Hill Hell Day...Part 1

Yesterday one  of our friends, who was visiting from another island decided it would be "fun" to get a group of folk together to do an epic ride, riding all the ridges on Oahu, basically 85+ miles with over 10,000 ft of climbing! He decided to call it, "Another bad idea." Aptly titled. Who knew there was that much climbing on Oahu! It would have been quite the epic day, had we done what was planned, but we diverged from the plan a bit, thank goodness, my legs couldn't handle any more climbing yesterday! It was still a solid day of riding and climbing. We rode about 60 with over 6,000 ft of climbing in not very much time.

Climb #1 Tantalus, my weekly staple.....about 1500 ft to the top, 5 miles up, 5 miles down

 

It's always a good idea to start a ride sprinting up a mountain because you forget a spare inner tube and have to go back to the car to fetch it and the group (of pure cyclists mind you) decides not to wait for you...

Climb #2 St. Louis Heights...just shy of 4 miles...just over 900ft of elevation gain...average grade 7.49%, max grade 17%

 

The best part about this climb, was the mini pit stop at this park (Waahila ridge State Park) at the top. This climb is no joke and I get to do it again this coming weekend! 

Climb #3 (we skipped Sierra Drive and Laukahi, I'm sure we will do them this Saturday) Proceed to Kamehame...just over 3.5 miles to the end, 1085 ft of gain, average grade of 9%, max grade 18%. (I love this climb, even when my legs are screaming at me, this is a great climb, I think my favorite here on Oahu)...the views at the top are totally worth it! 

Climb #4 (kind of) Makapu'u, Not sure this really counts as you have to go up this hill on almost any ride you do on the east side of the island, but I'm counting it yesterday because that's how tired, heavy and sore my legs were. 

Climb #5...Waimanalo back roads...this doesn't really count as it's not truly a climb, a hill, or a mountain, It's a gradual hill that I absolutely cannot stand, hidden in the back roads of Waimanalo, if you've ridden with me you know what this road is and if you are ever here and ride with me, you will for sure hear about it. It's nothing special really and if you were riding on it, you wouldn't think twice, but I despise this piece of road, not because it's difficult, but because it gets me everytime! 

Climb #6 Old Pali...we did this in reverse, so I don't have true data of info, but we took the Old Pali then hiked a bike, under the freeway for a few feet and made our way to the Nuuanu Pali Lookout. 

There was a Climb #7 Pacific Heights (3.5 miles, 721 ft of gain, 9.11% average 19% max grade) I opted out of this one as we will for sure do it this coming weekend.

Yesterday was a beautiful day for riding and thanks, Rick for getting all of us together! A great morning was had by all.

Swimming

I finally bit the bullet and joined a masters team (UH Masters) again and it was amazing! It's super nice to be able to hop in the ocean or a public pool almost any time I want, for free, but to be in the pool with other people who love and want to swim is great. I get that already on Wednesday mornings, but the other 2-3 times a week I swim is usually on my own and that is getting old. There's only so much motivation I can/want to give myself, alone in the pool and I want a new swim routine! I have been wanting to shake things up a bit and start swimming with a group again so.....I went to my first practice last night and actually getting to swim with other fast people was everything I hoped it would be and more! They offer 11 practices a week...no more excuses for not swimming. I'm looking forward to continuing swimming with this group and can't wait to love swimming again!

On another note, I swam in the Ocean with the BOCA fam this morning and I had to bust out the wetsuit because it was sooooo cold! But it was a beautiful morning to be swimming outside in the ocean, in February, lucky, I know.