Hillview

I found a new place in Brentwood where I want to live: Hillview Drive. It's exactly as it sounds—a hill. The following is from Shelly. A few women from Team Belladium went out and rode up this hill last week. I saw it and had to try it.

Super steep!

The elevation seems to be better represented by the picture above than by the picture below. It is definitely a higher gradient than 4%, but with mapmyride, the longer your ride, the less accurate your elevation. So the picture below shows what my whole ride was.

Thursday's route

Then the next picture shows what I did while I Hillview. My first attempt, up the route that Shelly mapped, was unsuccessful. I was sweating so much I couldn't grasp the handles tightly, and I just didn't have enough to ride up. So I dropped my bike on the side of the road and walked up. I took a few pictures, told no less than 3 drivers who stopped that I was indeed OK, then walked back to my bike. I wasn't about to give up, though. I got back on my bike, descended, then rode up from a different angle. This time: success!

I went up and down a couple times. Why is the descent a higher grade than the ascent when it was on the same road?

I went up and down a couple times on the loop (not all the way up) for fun, then headed back home. It was well worth it. A good 9-mile warmup and a rewarding 6-mile cooldown. It was a short ride in terms of distance, but definitely fun and challenging! Nothing like ascending 400 feet in 0.4 miles.

Oh, yeah, and I ran a couple miles at lunch. I went to DHY and realized how high the water was when I couldn't go to the left at the fork in the road (the water was covering the entire path that direction) and I had to stay on the high path on the left (the water was at least a foot high on the lower path).