Come'on.
You know you do it.
For each of my "big" rides or races, I look at the elevation charts. When they're not conveniently linked on the event's webpage, I hunt them down with the dogged vengeance of a woman scorned.
Call it passionate recognisance.
But I need that info to get ready for the day. Maybe it's too much to know. That could be debated. Have I psyched myself out before starting? Maybe. But when it matters, I'd rather not leave anything to chance.
So, it has been with much CHA-GRIN that I read posts from the crew who went to WIBA last weekend. You know the ones -- that talk aboutthe hills, and how HILLY it is, and how UNGODLY RELENTLESS the hills are, and how they come over and over and over until you have to will left to live?
Yeah. Fun. Soooo looking forward to it.
So I need my own testing ground now. Somewhere I can find some semblance of an equivalency. My PSAT, if you will.
And I've found it. Oh yeah, kids, I have.
Remember the Taxing Metric? Yeah. I buried it in the recesses of my mind, too. I remember thinking words like relentless and ohgodthesehillssuck and killmenow. So at lunch today, me and the BT route tracker got cozy again and mapped away.
Booyah. I tell ya -- what we ever did without gmap, I. JUST. DON'T. KNOW.
So, you take the ride from my house to where the Taxing Metric starts, add it to the two ride loops (which conveniently have an at-car stop in between), and add it to the ride home and...
....voila....
Almost exactly 100 miles and over 6,700 feet of climbing.
And THAT, my friends, is my new measuring stick. I don't care if I have to try it every weekend from here to Wisconsin, I will do that without bonking, crashing, crying, or otherwise falling apart.
It needs a name, right?
I'm going to call it my Proving Grounds ride. Here's the breakdown...
Home to parking area/picnic grounds
Distance: 18 miles
Climb: 950 feet
Taxing Loop One
Distance: 32 miles
Climb: 3065
yes, i'm serious. now i know why that was a kick in the pants for the first ride out this year!
Taxing Loop Two
Distance: 32 miles
Climb: 1800 feet
Return home
Distance 18 miles
Climb: 950 feet
Total Proving Grounds Distance: 100
Total Proving Grounds Climb: 6,765
Total IMWI Distance: 112
Total IMWI Climb: (approx) 7,000
Not a bad comparison, eh?
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Passionate Recon
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
Those hills will make you strong and with a bit of luck you will enjoy them and look forward to them. At that point you have arrived.
You go girl!
But what happened in the run?
Wow, very impressive. I wish I could climb those hills like you. I really admire your drive. It looks like you have found a good comparison, have fun with it.
P.S. When I saw the title of this post (passionate recon) I thought that perhaps you were heading in a new and different direction, but this one works.
Post a Comment