Milestone #3

This past Saturday I completed milestone #3. I'm really thrilled and
wanted to share my accomplishment with everybody.

I started riding an indoor spin bike last summer and then, this spring,
hit the outdoors for the first time (as an adult) on my $25 garage sale
mountian bike. I moved up to a hand-me-down hybrid and started making
real progress outdoors (road biking).

I set out several milestones for myself, and my wife's been with me to
meet all of them. I live in Salt Lake City, which offers wonderful
variety for cyclists. Here's my progress:

References to http://www.skehan.org/milestones.jpg. Distances include
my warm-ups.

#1 - Mill Creek Canyon, 3,504 feet of climbing, 14 miles up, on the
hybrid. Middle canyon in the image.

#2 - Emegration Canyon, 2,150 feet, 12 miles up, on the hybrid. Top
canyon in the image.

#3 - Big Cottonwood Canyon, 5,700 feet up, on my new Giant OCR1.
Bottom canyon on the image - the loop at the top is at Brighton ski
resort.

All of these canyons are just gorgeous. They're challenging and offer
a great sense of accomplishment. Next year I'll work on my times.

My remaining milestones for this year are distance related. I'm
planning to ride 65 miles in the the Heber Valley Century a week from
this Saturday and then I'm going for 100 miles at the Las Vegas Century
in October.

Thanks to everybody on the groups for all your support!

Joe

wrote:
This past Saturday I completed milestone #3. I'm really thrilled and
wanted to share my accomplishment with everybody.

Good job!

I also live in SLC, and I teach cycle classes at 24 Hour Fitness.
Haven't been able to ride as much as I want because of my stupid job
(the other one, not the gym), but I've notched City Creek, Emmigration
and Mill Creek this season. I probably won't do Cottonwoods before snow,
which means next year.

Big Cottonwood is pretty hard. Steep at the bottom and top, mellow in
between. Here's some incentive: Little Cottonwood is virtually identical
to Alpe du'Huez in length and gradient.

You'll want to add Traverse Ridge in Draper to your list, the new road
to the South Mountain development. Only four miles long, but average 8%
with a long stretch of 10, and 13% for a short stretch.

--
--
Lynn Wallace http://www.xmission.com/~lawall

Conservative dictionary:
Judicial Activist: n. A judge who tends to rule against your wishes.

I teach cycle classes at 24 Hour Fitness
My wife teaches spin at the SportsMall, that's how I got into all this

City Creek
Tell me more about that ride? Where to you start from? How far/high
is it? How does it compare to the others?

Traverse Ridge
Do you head up from Alpine or Draper? I drove it in the car the other
day and the Alpine side looked a little easier - skipping that 13%
grade. I'm thinking it would be a good warm up to go south, around the
point, east to Alpine and then up to the top heading down the Traverse
Ridge side and back home.

wrote:
I teach cycle classes at 24 Hour Fitness

My wife teaches spin at the SportsMall, that's how I got into all this


City Creek

Tell me more about that ride? Where to you start from? How far/high
is it? How does it compare to the others?

Downtown, State Street & North Temple, dogleg East a block and head
North. Or, find Memory Grove (just East of the capitol) and start there.
City Creek is about 8 miles long, closed to most motor vehicles, closed
to bikes on (thinking...) odd #d days. A short pitch at roughly 15% near
the bottom, then the top 2-4 miles past the water plant is a solid 8%,
and rough/poorly maintained.

There's a 15-mph speed limit but I don't know how strongly it's
enforced. I usually just cruise back down the canyon at 20-30 mph
staying in control.

Traverse Ridge

Do you head up from Alpine or Draper? I drove it in the car the other
day and the Alpine side looked a little easier - skipping that 13%
grade. I'm thinking it would be a good warm up to go south, around the
point, east to Alpine and then up to the top heading down the Traverse
Ridge side and back home.

Access from Draper, but the Alpine side is equally uphill. I only did it
once, and had a map. You take the frontage road and head East for a
time, look for signs to Suncrest. You can see the road from the bottom,
so that makes it easier to find.

This looks like a fine spot to work on your top speed coming down. I
think the posted limit is 45 mph. I descended the South side, it was a
hot day and I was out of water, so I didn't try for speed. It took me
just about an hour to climb 4 miles, but I think I'm in better shape now.

--
--
Lynn Wallace http://www.xmission.com/~lawall

Conservative dictionary:
Judicial Activist: n. A judge who tends to rule against your wishes.