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Neighborhood Hills

04.03.2011 by Ray Niekamp // 9 Comments

“You know what would be cool?” asked my friend David a few months back. “If we worked out a route that hit all the hills in this area, say in a five-mile radius.”

We might live on the edge of the Texas Hill Country (The main drag through our neighborhood is called Escarpment), but the legendary  hills of Austin don’t materialize until you’re about eight miles west of us, or even farther north. We’ve got hills, but they’re not biggies.

However, when I did a hills training session with Austin Cycle Camp back in November, they drilled us on what I considered to be pretty wimpy hills, right in my backyard. So I thought it would be fun to try David’s idea.

Leaving my house, I rode two miles north to Convict Hill. I often ride the residential streets that cover the hill, and today I took the road that runs right up the hillside. Convict Hill Road isn’t tough, but sets the table for the climbing that will come.

Convict Hill Road. Convict labor was used here in the 1880s to quarry limestone for the then-new Texas state capitol building.

Once atop Convict Hill, a number of options await. I like to work my way over to Wolf Creek Pass. It’s a short, curving stretch, and I can stand on the pedals to see how high a gear I can push to the top.

Wolf Creek Pass. Short, but steep. Well, kinda.

After a two-block rest, I can take Hill Oaks down, then turn around and come back up. I don’t like Hill Oaks. At the bottom, there’s almost no runout before it hits U.S. 290 – a busy highway. If I do a white-knuckle brake before the bottom, Hill Oaks is a tester of a climb coming back. Our club president does repeats on Hill Oaks.

You can get an idea of the steepness of Hill Oaks by the way it drops off. At right, the short runout at the bottom into U.S. 290.

I prefer the next street over. The aforementioned Wolf Creek Pass also heads down the hillside to U.S. 290, but it’s a somewhat more civilized descent. The climb back up isn’t quite as steep as Hill Oaks, but it’ll do.

Wolf Creek Pass again, this time looking up from U.S. 290.

One more detour before we leave Convict Hill. Poncha Pass is another short hill, but also steep. It starts easy, but gets worse the closer to the top you get.

Poncha Pass is your basic suburban-style residential street.

For every climb, there’s a descent. It’s easy to approach 35 mph going down Convict Hill Road in the marked bike lane. That’s my reward for the hill work. Now, we head south. Just blocks from my house, Allerton Avenue rises to the top of another hill. This one is a longish grade, not all that steep, but it makes you work.

Allerton curves left up to the house to the upper left of the car.

Now, we’ll head into the Circle C Ranch section of southwest Austin. And then head out immediately, as we pick up the Mopac loop. Mopac turns west and becomes State Highway 45, and features “Escarpment Hill,” which ends at Escarpment Blvd.

Mopac/SH 45 is one of the more popular cycling routes in Austin. This is “Escarpment Hill.”

Escarpment Hill is another long, not particularly steep climb. It used to kick my butt, and still kicks my wife’s. Now, I like to see how high a cadence I can maintain as I climb it in one of my big ring gears.

At Escarpment Blvd., we can turn right and head down an easy hill past the fire station. The uphill side is where I did hill repeats with Austin Cycle Camp. Not tough, until you do it time after time — each time in a higher gear.

Escarpment Blvd., looking up toward SH 45.

One of the first neighborhood climbs David showed me when I was truly a noob biker was Savin Hill Lane. Any street with the name “Hill” in it has to have something going for it, right? This is another residential street that starts with a short, steepish climb, then levels out, then climbs again.

Savin Hill Lane.

An acquaintance of mine from northeast Austin rides all the way down here just to do Savin Hill repeats. He’ll do it five times, and then considers himself ready for most anything.

Whew! I’m a bit knackered after all that. Time to head home. But there’s one more hill before I get there — H-E-B Hill. H-E-B, for non-Texans, is a big supermarket chain. Escarpment Blvd. going north from Circle C Ranch climbs past the supermarket entrance. This is where the “old guy” smoked me many moons ago. Now, I like to attack the hill — see if I can maintain a 100 rpm cadence all the way to the top. I usually run out of gas just before I get there.

H-E-B Hill.

If you’ve had the patience to sit through all these rather dull photos of rather middling hills, I understand that you’ve got way better hills where you live. Now, I don’t own a GPS device, so my elevation readings come from Map My Ride, which I think is notoriously inaccurate. But, it shows grades of 20 percent for short sections of Wolf Creek and Hill Oaks. Convict Hill hits 17 percent at one point. Escarpment Hill is 11 percent at its steepest point, but mostly 3-5 percent. HEB Hill is 6 percent.

