9/21/06: Old La Honda West (29.5 Miles)

I keep hearing about how beautiful Old La Honda is on the other (West) side of Skyline Blvd. I’d never tried it and the sweeping views of the ocean and redwood forests were calling me so I decided to check it out.

First I climbed up Old La Honda (East) in 31:07. I’ve been riding it in 30 minutes or below so I was kind of disappointed with 31 but considering how tired my legs were from my adventure on Montebello earlier in the week, itwasn’t such a bad time. Also, despite riding slow on tired legs I actually felt strong and I think I’ve gotten to the point where Old La Honda isn’t that big of a deal. Sure its a tough climb but I think that I can incorporate into longer rides rather than having it actually be the focus of the ride.

After crossing Skyline Blvd, my breath was taken away by Old La Honda West. The road narrows considerably (and Old La Honda East is barely a two lane road) as it winds through an amazing cathedral of redwood trees. There is no car traffic whatsoever and the quiet atmosphere of the soaring redwoods creates a scene of tranquility that is truly beautiful. Jaw-dropping, awe-inspiring, words just don’t do this stretch of road any justice at all. After about a half mile the Redwoods clear to very winding golden hills that are also spectacular. 2.6 miles later, Old La Honda meets back up with Highway 84. The condition of the pavement really wasn’t too bad but the extremely narrow road and the many sharp blind corners do make Old La Honda West semi-dangerous to ride. It was a good thing that no cars were on the road because passing would have been very difficult. Given the total lack of traffic, it was tempting to take the road fast but the difficulty of passing cars really necessitated using my ears to hear cars before I saw them and having the wind drown out the sound of the engines really would have been stupidly dangerous. I didn’t find any views of the ocean, but there is no question that Old La Honda West is definitely one of the most beautiful rodes I’ve ever ridden.

After reaching the intersection of Old La Honda and Highway 84, I climbed 2.5 miles back up to Alice’s Restaurant. This section of Highway 84 is a climb but it really isn’t that tough at all. The Krebs Cycle Map does give it one chevron (<) but I was able to ride most of it at 10-13 mph, with only one short section that required me to get down in to a lower (but still not my lowest) gear. After reaching Skyline I continued on 84 and coasted down to Menlo Park and then back home to Palo Alto.

I rode 29.5 miles in 2 hours and 21 minutes at approximately 12.5 average mph.

9/6/06: Old La Honda With a Twist (32.67 Miles)

I wanted to do another steep route but and wanted to put some miles on after having mostly rested for two days, but I didn’t feel up to trying something new like Montebello or Kings Mountain. I decided to climb Old La Honda, but then turn left on Skyline and come down Page Mill instead of making a right and descending Highway 84 as I’ve always previously done.

I climbed Old La Honda in exactly 30 minutes and I basically felt good. I basically took it easy up but I did have to scramble at the end to hit the stop sign in 30 minutes. That said, having reached the top I felt like I could have pushed much harder and maybe shaved 30 seconds to a minute off my time.

After a brief break at the top I turned left on Skyline towards Page Mill. Its not an easy stretch of the road by any means. Its about 5.5 miles and it mostly up hill. The climb isn’t as bad as Old La Honda but the grade is close and its 5.5 miles feels a lot longer than 3.3. That said there are a handful of short descents which provide welcome relief but by the time I reached Page Mill I was pretty tired.

Page Mill is a tough decent because it is very wind and very narrow. Also, it is about 8 miles long and my hands, neck and shoulders were killing me from squeezing the brakes for so long by the time I reached the bottom. However, I did notice something interesting at the top of Page Mill… it isn’t that steep for the last 1.5 – 2 miles. I know that it is an extremely tough climb but it looked like something that might actually be with in my reach sooner rather than later. Hmm. Anyway, after descending the main steep section of the road and passing Arastradero, the last little hump before hitting Foothill Expy was just murder. I was really pooped as I slowly rode home through Palo Alto.

Here are my stats:

2h 39m 57s

32.67 miles

12.4 average mph

32 max mph

918 calories

125 avg heart rate

173 max heart rate

Round Up: August 8th through 24th

8/8/06: I rode 28 miles in 2 hours including Old La Honda Road in 30:10.

