Hill Groove

I haven’t ridden out to Camp Williams in years. Let me just start with that. Somewhere around 17 km into a ride on Saturday, in the midst of a downhill coast, I suggested to Phillip that we should make the right turn at Redwood and climb up to the Camp. Let me clarify something here: neither Phillip nor I are climbers in any sense of the word.

To this point in the ride we’d taken on the relatively mild 1% - 3% grades that the valley floor offers. I was feeling pretty good. I’d managed to keep up with Phillip so far.

A little recent background on Phillip. He’s been riding his trainer this winter. He’s dropped 40 pounds in the past year. He’s taken to this biking thing seriously since I introduced him to it years ago. And, Phillip is the kind of guy you want to ride with. He’s willing to talk, takes solid turns pulling, and just helps you to feel good while you’re with him.

So, we rolled past the Maverik at Redwood – if you’re a cyclist in Salt Lake, you know the one I’m talking about – and turned South. I love the recently widened road. Instead of rumble strips and vanishing shoulders, there is a painted bike lane and smooth pavement! It’s beautiful. In fact it was almost beautiful enough to cause me to forget that I was now climbing at 5% - 6% gradients instead of the smooth valley. Almost. However, I know a solid climb when I feel one.  (Did I mention that I’m no angel of the mountains?) And I felt that climb. I made some comment about how I wondered what I had gotten myself into, but mostly we rode quietly, just keeping the pedals turning.

Somewhere up this climb I started testing new ways to turn the pedals over. Last year I had focused on lifting the pedals rather than pushing them down. That wasn’t working for me on this climb. However, I discovered that by pushing the pedals forward across the top of the stroke, I was able to utilize different muscles and find a new rhythm that worked for me on that climb.

Then, I spotted another cyclist at the base of the final grade. He was far in the distance, but when the world drops a rabbit in front of me, it’s hard for me to not think about chasing it down. However, my desire to chase and my ability to chase were not the same. Having him out there kept me going, but couldn’t give me wings. As a side note, I didn’t have any Red Bull, so I couldn’t test if their ads are true or not.

Then, about 6 km after we turned the corner onto Redwood, we reached the top. Now, just for the record, the light is not at the summit, nor is the county line. You have to go a few hundred meters past each of those to reach the summit. At this point we congratulated ourselves on a solid climb, told ourselves how good we were, discounted the efforts of cyclists who rode past us, then turned around for the descent. I’ve decided that this self aggrandizing is a critical part of cycling. Were it not for these sessions, none of us would have any idea just how good we were.

Well, the rest of the ride was largely a footnote to that climb. Phillip had some aerodynamics issues with his jacket that slowed him on the descent, then I got a flat about 10 km before the finish, but it was pretty quick and uneventful.

Alright, one quick note on the flat tire. Always make sure that you sweep the inside of the tire for any sharp objects that may have caused the flat. I’ve read this advice countless times, and usually follow it, but forgot to this time. I got lucky and didn’t have another flat. However, there was still a metal sliver poking through my tire when I checked after arriving home.