And yes, I know how to find the “real” Austin hills. But Lost Creek, Courtyard, Ladera Norte and Jester are not in my neighborhood. Most are farther away than I care to ride to tackle hills. My point here is that you can make a rigorous hill workout almost anywhere. You can ride this whole route (about 17 miles) or do what I more typically do — pick a hill and ride it several times. Start at a low cadence — say, 70 rpm — and see if you can do it at a higher rate each time. Or start in an easy gear, and go up one for each repeat.

Believe me, even with easy grades, if you do these kinds of repeats, you’ll get better on hills.

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Categories // training Tags // hills

The Climb

08.10.2010 by Ray Niekamp // 4 Comments

Guest poster Jeff Hemmel tracks his relationship with a hill, from hate — to love-hate — to love.

I live in Florida. That means I ride lots and lots of flat roads, and never leave the big ring. The biggest hills I get are a pair of bridges over the Intracoastal Waterway, decent in many respects but barely a speed bump for any serious climber.

Every summer, however, I get to escape to the Adirondacks in New York State (the perks of a work-from-home journalist), and there, awaiting me like my own mythical Ventoux, is The Climb.

Okay, it’s really just a big hill, less than 2.5 miles in total. But to me it’s become somewhat of a yardstick to measure my cycling fitness. The hill rises to only about a 5 percent grade by mile 1, but throws a 9 percent grade at you during mile 2. A lot of people hate that climb, but in my own perverse way, I’ve grown to love it.

A number of years ago, following a problematic ACL reconstruction, I tackled the hill as a challenge on a mountain bike. Truth be told, I wasn’t even sure I could make it the first time. When I first climbed it on my road bike, I seriously questioned whether I could do it on my compact double without the safety net of a third ring. (Believe me, I got down to the smallest cog in my cassette!) Now, I return to that hill at the end of every ride, no matter how many miles I’ve put in. The climb has changed from “can I get up it” to “how many miles can I ride and still get up it” to now just a “time to get up it” conclusion to my ride. (I’ve even found another one to throw in mid-route, but that’s another story…)

Yes, there is one other way to return home that’s far less steep. But to me, tackling the hill at the end of my rides is the only way to go.

By now, I’ve gotten to know it intimately. I know where the house is that sometimes has sweet corn and vegetables for sale, all on the honor system. I know the dip that at one time signified I was about to be eaten by the most vicious dog I’ve ever met, but now just signifies I’m about to drop into the small ring as the toughest section lies ahead. And I know the secluded spot where I once felt like someone was watching me, only to discover a deer standing inches away as I rode past.

And starting this year, I also know just how long it takes me to get to the top. Like some kind of glutton for punishment, I started timing myself.

Summer’s winding down and I’m returning home, back to the flat, congested roads I’ve ridden time and time again. Yesterday I clocked my fastest ascent of the summer. Doing so, however, made me realize it’s not how fast I get up the hill that’s important, it’s the climb itself — and all its idiosyncrasies and personal meanings — that I most enjoy.

I’m going to miss it.

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Categories // guest post, Rides, training Tags // guest post, Hemmel, hills

Hill Repeats

06.10.2010 by Ray Niekamp // 9 Comments

As you probably know if you’ve read this blog for a bit, I’m not one for really intense workouts. But I did one the other day.

Not far from my house is Convict Hill. (Convict labor quarried limestone on the hillside that was used to build the Texas State capitol in the 19th century.) Convict Hill Road runs up the hill, and it’s an okay climb, but most anyone can handle it. However, if you take the back way up, via Kenosha Pass, there’s a good climb followed by a tougher climb. Neither is very long, but I’m usually gasping for breath when I get to the top.

From there, you can recover for a few blocks, but Breezy Pass features another intermediate climb up to Convict Hill Road.

In another block, I turn right down La Concha for a fast downhill. But right away I have to climb up Poncha Pass back to Convict Hill — and that’s a steep one. In fact, some guys I know just do repeats of Poncha — each time shifting up one cog until they’ve gone through the whole cassette.

My favorite part of the route is a long sweeping downhill on Convict Hill Road. But at the bottom, I turn left, and do it again.

I did this little exercise three times, then headed for some flat streets, which I ran at time trial pace. It made for an intense 18 miles — until I got a flat. But that’s another story.

Two days later, I still feel soreness in my calves. They’ll just have to get used to it. I’ll be back to do this one again.

Now, I know Austin is loaded with REAL hills.  I’ve been on a number of them. But it gets boring to have to get off the bike and walk halfway up, and it really takes a toll on your cleats. I’ll go back and try some of those hills again — after I get the hang of doing this little diversion.

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Categories // training Tags // hills, training

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