Suckerrrrrrrr! That's me.Josh.E wrote:The drive to vernon would be worth it to do the silver star mountain rd climb... you could even ride to vernon, do the climb, ride back.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/45896370
Thanks to Josh for the excellent idea for a ride and to Al for the good word on Highway 97. I didn't wake up 'til 9:30 and the sensations were poor upon rising - it was a bit of a rough weekend - so the Merritt plan was not an option. I didn't get on the road 'til 2. I rode up Glenmore Rd. north from Kelowna 'til it gets close to 97 at Winfield and hopped onto the highway there. It seemed a bit too easy banging off the flat km's at 36 km/h plus so I was afraid it was a tailwind that was going to make me pay on the way back. The highway through Vernon itself is completely ripped up and does not really exist presently so it was a bit sketchy descending into downtown. I stopped at the Chevron and was shocked to find that they didn't have a 2-for-cheap Gatorade deal on offer at this time. This is the first time I have seen this and it is not acceptable. Dude there gave me good advice on a route through town to Silver Star, but I got lost and had to u-turn for a couple of km to start the climb. The climb was too hard for me so I quit about halfway up and lamely coasted back down in defeat. It's a nice climb. Not a consistent grade. My Gremlin Edge 500 said 13% at max. I don't have a HRM strap with me so I have to look inward to feel the sensations that must guide my effort. My old eastern bloc coach Dieter would be somewhat satisfied, almost. But I did like checking out the Gremlin's climbing rate readout. It seemed I could ride within myself if I kept the climbing rate at about 1100 m/hour. If I started getting up to 1200 it got tough. When I hit a nasty 10-13% bit, it shot up to almost 1400 m/hour and things got griZly fast. I probably try too hard on the steep stuff. Seems like I needed the grade to be about 8% to settle in at 1100-1150 m/h and that jives with rumours I've heard about 8% being the most efficient grade for crushing vert.
The climbs out of Vernon are a bit of a grind but not too bad. Tried to hammer the return trip all the way along 97 pretty hard. Felt good. Good ride. Despite the cop-out on the climb I managed 134 km and 1515 m positive vert so it's a decent step towards some proper long rides later in the trip.
I'm having a beer in the hotel now after a solid effort so life's good. Rock the box tomorrow TS'ers. Morning ride for me, then transferring to Penticton.
