Humbled by Pikes Peak
Posted: Wed Jul 28, 2021 10:58 am
I'm a little between houses, and continents, at the moment, bumming around Colorado for a bit. My wife is racing the Pikes Peak hillclimb bike race in August and wanted to preview the course. I haven't been on a bike in about a year, and have spent the last 4 years living at an elevation where the tide changes my elevation by about 30 percent, so yeah, why not hop on a borrowed, ill-fitting bike and ride to 14,415'? After all, I did this race back in 7th grade, many years ago, with virtually no training and on a mountain bike, so I'm sure that I can just hop off the couch and crush it. Plus, it's paved now, so the rolling resistance will be so much less. Right?
It's supposed to be about 12.5 miles and 4,700 feet of gain. My wife said she thought the race started at the toll gate, right by North Pole, so off we go. The first sign of trouble was when we passed the sign saying elevation was now 8000 feet. Some quick math said that we were a lot lower than we should be in order to only gain 4700. The next sign said elevation was "one mile below the summit". Again, quick math... But whatever, we're in for it, might as well just plug away.
The gear ratio on the borrowed bike wasn't very low, even though it had a triple front chainring. Wife's bike, also borrowed, had a much lower ratio and she was able to spin better. I was just having to stomp the pedals, alternating standing up to get some momentum then sitting for a few cranks, then standing again. Lungs and heart felt great, but my legs were starting to feel that inevitable burn when we got past 10500 or so. I knew I was on the clock and was just hoping to hang on for the end. I remembered that Devils Playground had a nice long flat or downhill stretch, so ideally I could make it there and then recover.
The switchbacks around 12,000 started to be too much for my muscles, I just couldn't push the ring anymore. So I'd hop off and push up the steeper sections and recover a bit while walking. I wasn't much slower walking briskly than riding anyway. Some clouds were starting to build around the top, which was worrisome given the pace and remaining elevation, but we decided to go a little further and evaluate again.
Then at 12,500 I hopped off the bike to push again and my left leg locked up. Like it was made of stone. I quickly set my right leg down to catch myself, and it, too, seized up like a pitbull on a chihuahua. So I was locked in place, leaning on the bike, completely immobile. I couldn't bend my knees even a milllimeter. I had to go faster than my wife in order to maintain momentum to spin the cranks, so I'm just frozen, waiting for her to get up to me. As she approaches, I say "I need help." She thought I was dizzy or altitude sick, so once she saw it was just cramps she was quite pleased. Ha.
I leaned on her while she took the bike away and I was able to get some side-to-side motion, which led to some slight knee bend, which then led to more knee bend. Eventually I was able to bend all the way, and we decided that the weather looked threatening enough to call off the ride. Unrelated to my legs rebelling against me, of course. Just due to weather.
However, now we had the descent to contend with. My seat was about 4 inches above the handlebars, so I had to lean over very, very far to use the brakes. This also put a lot of weight on my triceps, and after a few minutes my tri's started to threaten revolt, as well. I figured that a tricep lockout would cause a nasty spill, possibly throwing me off the edge, or into oncoming SUVs driven by people oblivious to riders as their passengers hung out the side windows or through the sunroof.
So we ended up having to take multiple breaks on the way down to let my neck recover from the angle as well as convince my triceps to decide to continue cooperating.
Eventually we made it to the bottom, and on the way, realized that near Crystal Lake there's a nice parking lot, as well as lines painted on the ground, that undoubtedly are the actual start lines for the hillclimb, Ha.
All told I made it 5,200 vertical before my body rebelled, and I was feeling good the entire way, so that's pretty decent. But I guess I learned a little humility up there, too. Jumping off the couch after a year of serious exercise restrictions, wiping the beach sand out of my toes, and trying to ride up Pikes Peak, paved or not... my ambition clearly exceeded my reach.
It's supposed to be about 12.5 miles and 4,700 feet of gain. My wife said she thought the race started at the toll gate, right by North Pole, so off we go. The first sign of trouble was when we passed the sign saying elevation was now 8000 feet. Some quick math said that we were a lot lower than we should be in order to only gain 4700. The next sign said elevation was "one mile below the summit". Again, quick math... But whatever, we're in for it, might as well just plug away.
The gear ratio on the borrowed bike wasn't very low, even though it had a triple front chainring. Wife's bike, also borrowed, had a much lower ratio and she was able to spin better. I was just having to stomp the pedals, alternating standing up to get some momentum then sitting for a few cranks, then standing again. Lungs and heart felt great, but my legs were starting to feel that inevitable burn when we got past 10500 or so. I knew I was on the clock and was just hoping to hang on for the end. I remembered that Devils Playground had a nice long flat or downhill stretch, so ideally I could make it there and then recover.
The switchbacks around 12,000 started to be too much for my muscles, I just couldn't push the ring anymore. So I'd hop off and push up the steeper sections and recover a bit while walking. I wasn't much slower walking briskly than riding anyway. Some clouds were starting to build around the top, which was worrisome given the pace and remaining elevation, but we decided to go a little further and evaluate again.
Then at 12,500 I hopped off the bike to push again and my left leg locked up. Like it was made of stone. I quickly set my right leg down to catch myself, and it, too, seized up like a pitbull on a chihuahua. So I was locked in place, leaning on the bike, completely immobile. I couldn't bend my knees even a milllimeter. I had to go faster than my wife in order to maintain momentum to spin the cranks, so I'm just frozen, waiting for her to get up to me. As she approaches, I say "I need help." She thought I was dizzy or altitude sick, so once she saw it was just cramps she was quite pleased. Ha.
I leaned on her while she took the bike away and I was able to get some side-to-side motion, which led to some slight knee bend, which then led to more knee bend. Eventually I was able to bend all the way, and we decided that the weather looked threatening enough to call off the ride. Unrelated to my legs rebelling against me, of course. Just due to weather.
However, now we had the descent to contend with. My seat was about 4 inches above the handlebars, so I had to lean over very, very far to use the brakes. This also put a lot of weight on my triceps, and after a few minutes my tri's started to threaten revolt, as well. I figured that a tricep lockout would cause a nasty spill, possibly throwing me off the edge, or into oncoming SUVs driven by people oblivious to riders as their passengers hung out the side windows or through the sunroof.
So we ended up having to take multiple breaks on the way down to let my neck recover from the angle as well as convince my triceps to decide to continue cooperating.
Eventually we made it to the bottom, and on the way, realized that near Crystal Lake there's a nice parking lot, as well as lines painted on the ground, that undoubtedly are the actual start lines for the hillclimb, Ha.
All told I made it 5,200 vertical before my body rebelled, and I was feeling good the entire way, so that's pretty decent. But I guess I learned a little humility up there, too. Jumping off the couch after a year of serious exercise restrictions, wiping the beach sand out of my toes, and trying to ride up Pikes Peak, paved or not... my ambition clearly exceeded my reach.