8/10/06: I was in Tahoe staying at Fallen Leaf Lake. I rode from Stanford Sierra Camp along Fallen Leaf Road to Tahoe Mountain rode with was a short climb of less than 1 mile to a long decent to Lake Tahoe Blvd, which also decended to its intersection with Highway 89. I made a left on 89 through Camp Richardson and then another left back on to Fallen Leaf Road. Instead of heading back into Stanford Sierra Camp, I stayed straight at the firestation and rode up Glen Alpine Road. Glen Alpine is a very steep, narrow and pot hole ridden road that does have some cars traffice. Its only about .75 miles but with the road conditions combined with the altitude make it a challenge. To give an idea of how bad the road was, I actually went slower, squeezing my brakes as hard as I could, going downhill than I did uphill. 19 Miles in 1 hour and 45 minutes.
8/11/06: I had some intention of riding around Lake Tahoe (72 Miles), however, I woke up too late and by the time I got on the road at 8:30am Highway 89 already had enough traffic that I wasn’t comfortable riding a road with little or no bike lane. From Fallen Leaf Road I made a left on Highway 89 and road up to the pass at Emerald Bay. Climbing Emerald Bay is only about a mile, but it is very steep on a very narrow road that has moderate traffic. Furthermore, as the road twists it hugs the side of the mountain on one side, with a steep drop off on the other. There’s barely enought room for cars on the road let alone a bike and being passed by cars was hairy. Add in the altitude and this was a tough climb for me. Any thoughts I had about attempting to do the entire lake were squashed as my lungs and thighs burned climbing up the pass at Emerald Bay. Reaching the top was very satisfying and the views are amazing. Afterwards, I backtracked 89 to Lake Taho Blvd, where I made a right. I made another right and climbed back up Tahoe Mountain Road, which is good climb. I don’t know how long it was but it felt like about 2 miles. The grade was steep enough to get me down into my lowest gear but not enough to really hurt me after climbing up Emerald Bay. Lastly, I made a left back on to Fallen Leaf Road back into Sierra Camp. I road 24 miles in 2 hours.8/13/06: I rode 28 miles in 2 hours including Old La Honda in 29:47.

8/14/06: I rode 41 miles to Sarratoga and back. I was very tired and my legs really burned up the short climbs on Mt. Eden (6.6% grade over .75 miles) and Pierce (7.9% grade over 0.6 miles).

8/17/06: I rode 27 miles out Alameda de las Pulgas, up Woodside, over on Portola and down Alpine.

8/18/06: I rode 28 miles in 2 hours including Old La Honda in 30:06. I was a little bit disappointed that my time up Old La Honda was slower than the 29:47 that I rode on 8/8/06.

8/20/06: I rode 17.5 miles time trialing around the Portola Loop. I set new recent personal best with an average mph of 18.2, my previous best was 17.7mph. I hit the top of Alpine road at 16.2 mph, which was significantly fast than my previous best of 15.6mph, so I knew I was on for a fast time. Admittedly, I did get lucky with all green lights down Sand Hill Road, which probably boosted my time by .1-.2 mph.

8/21/06: I road 28 miles up Edgewood back to Woodside on Canada and then over to Alpine road on Portola.

8/22/06: I road 31 miles including going up Old La Honda with my college roommate. I dont’ know what my time was up Old La Honda but I really struggled up the hill. My legs were soar and my back was absolutely killing me.

8/23/06: I road 7.5 miles in the Marin Headlands with my college roommate. We were planning on doing a longer ride but his girlfriend called and asked him to make some dinner in Fresno. What ever happened to “Rides before Brides?” Anyway, the short ride that we did was amazing. We started at the parking lot on the south bound side of 101 at the base of the Golden Gate Bridge on Conzelman Road. The ride starts out with a 1.75 mile climb up Conzelman Road. The first half mile is the steepest and then if flattens out a bit. Conzelman is beautiful looking out over the Pacific Ocean and Golden Gate Bridge. It also winds past WWII bunkers that are kind of interesting. At some point, I’d like to go back and explore them a bit more. After reaching the top of Conzelman you get a very very steep down hill that definitely requires braking from the drops. A right at the T-Junction, which I think is Field Road, takes you through a misty valley. Make a slight right, basically staying straight, on to Bunker Road. Bunker Road comes to a one way tunnel where you wait your turn to cross under highway 101. The tunnel rarely drys out completely from the rain and mist, so it is very slippery and caution is required. After exiting the tunnel make a right on Sausalito Lateral Road, which crosses back underneath 101 again where it becomes Conzelman and takes you back to the parking lot.

8/24/06: I rode 34 miles out to Highway 92 and back around the Loop.

8/7/06: A Mixed Day Up Old La Honda

After taking the weekend off I decided that I would try to climb Old La Honda. I’ve definitely been building up my leg strength over the last several weeks and with 2 days rest I was anticipating a good ride. I wasn’t sure if I would be able to make it all the way up to Skyline Blvd. but I felt it would be a good test of where I stood. That said, I was a little nervous that not making it up Old La Honda would expose just how out of shape I was in relative to my previous form.

