Thursday, May 5, 2011

SC vs Cambridge Street, Round 2 (The Cinco de Mayo Smackdown!)

The Snake Alley prep continues...

Last week i did the Cambridge Street climb twice and was dead by the end, this time i did the climb three times and felt less dead than last week.

I'm calling that progress.

For those of you who have never climbed Cambridge... It's short and steep. I'm guessing the average grade is between 20-25% and it takes about 1 minute to climb. It really is that steep. You should go check it out, it's just south of Southwest Blvd in between Rainbow st and Roanoke st (practically on the state line, according to google maps.)

I'm still planning a total of 5 rounds for this bout, but im backing off my previous goal of 10 laps by that 5th round. For me, right now (and probably always) thats not realistic. So the new goal is 6 laps.

Time to get my 'eye of the tiger' on.

8 comments:

  1. It is 29% at that crook in the road, according to my Garmin. Kill it Adam!

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  2. I usually see 27% or 28% with the short glances at my garmin when I've climbed that

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  3. You should do the hill on Summit going from Avenida de Cesar Chavez up to Westside Local. Yeah, it's not as steep, but it's longer and a better simulation of Snake Alley.

    Cambridge is stupid. It's like training to become a better at grabbing rebounds in basketball by stretching yourself out to get taller on one of those medieval torture rack devices. Or trying to get better at driving through rush hour traffic by practicing with dragsters powered by funny-car fuel. Or trying to get used to the buzz from smoking Pall Malls by mainlining heroin.

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  4. I agree with steve, Cambridge isn't an accurate measure of snake alley. Hit summit 3 times, then kill it down southwest blvd, and turn up Eaton. Repeat eaton 3 times, then soft pedal over to crown center. When you get to Pershing and Grand, Kill it, full gas, 3x, up Pershing.

    Now for the downhill training. Start south of 435 on Grandview, pedal north down the hill to blue river road. Do this over and over until you can hold 40 mph through the turns. -J.A.

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  5. Just kidding about the 40mph down grandview... there is a turn on that road which is impossible to take at that speed (without serious injury). You should however find a twisty downhill that you can practice some high speed descents. Going up snake alley is only half the battle, the podium finishers will be pedaling full speed down the twisty city street (rain or shin). Believe it or not, they will put more time into riders on the down hill, than the up hill.

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  6. Oh, one more piece of advice for snake alley, use whatever tire gives you the most confidence. If I were riding that race to win (which is impossible at my fitness and weight), I'd be riding 25c Vittoria Pave tubulars. (definitely tubulars for safe descending, and 25c because the asphalt is $#!%, and their good wet or dry).

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  7. Buy carbon tubulars if you think yourself a man.

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  8. Didn't realize you were doing snake alley. Good luck. That is my favorite race. Make sure to be in the top 15 (at least) over the first climb. Otherwise, your chances are shot of placing well.

    Afterwards drink a bear on the hill for me.!

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