Second year of giving the Oredigger Classic Hill Climb up Lookout Mountain in Golden a try. I really just wanted to beat my time from last year, and otherwise didn’t really care.
I met up with a teammate and rode about 9 miles to the start. Pretty hard warmup for me, and I was at 170-180 heart rate the whole way there which worried me as I’m not use to running myself ragged on a warm up. They had a great guy as a holder who I utilized so I wouldn’t have to fiddle to clip in (I’ve suddenly lost the ability to clip into my Look Keo pedals quickly and easily, not sure what’s up with me). I sprinted off the start and settled down. I love Lookout as it’s a pretty “gradual” climb that is 1200 feet over 4.5 miles. “Gradual,” ha! Meaning that it just never gets crazy steep. Fairly quickly I passed 3 other girls in my category, which is not something I’m use to happening in a time trial. I was caught by Rachel Joyce, a professional triathlete, about a mile in, and otherwise wasn’t passed, which was strange. The wind was OK, just a headwind on some westerly sections. I found myself thinking that I wasn’t going out as hard as I should, but my power numbers were telling a different story.
I ended up with a 28:07 time, which was 4 minutes faster than last year! And this was good enough for 9th place in SW4 out of 20… my first top ten road finish with a field that big! Whoop whoop! Kinda crazy to do that well, I wasn’t expecting it. I spend so much time telling everyone I’m a slow roadie that can’t climb… but maybe I’m ok at climbing kinda? I also set a new 20 minute power record at 230, which bumped my FTP to 218. Sigh, the days of “easy” rides on the trainer are done for!
So I declare this race a success! Always nice to be able to see myself improve over the previous year!
Heidi Rides Bikes 