As I was pumping up my tires I decided that I would go up Alpine Road in order to compare my average mph on fresh legs at the corner of Alpine & Portola against my recent best, which was 14.9 mph on the way 17.2 overall. I figured that even if didn’t make it up Old La Honda I could at least gauge progress and build confidence by beating 14.9 mph up Alpine. However, once I got on my bike my legs just didn’t have it.

I don’t know exactly how to explain what was going on. My legs didn’t feel tired so much as they did weak. It was very windy and that had something do with it but as I reached the intersection of Alpine and Portola wind couldn’t explain posting 13.2 mph. I was really disappointed and adding to my frustration, my heart rate monitor continued to intermittently read zero beats per minute. All of my progress thus far had been steadily increasing my average mph. How could it have fallen so dramatically after two full rest days?

I didn’t eat very well over the weekend. I had Chinese food and 4-5 beers on Friday night. On Saturday I overate at a BBQ for lunch and then had a hotdog and an ice cream sundae for dinner at the Giants game. I know that nutrition is important for cycling but I’d never been affected this much by it and besides while what I ate wasn’t healthy it was packed with calories. I also wondered if my legs actually needed more than 2 days rest. I had ridden 108 miles in the 3 days prior to resting and maybe my body just wasn’t ready for that kind of work load. I probably won’t ever know but it was clear that climbing Old La Honda would be a stretch so I decided to set a goal of climbing 1 mile up the road.

I checked my time and distance at the base of Old La Honda and set off. The hardest part for me of climbing sustained steeps is often accepting a slower speed rather than fighting the road. Knowing that I wasn’t riding well, I quickly shifted all the way down into my granny gear after just .3 miles. I felt okay at 1 mile so I decided to see if I could do 2. As I pushed ahead between mile 1 and 2 I really started to feel it but I was able to back off and let the road come to me. When I reached mile number 2 I knew that, while it was going to be difficult, I could make it to the top if I just kept peddling smoothly. After 30 minutes of climbing I found relief when I saw the famous mailbox cluster peeking around the corner and reached the stop sign at Skyline Blvd. for a total time of 30:10.

I was very happy to have climbed Old La Honda. Now that I know I can do it, I’m going to climb Old La Honda more regularly but I am perplexed at when Alpine caused me so much trouble. I certainly felt tired on my way back from Old La Honda but that was normal. However, adding more confusion to the day, I felt very strong climbing the back of Sand Hill. Despite getting stopped by traffic at the intersection of Whiskey Hill Rd. and Sand Hill Rd., I stood up and climbed from a standstill to over 15 mph on the short steep section before descending down to the Freeway.

This was my route:

I started up Alpine and made a right on Portola. Next I went up Old La Honda and made a right on Skyline Blvd. Then I came down Highway 84 through the town of Woodside and made a right on Whiskey Hill. Last I made a left on Sand Hill Road and then cruised back home through Palo Alto.

Here are my ride stats:

28.71 miles

13.4 average mph

44.8 max mph

2:08:01 ride time

131 average heart rate*

167 max heart rate

815 calories burned*

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*These numbers are clearly low because of my heart rate monitor’s intermittent measurement of zero beats per minute during the ride. I suspect that my average heart rate was closer to 150 and that I burned 900 – 950 calories.

Ride Description: Old La Honda Rd.

Old La Honda is the most famous climb in the San Francisco Bay Area… its the Alp d’Huez of recreational cycling in Northern California. Much like the famous Alp, Old La Honda is neither the steepest nor the longest climb in the area. However, Old La Honda has a certain mystique that is due beauty its beauty, winding amongst the redwoods, approachability, which is very hard but still possible for determined recreational cyclists, and its proximity to highly popular cycling roads. Its also worth noting that much of the ride is shaded by trees, which makes it a good choice when looking for a climb on a hot day.
Old La Honda starts off of Portola Rd. in Portola Valley where it climbs up to Skyline Blvd. and then down towards the coast for a couple of miles before reconnecting with Highway 84. However, the famous climb starts at the little stone bridge and ends at the stop sign on Skyline Blvd. The climb is approximately 3.3 to 3.4 miles and averages a grade of 7.3% while winding its way up 1290 feet in elevation gain. For comparison purposes the Alp d’ Huez is an 8.1% average grade over 8.6 miles.

Old La Honda is the kind of road that puts most recreational cyclists into their easiest “granny” gear and makes them wish they had the relief of still easier gears. Most will climb to Skyline Blvd. in 20-45 minutes. I’ve rarely heard of anyone taking longer than 45 minutes while still being able to make it up the hill. In my opinion 30 minutes is a respectable time and 25 minutes very good. The local climb record is reportedly 15:05 and anyone getting up faster than 20 minutes is at least approaching semi-pro caliber.