Mt. Hamilton ride and a weekend of heat training.

Posted by Katie

If I had to chose one word to describe this weekend's training it would definitely be... HOT.

Our weekend started with an open water swim, in a shallow lake... getting shallower by the day thanks to California's massive drought. Lately the swim lane that is marked off is so shallow that long armed folks (like Matt) are hitting the bottom during their stroke in one corner. I think the shallow water is also contributing to the temperature rise or at least it feels that way...Having the wetsuit on was nice for all of 5 seconds of getting into the water and then promptly too warm. A friend with us swam without one and remarked that it felt just like swimming at the pool. We pushed on for a mile swim that I felt pretty good about. The sun started to break through the fog just as we finished the swim and the temperature rose rapidly.

After about a 30min transition of driving back to our place, changing, consuming some food... it was time to run. At this point it was probably about 80F (but it felt like 105F). My longest run thus far has been 8 miles (a month ago?), and lately really just 6... so I am definitely behind on the running and planned to get 10 miles in post swim, an ambitious jump. Starting out the run for me immediately became a mental challenge. At 1.5miles I felt like a big noodle, no energy, things were hurting.. not a good sign. So I convinced myself to run for a half mile, then walk... then run 1 mile, walk, then 2, and a gu... finally around 4 miles I started to hit a rhythm and ended the run feeling strong (or at least much better than it started). Miles 7-10 we spent thinking about what I wanted in my post run smoothie (strawberry, banana, and yogurt) which I made immediately upon entering the house.

No time for cups... smoothie consumed directly from blender.

Sunday we decided to ride up Mt. Hamilton in San Jose. Let me say right now that this ride was an a$$ kicker in every sense of the word (total gain = 5,100ft).  We parked ~5 miles from the base of the climb which is 19 miles of pretty much continuous up (with two small dips). The best thing about this ride is that the grade is super gentle.. no more than 6.5%. This nice gentle grade is due to the observatory at the top, or more specifically the trucks that have to carry observatory equipment to the top. 

Yep that's a mountain.

I would like to reach out across the internet and give Cal Fire in Santa Clara a big huge hug. At the base of climb part 2 of this ride there was a fire station with a table out front and a huge jug of iced water. We just happened to stop there because one of our riding buddies needed to change a flat. All 4 of us on the ride agreed that had we not stopped for water there we most certainly would have bonked on the next section. Not only was it super hot and exposed but the pavement was that new black tar style stuff that was literally roasting us as we biked. So ya... full waters were necessary! Thanks Cal Fire!!!

At the top we were rewarded with amazing views in all directions. Also there is a visitor center for the observatory, complete with bathrooms, cold water, a gift shop, and vending machines which sold gloriously cold Gatorade and other treats.

Lick Obersvatory

We made it!!

View of the crazy windy road.

Gatorade (in cans?!) cheers.

The ride down was fun! Lots of curvy roads but again, not too steep. Matt says there are supposedly 365 turns on the road. Call me crazy but I really liked this ride. I would definitely do it again, although next time I would want to start much earlier and avoid the heat.

Post ride of course we were all ready for food... ASAP. The pizza below was for just Matt and I..

Me in the background for scale.

Training in the heat sure feels heroic but I don't know if that translates to any sort of added fitness. Likely not. I suppose if we were getting ready for a tri in Florida we would be set.