jschen

First of all, for non-SoCal people, I'd like to take this opportunity to share our Saturday ride reports from our group Baldy ride. A few dozen of your fellow BikeForums roadies were out in force on the mountain, having a great time. Ride reports and pictures here.

it's been 32 days since my maiden voyage on my Cervelo R3. And one day since my first ride on my Rolf Prima Elan Aeros. Today, I finally got to do the ride I've been really wanting to do on my R3: a climb of Mt Baldy Rd from end to end. I've been up to Baldy ski lift on the R3, but not from the bottom of Mt Baldy Rd. Since I consider this my "home climb", it was time to give it a go. My previous personal record was 2:03. With a significantly lighter bike, I calculated that my virtual PR was about 1:59-2:00. I'm a bit faster now than I was in June, so my hope today was to get in the low 1:50's. Ride profile below:



I decided to start at sunrise to avoid the heat. Baldy Rd is well shaded in the early morning, and I wouldn't be in the sun until I turned around for the descent. The only problem with this start time is that there tends to be a pretty nasty headwind. But better a headwind than oven-like conditions. Also, a headwind on the way up means massive speeds on the way down. I reached Glendora Ridge Rd in 65 minutes, one minute ahead of my PR split time. That put me right around a 2 hour pace, so that wasn't too bad given the wind conditions. But it sucked having to fight so hard just to be on virtual PR pace.

I settled into a nice rhythm on the way into Icehouse Canyon and found myself there in 83 minutes. Wow. That's fast for me. I hoped I wouldn't pay the price later. But if I could keep it up, I could be looking at a 1:53-1:55 climb time. Started through the switchbacks. Started losing track of where I was since I was working so hard, and at one point I realized I was either between switchbacks #3 (of 8) and #4 and really struggling or between switchbacks #4 and #5 and just zoning out. Happily, switchback #5 soon came into view, so I must have just not made a mental note of switchback #4. The stretch between switchback #7 and #8 and the final quarter mile are murder on tired legs, so I decided to rest up a bit on the relatively shallow section from switchback #5 to #7. ("Rest up" on a ~8% grade. ) I was starting to tire and now projecting 1:55-1:57. (Mental games keep me amused on solo rides.) Got to switchback #7 and started turning up the pace knowing that this was the second hardest stretch of the climb. Rounded switchback #8 and just before a very brief--but much appreciated--downhill, I met a roadie coming the other way. "Beat you to the top," he told me. Decided to switch my computer over to showing speed and time and aim for 1:55. Decided to try to burn out my spinning legs before reaching the final very steep stretch to save some time. (And realized I shouldn't have held back through the switchbacks. Oh well.) Then got out of the saddle at the snack shop and tried to hit my target time. Couldn't quite do it. Got up in 1:56.

I saw a bunch of people at the top. Evidently, today is the 41st annual Mt Baldy run, starting from the ski resort and climbing 4000 feet in 8 miles to the top of Baldy! One of the volunteers at the sign-in table told me the record, set in the late 80's, is 1:01. And also in the late 80's, an 11 year old set the female record at about 1:15. Hats off to the people doing that run.

Unfortunately, all the traffic near the top meant no attempts at a top speed on the way down. I started getting on the brakes much earlier than usual at the top, hitting "only" 48.6 MPH. Thanks to a decent tailwind I broke 48 MPH (non-drafting speeds) a few other times on the descent, but with only a 50/12 gear to spin, nowhere else really offers me a good chance to hit 50+ MPH speeds. But nonetheless, it was a fun descent.

The R3 is very comfortable. Almost as much so as my Specialized Roubaix. And it's very lively. The weight reduction may not mean much in quantitative terms, but in qualitative terms, it just feels like so much less stuff attached to the body and so much less weight to drag around. And on descents, it's stable as a rock. Not a hint of vibrations, and with precise handling. I love it.

By the way, for your amusement, a history of my Baldy PR times:

11/26/05 2:45
12/22/05 2:13
12/31/05 2:10
05/14/06 2:07
06/24/06 2:03
09/04/06 1:56

I still hope to hit 1:45 by year's end. We'll see.

cjbruin

Jason, that's awesome how much you have improved in 9 months! Good seeing you on Saturday, have a good week.

roadfix

Hey, nice report Jason!.....and congrats on your new PR! Seems like your new R3 is working out well for you........& I'm sure you'll see 1:45 sooner than you think...

We must do Sat's ride again in the very near future!

Extort

Aweome! You have a great looking bike and it seems to have found the perfect owner.

1955

Great ride report Jason, and it's amazing how much you've improved. At your age there's no telling how good you'll get! Yesterdays ride was the most fun I've had torturing myself in a long time.

I agree on the handling of that R3, like a rail.

