Part of me says I shouldn’t post this, but I figure those who don’t like me will use anything anyway, so why not give them something fun? This morning I did a Calvinist ride. It didn’t start out that way, but hey, it must have been predestined. I was originally focused on doing the steepest, toughest climbs I know of in the Phoenix area. But after doing the third such climb (which topped out above an 18% grade, which is incredibly steep), I started thinking that if I did one extra climb I hadn’t intended to do, I would have…five climbs! And so the obvious thoughts began to hit me. Like, “Well, the third was the toughest climb, and that’s like the L…and the last climb is the easiest, and that seems to fit, so….” And so I did the extra distance (total of 37.5 miles), and here is the resultant altitude/grade chart from my cycling computer to prove the point:
The U really is a pretty major hill, but since it is pretty close to the first one, it doesn’t stand out as much. It is, however, very steep, holding a solid 15% grade for a while. But that L is a killer. I was completely red-lined by the time I got to the top, standing in first gear giving it all I had. I think the heart rate monitor was flashing, “Hey, stupid, eternity is just a few more pedal strokes ahead!” I had never climbed that particular wall before (Sweetwater Avenue in Phoenix, around 17th Street), and had in fact only seen it for the first time last week. Once I conquered that one, I figured the last two would be cake, and they pretty much were, in comparison.
So there you go. My Calvinist ride. Now let’s see what Gail Riplinger does with that!
