Thought I'd intercept the usual group about four miles into a planned ride on a hill not far from home. When I got to the top of that hill, I checked the time and figured they had probably just gotten underway (if they'd even left yet) and wouldn't be by for a few minutes, so I made an off-course loop back to the bottom of the hill. Came back up. No sign of them. Headed back down, turned around and came back up. Still no sign of them. They should have arrived by that time, but I figured I'd ride in a holding pattern up and down that hill in case they got held up or were running especially late. Well, after four repeats, I started to think I'd underestimated the speed of their arrival and to suspect they'd sneaked past when I went off course the first time. After six repeats, I'd given up on intercepting them and wondered what I'd do for a ride today. Once more up and down and I figured, what the heck, why not just make it a nice round ten repeats? What with some lollygagging around at the top of the hill most times, and the little bits to the hill from home and back, it wound up taking two hours!
2600 feet in 24 miles, and a PR the last time up the hill.
A few things came to mind during those climbs:
- Snug boots are at least as helpful as stiff soles - they seemed to help a great deal across the top and bottom portions of the stroke, making a circular motion of the feet feel all the more natural and effective.
- Planning to intercept a group ride is not a good idea. One should arrive at the arranged meeting place on time instead: Promptness is the kindness of kings.
- There ought to be a quick, easy way to determine something like fastest vertical mile or quarter mile. People talk about cumulative elevation and top speed often enough - what about something that combines the two? So when I got home, I discovered, VAM.
I thought I might want a power meter, but this VAM stat is sufficiently interesting. Managed 1,112 on the last trip up that hill this morning (its right about 1 km), but with all the dawdling, only 371 for the ride as a whole. VeloViewer sez max on any segment of at least half a mile is 4,056. Max on any segment over a kilometer: 3963, with plenty of others above 3,000. But once we start looking at something over a mile, max is only 1401. Best VAM on an HC climb: 766, but best on a Category 1 only 611. Of course at this early stage in my cycling career, the samples for those are quite small - only three of each. Best Category 2: 808.