Metcalf – Fast Up Fast Down
Franz| September 9, 2008 10:00 pmToday we decided to ride the tandem on the weekly club ride “Metcalf Mauler”. We started in Morgan Hill and rode up the bike trail to San Jose. Metcalf is a hill that we often time ourselves on and today we set a new record for how fast we could climb the hill on a tandem. We took 11 seconds off our previous best time. That might not sound like a lot but when you are pushing up against your limits, seconds mean all the difference. The data for weight and heart rate are for Franz only. Ann was really pushing hard, otherwise we could not have climbed so fast. We beat lot of guys on single bikes up the hill.
Metcalf Climb |
||||||
Distance: 1.75 miles, Climb: 910 feet, Avg Grade: 10%
|
||||||
Time from line at bottom of climb to sign at motorcycle park
|
||||||
Date
|
Time
|
Weight
|
Max HR
|
Avg HR
|
Ft/Min
|
|
Single
|
Tandem
|
|||||
09/09/08
|
17:19
|
138
|
168
|
162
|
||
07/29/08
|
14:10
|
142
|
174
|
167
|
64.3
|
|
07/15/08
|
17:30
|
143
|
172
|
168
|
52.0
|
|
04/10/07
|
13:19
|
134
|
170
|
165
|
68.2
|
|
09/12/06
|
13:52
|
136
|
180
|
167
|
65.7
|
This graph shows we climbed at a constant rate. Franz took his heart rate into the “red zone” very early and kept it there for the entire climb (click graph to enlarge). Ann’s heart rate was also in her “red zone”.
We took a little easy on the backside, to the second regroup at the top of San Felipe. From there we lead the large train of riders down, reaching speeds over 40 mph. After we started to level out we kept the speed up so much than no one came around to take a pull. Usually there is a sprint finish before the stop to turn on Farnsworth, but we were moving so fast no one tried to sprint around us, so we ended up wining the sprint finish, even after pulling all the way. This curve shows our speed as we descended.
Categories: Cycling
No Comments »