South Mountain

I really like South Mountain in Phoenix.  It's a fun ride.  It's nowhere near as hard as Snowbowl in Flagstaff or Bartlett Lake North East of Scottsdale but it's very scenic.  When you get to the top you can see just about everything in the valley.

I had planned to ride to work today but then the dentist called and reminded me that I have an appointment today.  I was kind of disappointed until I woke up at 4:30 this morning and decided to drive down to work and ride to the mountain from work.  I got to work and realized that since it's about 7 miles to the mountain from here and it's 7 miles up the mountain that I would get a better workout if I just drove down and rode the mountain twice.

It starts with 2 miles of just a slight rise and then 2.5 miles of some tough climbing followed by a mile of downhill and then 1.5 miles up and and down but mostly up with a lung-searing 1/2 mile uphill finish.I went up the first time and just stuck my heart rate at 3.5 and never wavered much from there.  It turned out to be a very easy climb at that rate and I got up the hill reasonably fast.  I went down pretty fast. 

Evidence that South Mountain is not as hard as Snowbowl:  I can go up Snowbowl to the top in about 45 minutes and it takes about 10 to get down.  It takes about 30 to get up South Mountain and 15 to get down.

My first descent went rather well.  About 3/4 of the way down I decided that I wasn't going to touch my brakes the next time.

On the second climb I just hammered it from the start.  I red lined my heart rate almost immediately.  Every time I felt myself slow down or I noticed my HR drop a touch I'd stand and try to get a little more out of myself.  As I passed mile marker 6 my body just quit.  No bonk, I had a lot energy but I couldn't make my legs turn over.  I gave back a lot of time on that last mile.  I did manage to hit the last 1/4 to 1/2 pretty hard.

The second descent did go a lot faster although I admit that I did feather the back brake a few times.