PR on Lookout Mountain

FRIDAYYYYYY!!! Fridays are the best day of the week. Work is wrapped up and I have another two days of freedom from the clutches of Sundar’s long fingers (I’m just kidding pls don’t fire me). Except in this case, I only have one day of freedom. I ‘volunteered’ to cover somebody else’s shift this Sunday, which precludes me from engaging in various vigorous activities that day - but not all was lost as I only ‘volunteered’ after I checked that it’s raining and 37 degrees on Sunday.

4pm rolled around and nobody was responding to chat messages anymore and I decided to call it a day. Bibs, HR monitor, XS jersey, helmet, spare tube and tire levers, sunglasses, gloves, two bars and two fruit chews, shoes, two smol water bottles, keys, and I was on my way. The domestique in me immediately felt some muscular exhaustion in my legs from my 5.5 mile run yesterday. Oof.

But the weather was nice at 75 degrees and for once, there was very little wind, so I decided to go for a PR at Lookout Mountain. Having bought a new scale a few days ago and immediately weighing in at 135 lbs naked and empty in the morning piqued my curiosity on whether I was slower or faster than peak fitness back in 2019.

I was at the base about 35 minutes later and took a quick leak in the porta potty. And then I started smashing up the hill. I still have the hypothesis that plica syndrome is induced by either cold weather OR low cadence, so I decided to spin at >85 cadence the entire time. My legs simply would not work though. My heart rate hovered in the mid-170s and I was not cardiovascularly taxed during this ride, which is quite unfortunate. As evidenced by previous high heart rate activities, I can sustain mid-180s for up to 30ish minutes, so it’s quite disappointing that my legs didn’t have it in them - even at such a high cadence.

I’ve also come to the understanding that my bike is heavy as hell and that Strava’s wattage calculator is not very good at accounting for weight additions. Bike is 20.3 lbs. Water bottles are about 1.5 lbs each, for a total of 3 lbs. Stuff in my jersey totals about 1.5 lbs (phone, tools, spare tire, snacks). That’s a lot of weight. With some math, I’ve come to the conclusion that I put out about 215W for the duration of the max effort at 135 lbs bodyweight, calculating to ~3.5 W/kg. In other words, way lower than my max OLH effort. It’s possible that being at 6000 ft makes a difference, but who knows. Given that it was my legs and not my cardio limiting me, I think I’m gonna start up weight training again. Time to get back that 255 lb squat. And also shed a few pounds back to 130-132 lbs.

The good news is that I PR’d, albeit barely. The main difference from the previous PR was that this time, there was a headwind in the flatter middle section, which lost me about a minute in the middle third of the climb. I also lost about 15s in the final flatter section as I literally had no surge this time as a result of the muscular exhaustion.

At the top of the climb, I ate one of those lovely Kirkland granola bars and a fruit chew and admired the scenery. Lovely late-afternoon golden glow all over the mountainside. No wonder the town is called Golden.

The PR tradition that must be maintained is repeating a climb after a PR. So, I took the same way down and steady-stated my way up. Maybe 75% effort in the legs, but 50% cardio effort averaging only like 150 heart rate. Cardio so fine, but legs not there :(

At the top, I quickly (again) inhaled a Kirkland granola bar and made my way down the other side of the mountain. Up and over Dinosaur Ridge, up Alameda, and I was home.

All in all, a very compact ride that felt very good everywhere (except legs wouldn’t work).

I think I need to start looking into acquiring a lighter bike. If anybody has ideas, please let me know.

I’m thinking:

1. <7.2kg not including pedals
2. Downsize to something with about 370-373 reach
3. Shimano Ultegra Di2 because SRAM can go eat it
4. Discs (obviously)
5. Awesome colorway

Options are many, but the aesthetic is quite important, so as a result, there aren’t really that many options:

1. Look 785 Huez RS Disc in Proteam White (this is the LICK, but it’s quite hefty)
2. Time Alpe d’Huez 01 Active Disc in Red (this is also the LICK, but it’s also quite hefty)
3. Giant TCR Advanced Pro 0 Disc (I don’t like blue)
4. Specialized Aethos Pro (I don’t like navy blue)

With groupset supplies being the way they are, it’ll likely be 2022 before I can get my hands on one of these honeys, but one can dream.

Time to start cutting. Tomorrow. After some goat curry.