Who Does This?

If you can zoom in, just above the treeline, you will
barely be able to make out the Manhattan Skyline
 through the haze of Labor Day heat and humidity
and 100,000 Barbecues in full swing. Beyond the
crest, a SanFrancisco-like climb or a
magic sleigh ride descent

Who Does This? Who is so dumb that they do this: Try to take on the steepest hill in town on one of the hottest clammiest days of the last week?

I'll bet quite a few of us cyclists do. It just may be that we are wired that way.

But ... partly I was trying to escape the traffic on Plandome Road just as soon as I could get out of it, ... and partly I said to myself, "Well Elm Sea Lane wasn't that bad, maybe I could do Luqueur if I took it slow and easy."

So I turned right, and headed up.  It started out alright ... it was all pretty good until about just above Leeds Dr. I made the mistake of looking up. And all I saw was a wall.  

So I loop-de-looped and took a side road up a more gentle gradient to Muriel ... where I encountered the same 16-20% grade I had hoped to escape. Worse yet,  once I to to the top of the short Muriel climb, and turned left, I found oakland Drive was headed back downhill! Noooo! I didn't want to waste feet climbed -- I hoped for a gentle grade. Well at least it was a brief respite. I zoomed down Oakland and tried to use the speed to gan a few feet on the hard right uphill turn onto Luquer. That plan fizzled out pretty quickly and it was back to small chain ring and pie plate.

Will confess I opted to walk the last 15 vertical feet— not so much that I had to; I chose to because my heart seemed to be redlining, so I figured I better back off a bit. I wanted to make it up alive. I've had a scare or two in the past and didn't want to push it beyond the beyond.

Once at the top it was hard to get comfortable, my heart felt like it was pounding out of my chest for a minute or two.  But it was only going 146. This is nowhere near the 163 that I used to do in tough climbs at Bethpage 10 years ago, before the 175-225 SVTs, and the several years on HR-limiting medication (metoprolol then diltiazem).

Now that I'm off those meds, I truly expected my HR to be way up there, and the feeling was similar but the numbers were not. Oh well. Better safe than sorry.

I took advantage of the moment to try to take a cellphone snap of the New York Skyline beyond the hazy distance of a 100,000 barbecues.

I could see it clear enough, but glare was mostly too much for the cellphone. If you zoom into the top photo you can see some of the skyline details ... if you have good eyes and maybe a good imagination.

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Notes.

Derailleur jam on downshift going from flat speed (Stonytown) to steep ascent (North Drive) in Plandome.

Went up Elm Sea Lane Climb -- could not find the connection to Luquer, despite what Google maps indicated -- one guy seems to have an interstitial road gated off.

Went back down Elm Sea to Plandome Rd. and re-ascended -- this time up brutal Luquer, having shot a lot of my arrows on Elm Sea Lane.