Quickie Bike Ride

I arrived home from work at approximately 8:15pm this evening. After a couple of motion-free moments on the couch, I got back up and prepared for a road ride. I hit the road around 8:40.

The ride was excellent. As I've recently expressed, a lot of enjoyment can be had simply by carefully metering out one's effort while riding a road bike. The bikes are so light and responsive that there is very little "contamination" of one's power as it's transferred into forward motion. So I felt this tonight when I rode up Shaw Mountain Road to the top of Table Rock.

The route involves some gradual to moderate climbing for the first couple of miles. As the paved road passes million dollar homes, it's grade increases dramatically. I'd guess that the road angles up around 13-15% and maintains that grade for 2-4 minutes worth of hard effort. After the steepest section, the road continues to climb for a quarter mile or so. To get to the top of Table Rock (which is the large plateau east of Boise with an imposing, lighted cross on top), you have to travel up a steep and rocky road for another quarter mile. All in all, the route covers 4-5 miles and involves about 900 feet of climbing.

This evening I chose to push a bigger than average gear and maintain a higher than average speed. Which meant that I was breathing hard harder than average and my legs were pretty loaded. But it felt great applying so much power. And my legs, despite the task I gave them, kept rising to the occasion. At no point did they weaken. This is what cyclists refer to as having "good legs". Some days you have them, some days you don't. Today was my day.

The descent is one of the few around that can give me a big thrill. First, I have to negotiate the dirt road, which isn't so consistently rocky that I can't let it rip for a few moments. And when thing are rough and sketchy, it's a lot of fun picking the best lines and letting the bike bounce over the things I don't miss. After the road returns to pavement, there's a sharp left hand turn that requires scrubbing some speed. But the remaining turns are gradual enough that one can ride down the entire 13-15% grade without touching the brakes. By the time I reach the middle of the descent, I'm traveling well over 40 miles an hour. To be honest, I do usually slow down slightly because I know there are deer in the area, and the last thing I want to do is pile into one. There's that, and the fact that the speed limit is 25mph once you get into the houses. I can imagine someone complaining if I sped into their neighborhood at 50mph.