of the most accomplished local racing teams), and I'm surprised more folks didn't try it - Strava indicates several folks I know to be stronger did the same segment but had totally ordinary times, and hardly anyone even come close yesterday. I guess they didn't know what they were missing - or thought it would be "cheating."

3s a crowd.. first timer here was brought down to the boat basin on RR yesterday as well.. didn't realize going down it wasn't a thru road and I'd have to crawl back up

Yes, it was. And the Market - those folks are sitting on a gold mine! Stopped there for a snack, too. We may well have crossed paths....

The first time I took RR, I knew there was no way out on that road, and when I saw riders purposefully going down it I thought they were INSANE!