el capitain ride with tom h

From Tom's initial blog post about this ride:

Every time I talk to Chris about hills he tells me if you want to do some real hills you have to do my El Camino ride. I hear this for years so to try and shut Chris up (yea, I know, not going to happen) I decided to do the ride and see how hilly it really is.

At last week's ride, Tom asked if I'd be interested in this: he promised about 50 miles, with about 5,000 feet of climb.Well, the "about 50 miles" thing was OK; we came in at 51.9. The elevation seems to be a matter of some dispute. John D said his GPS showed 5072 feet; Jane C said hers showed about 4800; my Garmin page for the ride shows 4354 feet of climb (but the Garmin page always seems low to me), and the RideWithGPS page shows 6719 feet (and RideWithGPS is always the highest reporter; I suspect they may overdo the heights, although some riders swear they are the most accurate). I'm willing to go with 5000 feet.

It's a lot of climbing in 50 miles. If you look at the elevations, you'll see that the only sustained flat is about six miles near the end, when we were going through the Great Swamp. The sheer amount of hills affected our perceptions; we'd be pedaling in fairly tall gears on grades that would be substantial on Hill Slug rides (and grades that would be terrifying on rides out of Cranbury or Etra), because we kept finding ourselves on 13-15% grades. On the last hill, between about miles 48.5-49.5, John D said his inclinometer registered about a 21% grade. I'm willing to believe him; I had to lean forward to try to keep my front wheel on the road; it kept rising with each pedal stroke.

Tom had promised hills, but not like these:

According to my map the tougher ones are in the 7 to 8 percent grade range which only a little worst than Lindbergh in the Sourlands. Of course these climbs are a little longer than the ones in the Sourlands and this ride will not have many flat spots...

Yeah, well, he got those last parts right!

Wicked uphills suggest wicked downhills, and there were those, too. I didn't break 40mph on this ride, but came close with my top speed of 37.3. And while two of the downhills were "let 'er rip", on the others I had to ride the brake, either because of traffic, road surface, poor visibility, or other reasons. My front brake pads are noticeably more worn than they were last night, and I had to adjust the tightness to get the "grab" I like.

Hills, on a beautiful day like today, also suggest great vistas. I didn't do pictures, but Tom & Laura did, and I'll steal theirs link to theirs when I see them. (You'll also want to read their posts: Laura and the rest of us were making up lyrics to the Wheels on the Bus song, and Tom, no doubt, will want to write some words in his defense about this demanding ride! I'll provide links when I get 'em.)

Seven of us went: Tom (of course), John D and Jane C, Ron S, Laura OLPH, Chris (to make sure we did it right - and he added a hill, with a switchback, that turned out to be fun), and your correspondent.

Tomorrow, I plan to do about 14 miles with The Excellent Wife, at a pace she will set. As I write this, I'm so worn out, I'm afraid I might not be able to keep up!

Addendum 5/13/12: Laura OLPH has her post up, and it's way better than this one, complete with pictures, profanity, and lyrics. Go check it out (new tab, of course).