And like Fixer said, it's time to start planning the fall version of yesterdays ride in the ovens of Socal!!! Don't forget, 2nd and 4th weekends...repeat, second and fourth weekends are best, for me. Actually they're the ONLY weekends I can ride. Just getting in my vote early.
How about October 14th, the 28th or November 11th.

Tequila Joe

Congratulations!

One question> I wanna know what you did in December last year that cut your time by 20%
11/26/05 2:45
12/22/05 2:13

Hammertoe

He and Landis have the same personal physician....;-)

roadfix

Is that true Jason?

BillyD

Oops, my bad.
I thought the title of the thread read "climbing badly", and I thought I had found a thread I could relate to. Damn eyes of mine . . .

Never mind.

my58vw

Started riding more?

Nice job - and nice bike! I wish progress came quicker though

jschen

1955, there already are rides planned for Oct 14 (Extort and OC Roadie's Baldy Challenge) and Nov 11 (caligurl's Joshua Tree ride, tentative date). And there's talk of a repeat of the Pie ride on Nov 25.

Simple. For a first climb, with such a tough home stretch, holding back and surviving is goal #1. Especially after not making it to the top two days earlier. (Admittedly, I was within 1000 feet when I thought I had a mile to go. Knowing the climb really makes a big difference.) For as much as possible, I simply went at a "relaxed tempo" pace, holding back as much as possible in reserve. For a second climb, once one has some clue what one's up against, one can set a more aggressive pace. Even now, my improvements are as much about my mental game and my pacing strategy as they are about my physical abilities.

Mandy, your improvements will come. Hang in there.

cjbruin

By the way Jason...I just got back from a ride with misterdna and he mentioned that you still have "climbing slowpoke" under your screen name. Time for a change.

Tequila Joe

Ahhh.... unfortunatly, you can't bottle this and sell it. So, it looks like your going to have to work for a living at least for a little while longer.

1955

LOL!!! +1

1955

What about Oct. 28th then?

krazyderek

so................... the pic of the R3 is... where?

Looks like a cool hill, how long does it take you to do the actual 13k(13miles?) baldy section? Seems like timing an entire ride could be a little deceiving as to where you're actually making time gains.

Mr. Beanz

You looked real good when I saw you Jason!...DAM SKINNY GUYS! Where are those voodoos CJ?

jschen

Pics are available in posts #53 and #58 of this thread as well as in several SoCal group ride reports.

My timing is only for the 12.x mile climb shown in the profile. I don't include the downhill return trip in the timing.

I'll change it.

voltman

That's a nice update and breakdown.

krazyderek

https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...6240&page=2#53
https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...6240&page=2#58

For anyone else curious, and for those that don't know, take the thread address (the text address displayed in the address bar), and put in #99 (99 being the post number) to link directly to a post in the middle of a thread.

Sorry..

Nice bike btw, wheels go really well with it.

So..... 2 hours or 2 minutes for a 12.x mile (19.2km) climb? neither seems accurate? Actually if i think about it a bit.... and convert it to km... ok that does start to make sense. ~2 hours would make sense for a long climb like that tacked onto the end of a ride.
Wow, ya you should easily be ble to cut that time down in massive chunks if you approach it the right way. I'd say (not that you asked) 1:45 is probably a good goal for the next month or two.

The first 5 miles would probably be where you could make a fairly fast improvement, with an avg grade of only 5% you could increase speed here with the least amount of energy expenditure, then just settle back into your normal speed for the remaining 7 miles up. Once you've done that a couple time's succesfully, take the next 5-8.5 mile section and focus on increasing your avg speed up that section alone, taking it steady up the first 5 miles, and remaining 3.5. If that goes well, maybe try bringing those 2 chunks together now and doing the whole 8.5 miles at slightly higher pace, be it, 0.5, or 2.5 mph faster. And then take it steady up the remaining 3.5 mile section. Regardless of how hard the final part is after these intervals DO the final 3.5miles even if you have to slow down.
Lastly, do a steady (purposely hold back a fair bit) 8.5mile ascent to the begining of the final 3.5 mile section (8.5-12) which seems to have the steapest grade. Then gradually increase your speed over the course of 2 or 3 attemps until you find the max speed you can attain up the 3.5mile steep section.

Finaly, race day arrives (or just a nice sunny day you've marked on the calendar) and you're ready (probably mid next summer, unless it's warm there all year long and you train like this all winter). All you have to do is put the 3 sections together, which is easier than it sounds, at this point it just takes mental toughness to get up the entire hill at the pace you already know you can do for each section.

That's just how i would tackle the hill.
Sorry... couldn't resist.

soo... um, sweet bike

Tiffanie

Wow Jason! Nice report.

pcates

+2 on that......i was expecting a rant as to how bad the cervelo was.

why are the best hills in SoCal......damn flat area i live in!!!

HAMMER MAN

outstanding ride report. i hope you meet your goal

Garfield Cat

Jason, any thoughts on the Maui climb up Haleakala?

caligurl

awesome.... Awesome... AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!