Every year as I prepare myself for the Furnace Creek 508 I pass this mile marker.

TRAINING GOALS

1.  Tempo to Threshold power on short climbs

2.  Fitness check

3.  Personal Record attempt on Glendora Mountain Rd.

THE ROUTE

Start Boulder Springs Rd – Glendora

Warm up on Big Dalton Canyon Rd.

Climb Glendora Mountain Rd (8 mile climb)

Descend “Little GMR”

Refuel at Camp Williams spigot

Climb Little GMR (5 mile climb)

Descend GMR to Glendora

THE BIKE

Felt F2 with Di2 53/39 Crankset  11-25 Cassette

A screen shot of the entire ride from Training Peaks WKO 3.0

ORANGE- ELEVATION

YELLOW- POWER

RED- HEART RATE

Below is a screen shot of my new Personal Record (PR) 43:59 for Glendora Mountain Road (GMR). My new PR is 2:09 faster than my time from 08/08/09, almost exactly a year ago today.    GMR  is an 8 mile climb with a consistent 6% grade until the top where there is a dip.  I felt OK but I definitely did not expect a PR the way I was riding but there it is. For those that don’t understand power maybe you would be interested to know  my average speed was 11 mph.  NORMALIZED POWER WAS 245 WATTS OR 3.64 w/kg and 626 kjs

SCREEN SHOT OF GLENDORA MOUNTAIN CLIMB FROM TRAINING PEAKS WKO 3.0

Screen shot of Little GMR climb

I sucked pretty badly on the Little GMR climb.  My legs just didn’t have it.  Surprisingly, I was only a 1 minute or so off my PR.  I need to come back with fresher legs.  Yesterday’s 84 miler before work (5am start) zapped my legs more than I thought.  Then I worked all day spending almost 9 hours on my feet and you can see why my legs might not be as fresh as they could be.

As I was pedaling squares up Little GMR, I thought of pro cyclists having to come out day after day on a stage race and be “on it”.  Just one bad day or one bad climb can ruin their prospects of winning the overall.  How DO they recover every night and come out to fight again day after day?

Post where you can find information on my Previous PR