Preview of the 2008 Low-Key Hill Climb (LKHC) Series

For 2007, I watched on the sidelines with great interest as quite a few people participated in the the Low-Key Hill Climb series (check it out right here). I didn't do any of the climbs because I was so discouraged about how I had lost my climbing legs during the second half of 2007, when I got into racing big-time - but totally abandoned my great training program I had adhered to so religiously for the first half of 2007. Sigh...

But, since the LKHC participants seemed to enjoy my LKHC Converter I created for them (and me!) - you can check it out a previous blog entry about it here - I decided to attend the LKHC Awards ceremony last week at the Cupertino Community Hall - it was totally fun! I highly recommend you attend it next year - we got to see a Tour of California preview short film and other goodies, too. Ron Brunner created an excellent and very professional-looking summary video of the 2007 LKHC series of climbs - good work, Ron!

However, one highlight that was eagerly anticipated was the announced list of climbs for the 2008 LKHC series, starting October 1 this year.

I managed to remember the list of all 9 climbs, but don't remember the exact order (except for the first and last climbs, which are the same every year, by tradition - Montebello Rd is the first climb of the series and Mt Hamilton is the last climb of the series).

So - drum roll, please - here's the list for 2008:

1. Montebello Rd - 5.3 miles, 2030 feet
2. Metcalfe Rd - 2.2 miles, 1033 feet
3. Quimby Rd - 5.1 miles, 2000 feet
4. Alpine Rd (West) - 7.6 miles, 1950 feet
5. Montevina Rd - 3.9 miles, 1800 feet
6. Bear Gulch Rd (West) - 3.2 miles, 1020 feet
7. El Toyonal/Lomas Cantada - 2.8 miles, 1129 feet
8. Jamison Creek - 3.1 miles, 1470 feet
9. Mt Hamilton - 18.4 miles, 4360 feet

Here are a few quick notes on the above climbs:

For Montevina Rd, here's somebody's MotionBased.com recording of a ride they did:

http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/2182336

For the El Toyonal/Lomas Cantada climb, it's in the Berkeley hills and was part of what someone called the Berkeley Hills Death Ride - here's their story (Note to self - I gotta try to do this ride one day!) :

http://www.inl.org/bicycle/deathride.html

For the Bear Gulch Rd West climb, here's somebody's MotionBased.com recording of a ride they did:

http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/4692266

Also, note that the start of the Bear Gulch Rd West climb is also the entrance to Neil Young's Broken Arrow ranch, if you head towards the ocean - maybe he'll come out and watch the climbers that day!

It looks like the 2008 climbs will be pretty interesting - I'm planning on doing all of the climbs in the series for this year - and I'm hoping to be climbing well enough late in the year to score an average of 100.0 points for each of those 9 climbs.

Scoring 100.0 points (the median time) for any of those climbs will be a tough goal to reach, since I'm not a natural climber - so I'll have to be climbing better than I ever have in my entire life!

To give you an example of how fast I need to do each of those climbs, here is my best guess at what I need to do to score 100.0 points (the MEDIAN time) for each of those climbs - I've also added what I think will be the WINNING time:

1. Montebello Rd--5.3 miles--2030 feet--36:00 / 26:05
2. Metcalfe Rd--2.2 miles--1033 feet--18:00 / 13:20
3. Quimby Rd--5.1 miles--2000 feet--35:00 / 25:45
4. Alpine Rd (West)--7.6 miles--1950 feet--35:00 / 25:05
5. Montevina Rd--3.9 miles--1800 feet--32:00 / 23:10
6. Bear Gulch Rd (West)--3.2 miles--1020 feet--18:00 / 13:10
7. El Toyonal/Lomas Cantada--2.8 miles--1129 feet--20:00 / 14:30
8. Jamison Creek--3.1 miles--1470 feet--26:00 / 18:55
9. Mt Hamilton--18.4 miles--4360 feet--90:00 / 73:00

Bottom line - I have my work cut out for me! I need to lose about 20 pounds AND somehow increase my power by about 5% - neither one is an easy task. Or, I could lose just 10 pounds, but then I'd have to increase my power by about 10% - much harder! I'd rather lose that extra 10 pounds than try to increase my power by another 5% over the 5% I *already* need to increase it by - either way, it's a tall order and a big goal!

But that's what life's all about, right? Setting goals and then going for them - even if you come up a little short, you'll still be a lot better off than if you had never even tried in the first place...