Larch Mountain 3x

We had planned to do this ride Monday, but Monday started out wet so we ended up cutting it short. This is our last big training ride before we tackle the huge Shasta ride of 140 miles and over 16,000 feet of climbing.

Quick Stats Ride Distance: 106 miles   Elevation Gain: 10,276 feet   Average Moving Speed: 13.48 mph

We weren't sure if we were going to do 3 or 4 climbs up Larch today, but after thinking it through, and listening to my legs on the second climb, I convinced Amy it made sense to "just" do three.

And while we were riding I realized that today's ride is actually very similar to last year's Shasta ride, the Mount Shasta Summit Century. It was 100 miles, had 10,500 feet of climbing, and had 3 big climbs. Pretty much what we did today.

RIDE DATA:

While a bit boring to ride up and down the same mountain on the same road three different times in one day, we did have at least a few unique sightings: a skunk, 2 raccoons and a fox. We've seen raccoons of course, but never a skunk or a fox. Okay, to be fair the skunk sighting was on the way to the ride, but it counts in my book.

We pretty much did the climbs in identical times: the second climb was 5 seconds faster than the first, and the third climb was 50 seconds slower than the second.

My heart rate, on the other hand, was higher each time, as would be expected, with averages of 142.6 bpm, 147.9 bpm, and 151.1 bpm.

We were on the bike just under 8 hours, and had only 1 hour of rest stops, a full half hour less than we needed (okay, I should say that I needed) on last year's Shasta ride.

Not sure if I'm ready to tackle another 6,000 feet of climbing in one ride or not. I guess we'll find out soon enough.

RIDE MAP IN GOOGLE EARTH:

Maps showing all rides: 2011 Rides • 2010 Rides • 2009 Rides • All Rides