Wednesday Training Ride

Big ride coming soon. Big ride. Must push through the limits. Time to ramp it up. Whip it.

Whip it good. Thirty to fifty miles today is imperative. Imperative!

Late start - almost 5 p.m. Push through sunset. Sunset! Must not falter. Must suffer, must build strength,

if not character.

Dinner time - 6:30 p.m. Daily News with John Stewart. The Colbert Report. Turn around. Dinner

time. Turn around!

What I did ride: My route took me into the Hollywood hills, on essentially two climbs. The first led up above

Sunset Blvd., on Sunset Plaza Drive. That isn't the steepest route, but it's non-stop up. Near the top,

the views of the city are a worthy reward for the effort made to gain the heights.

At the top of Sunset Plaza, I dropped down into a side canyon to reach Laurel Canyon Blvd. I

turned off onto Mount Olympus Drive, which is one the steeper streets in Los

Angeles, the slope near 15% for well over a mile. Video of that part of my ride would have been

epically interesting to everyone, I'm sure, but I needed two hands on my bars and full concentration

on the climb.

Gearing: 33 inch gear, though on Mt. Olympus Dr., I half-wanted to drop it down to 30, my bail-out gear. No pain,

no gain.

Totals: 17.5 miles, 2,136 feet of altitude gain. No, not enough miles, but some awesome climbing, all of it

coming in nine miles - the pace would work out to about 16,000 feet in 72 miles. My upcoming

ride, in Navajo country in Arizona, includes about 115 miles and 5,000 feet of altitude gain in a day.

Tomorrow: Fifty (50!) miles. Three thousand feet of climbing. I will endure. Tomorrow.

(Tech Note: Video made with an iPhone)