You’ve probably noticed by now that I’m pretty obsessed with my times up a climb that I live near. High Grade is a good test of fitness and has been my measuring-stick over the last year and a half. The wind can influence times a bit, but I still like to use it as a point of reference.

On my climb today, my time was 59:54 – which wasn’t very spectacular. It just amuses me to think of how HARD I tried to break an hour last year, and never came within 3 minutes. Now, it seems like on any given day – even with a headwind and average legs like today, breaking an hour is almost a sure thing.

On the steepest part of the climb, I was in a 19 tooth cog holding just under 10mph. Last year, I would climb this section in my 25 tooth (granny-gear) and struggle to grind out 4-6mph while thrashing around all over the bike. Guess that’s called taking it to a new level.