01-06-07-EastZayante-Summit-BearCreek-Hwy9-MtHermon.gpx-t0

An excellent moderate training ride with a couple of hard efforts – one on the first East Zayante climb and the other on the climb up Mt Hermon from Felton to Scotts Valley (first time recording this climb!). I bonked on the second East Zayante climb, so I just slowed down and took it easy for the second half of that climb, which is why my overall time for East Zayante was not so great. The total East Zayante climb (laps 3, 4, 5, and 6) was a very mediocre 1:03:45 – about 6:45 slower than my best time with Jeff Ott (57:00 on 7/27/04). I suspect I could have done a new PB if I had eaten enough to not bonk on the second East Zayante climb. I did eat 3 GUs at the top of East Zayante, and when we climbed up to the top of Summit and Bear Creek Rd, I felt much better, since I had fuel in me. Then, on the pentultimate climb up Mt Hermon, I totally surged ahead and climbed strongly. My new PB (and only time) for Mt Hermon was an excellent 10:00 flat – an average speed of 14.6 mph, an average heartrate of 156 bpm, and an average cadence of 82 rpm – super duper stats!! Since the climb is 415 feet in that 10 minutes, my VFM was an excellent 41.5 vfm, which is super considering the climb has 201 feet of descending in it, too – woooooooohoooooooo!!!!! Also, our overall average speed for the entire ride was a very good 14.8 mph, which is amazing when you consider that my average heartrate was only 132 bpm and we did 40 miles and about 4500 feet of climbing in just 2:44 of riding time – wooooohooooo!!! Also, my time up the first East Zayante climb was excellent – I started the timer just a little early (about 5 or 10 seconds), and had a time of 9:22 – so it might have been a time of just 9:15 – and I started out fairly easy at first (Warren took off early), as I stayed with Mike for the first 1/4 mile – but then I decided to push hard for the last 3/4 of the climb and ended up just a little shy of my PB time of 8:52, which was done on 12/02/06. So I could have probably beaten that PB if I had tried hard for the entire climb – another woooooooohooooooo!!!!!!