Solo Sunday Morning Hills & PR Therapy :: 26th February, 2012

Yep, 'twas Sunday again and it was time to jump back on the bike for some hills and PR therapy! Using AP's monumental effort in the hills yesterday as inspiration to get out there and grap a couple of PRs here and there it was a natural decision to start with Welshpool Rd again and get that big gear, low cadence hill climbing working again.

The Achievements & PRs started coming straight away with my 2nd best time climbing the first rise of Welshpool Rd to the BP service station just after the Crystal Brook Rd intersection. This was a little disappointing but only from the perspective that it would have been nice to have ridden a PR on this segment to couple with the PR's on every other segment of the WPR climb this morning. Here's how it looked:

Strava Segment	Duration	Pace	MHR	Note
Welshpool Rd First Rise	00:06:58	16.8 km/h	153 bpm	2nd best time
Welshpool Rd Petrol2Peak	00:07:36	24.4 km/h	154 bpm	PR
Welshpool Hill (to Pomeroy Rd)	00:12:53	20.8 km/h	152 bpm	PR
Welshpool Rd (complete)	00:14:00	20.2 km/h	153 bpm	PR

It is abundantly clear that pushing the bigger gears and keeping a lower cadence up hills like this is far more efficient than using easier gears to complete the climb. Obviously more strength is required in the legs to perform a climb this way but strength is definitely something that will build over time allowing me to improve my climbing ability even further. Isn't it amazing what you learn?

Before I had even consulted Strava for my times and performances over the Welshpool Rd segments I had a good feeling about the climb and was almost certain that I had done my best time. But I needed to back this up and continue the level I had attained as I continued climbing the additional hills I had planned for the ride.

The next significant climb would be Walnut and Patterson Rd (the Observatory) and I was keen to get a respectable time up this hill but had not necessarily considered a PR for it after the effort put in for Welshpool Rd. I was suprised to find that I not only attained a PR for the Walnut Rd climb (to Patterson Rd intersection) but also for the Walnut and Patterson Rd combined.

I continued the ride by descending Patterson Rd to Pickering Brook and climbed Repatriation Rd and then completed the 16 km loop of Carmel, Walnut, Patterson & Repatriation. This effort rewarded me with a 4th overall for the 16.2 km hilly circuit which was a complete surprise but definitely welcome.

I was still keen to do some more hills work at this stage so I decided that Mundaring Weir Rd would be the next climb before heading back down to level ground. I completed the climb with my 2nd best time and a sense of achievement in completing all the climbs so well (even without knowing the PR results). As I came up to the roundabout at the top of the climb, a number of riders passed through heading back toward Welshpool Rd. I would be happy to latch on and hitch a ride for a bit as they looked to be going at a reasonable pace.

I caught the last rider as I turned onto Canning Rd and stayed with them for a kilometre or two. Three of them were on fixies so as we continued up the slight rise toward Lesmurdie Rd the pace dropped off a bit so I decided to get around and keep my average up. I turned into Pomeroy Rd feeling like I still had quite a bit left in the tank but gave it a bit of a top up with another meusli bar before reaching Welshpool Rd for the final descent.

The descent was swift and stable today with not much wind about but the fingers and toes were still feeling a bit cold from the cooler air in the valleys up there but with the sun beginning to take affect the thawing process was rapid. A top of 83.8 km/h was reached and brought the usual rush of adrenalin which had me itching for more.

I checked the time as I reached Lewis Rd and noted I still might have enough time to complete one more climb if I could get to the bottom of Gooseberry Hill quickly enough so I turned up Lewis Rd and along Hawtin Rd toward the bottom the climb but by the time I had reached the intersection of Hawtin and Maida Vale Rds, time had indeed gotten short and I had children "taxi" duties to attend to so opted out of the last climb and turned down Maida Vale Rd heading for home.

I had maintained quite a good average pace for the ride this morning and was keen to keep it up as I rode the final long stretches for home along Maida Vale, Dundas, Abernethy, Kewdale and Orrong Rds. I completed the ride with a respectable 31.5 km/h on the Garmin (31.3 km/h on Strava - don't know how this works?).

With the taxi duties taken care of it was off to Tech Park to catch the rest of the racing action in the State Criterium Championships. The pace was certainly fast and congratulations definitely go to each of the winners and place getters for each race.

Also some huge kudos to go out to John Sonego and Emma Gillard for their great results out at the 40 km Herne Hill ITT this morning. John managed to achieve his goal of finishing with an average speed of above 40 km/h (40.92) and Emma came in 5th out of all the women (including her name-sake Emma Pooley) with a well deserved 1:08:41 @ 34.94 km/h. Unfortunately, Al Flanders was not able to finish the event on the new Shiv. I'm not sure if this was due to mechanical problems or something else. Disappointing for him but he will certainly bounce back from it.