The Little Engine That Could: April 4, 2007

This post is a little overdue but I wanted to get it in before blogging about more recent rides.

On Wednesday April 4th Joyce and I left work early (~4:15 PM) to try the climb we did with Jerry on April 1st. We parked at Canada and Edgewood and rode our bikes down Canada to Woodside. We then ventured up to Huddart Park. We managed not to get lost and found our way along the same route Jerry had taken us.

Sadly my legs were feeling tired even before we started the real climb! We stopped for a nutrition bar and a swig of Cytomax and then went for it. It was torture but Joyce gave me lots of encouragement and after several stops along the way and lots of huffing and puffing, I made it to the top. Well, not the actual top, but the entrance of Huddart Park. Apparently from there you can go another 2 miles of steep climbing. WHO WOULD DO THAT?

And of course, what goes up must go down! That was another adventure. We didn't go back the way we came because a cyclist at the top said it was steep and the better way to go was down a different road (Kings Mountain Rd. I think). So we did. I managed to almost break the speed limit, reaching 29.7 MPH, and that was with braking. The rode was pretty winding and there was no bike lane so it was a little scary. Joyce said her legs were shaking at the bottom. She also learned later that it is not a good idea to ride your brakes down a steep hill because you can heat up the tire and get a blow out! Phew, glad that didn't happen.

After all of that we only logged 13 miles for this ride. But we made it to the top, something we couldn't do 3 days before. All it takes is willpower: "I think I can, I think I can". Although while I was doing it I was more likely thinking "there is no way I can go any further"

After the ride I brought Pinkie to the bike shop for an upgrade. I replaced my defective cyclometer with one that has an altimeter (plus cadance and heart rate monitor). Now we will be keeping track of our climbs. We'll see if it has issues with picking up random signals like the old one did.