Time for some new territory. Drove up to Jaffrey, NH, to do a loop, the crux of which was Pack Monadnock, a poor relative of Monadnock, not so big, not so steep, not so rocky. But it has a paved road going to the top and so a summit is possible without carrying the bike most of the way.
But it's a steep road. 1.25 miles, 800' climb. Average about 12%, with sections above 20%, especially right at the top.
Profile.
Actually I'd been up it once before, "running" (ie. a mix of running and walking), 2002, a 10-mile race up from Wilton with the finish on top. My notes from then say my last mile was about 14 minutes.
But never on a bike.
Good warm-up, for sure, 10 miles over from Jaffrey with roughly a thousand feet of climb, mostly in the last three miles. Paced myself up that appropriately, stopped at the parking lot to pay my fee, and then, well, no point in putting it off.
Just for a reality check, the best time on Strava for the climb is just over 8 minutes, or a minute per hundred feet of climb. These days I seem to be capable of somewhere in the 2:15 to 3:00 per hundred range, getting down to 2:00 is pretty much no longer possible, and 2:15 is real hard. So I figured I ought to be able to do 24 minutes, and 20 would be very satisfying but unlikely. Assuming, of course, that I could actually make it without getting off.
The first half is steep. Not a consistent grade, always changing, lots of short sections I wasn't sure I could get up, lots of small sections where it eases quite a bit. And then it gets easier, still climbing but not idiotic. All the time I knew what was coming, the last steep pitch. That took about 3 minutes, don't think I ever came close to falling off but I was going less than 3 mph, and then suddenly it was flat and I was done.
19:33. Delighted.
There is often the sense after a hard timed effort of whatever sort that you could have done it faster, just pushed harder. There's some reason to think that here. All the way up I knew the last pitch was coming, and I think I kept something in reserve. That's what the heart rate shows, just getting up into serious territory the last couple of minutes. But then, if I'd pushed harder earlier, I might have croaked at the end. You never know.
For perspective, the lady collecting the money -- $4 for the day, ride up as might times as I wished -- said that lots of bikers do 6 repeats, because that works out to be the equivalent of once up Washington. I told her if I could make it up once that would be plenty.
Rode back down, really glad to have good disc brakes, out on the main road for a couple hundred yards, and then turned off to the other side, because the plan was for a second summit, Temple Mountain. Much less of a climb, 400', 0.8 mile, about 10%, but this one was not paved and I had no idea what it was like. Headed up, got in a few hundred yards of gentle stuff, came around a corner and pretty much immediately got off my bike, turned around, and headed back. Steep slope, rocky, sand between the rocks, narrow trail. Essentially no hope. And so why be stupid?
Finished the rest of the loop, included a bit of dirt road and then some on a dirt rail trail just out of curiosity. Put the bike back in the car and headed to a spot I'd passed maybe a mile away, ordered up some ice cream. I think Phil and I stopped there once after a trail race, not sure. The ice cream tasted OK, but not really good, no reason to finish it al and so part went in the trashl. With old age comes wisdom, right?