Norton Summit and Corkscrew Road

The Norton Summit Road is a ride I've been wanting to do for a while now. Along with the Mt Lofty climb, it would probably be Adelaide's most popular climb. Since I was up that way, I thought I might have a bash at the somewhat legendary Corkscrew Road. It ended up being a short but pretty demanding ride. It was only 45km's (I started from the top of Greenhill Road) but it was a total of 920 metres of ascending, making it probably the most intense ride I've ever done.

The view back down the valley from along the top of Norton Summit Road

Looking back to the city from just before Norton Summit.

I can see why Norton Summit is such a popular ride. It has plenty varying gradients, some magnificent scenery and not a huge amount of traffic (not on a Saturday morning anyway). It felt like it was a similar intensity as the climb from the Tollgate to Mt Lofty but quite a bit shorter. A little way past the township of Norton Summit I came to a fork in the road - with the choice of a downhill road (which was the short way to my destination) or the uphill road (Woods Hill Road) which took the long way around through to Ashton. I was clearly in a self-flagellating frame of mind because I chose the latter. It was pretty damn steep but I made it through to Ashton eventually, then trundled off towards Montacute Road and my destiny.....

The Corkscrew Road turn-off looked unassuming enough, but it only took a minute or two and quick look over the Armco railing for the full horror of the situation to be revealed. The statistics are alarming enough (a 2.4km climb at a 9.2% average gradient) but when you see a view like this with the road snaking it's way through the valley directly below, it was clear that this was going to be a climb like no other that I'd ever attempted.

Now that's just plain silly....

As I cautiously rolled down the hill, the thought of climbing back up this thing made me laugh out loud and I resigned myself to the fact that I'd probably have to walk some sections of it. I stopped a few times on the way down and took some photos then finally reached the valley floor. It's pretty down there with the babbling creek along the side of the road. I almost made it through to Gorge Road before I decided I'd better turn around and face the music.

By now, it was getting pretty warm (around 33 degrees) and, as I passed over the bridge and the climb began, I was not feeling overly confident. My fears were confirmed when the gradient started to bite and I ran out of gas about 50 metres before the first switchback and had to stop and rest for a few minutes. Surprisingly through, the rest of it went okay. I thought those steep ramps on each of the switchbacks would kill me off but managed to get my bum out of the saddle and push through them. I did end up stopping again about 150m passed the last switchback. The worst was over by this stage and I probably could have kept going but I kept looking at my heart rate which had been over 180bpm for quite a while and I decided it would probably be wise to stop and let it settle for a few minutes. Sometimes I think I shouldn't bother wearing the heart rate monitor because I get a bit paranoid about it.

Just before the first switchback - that's the road straight ahead at the top of the hill

Yikes!

Anyway, as I was stopped there, I could hear another rider coming up from behind. He was clearly at maximum effort and his moans and groans were echoing through the valley. As he powered past me I thought to myself "and I'm worried about having a heart attack!". I concluded he was probably doing the Strava Corkscrew TDU Challenge thing which is a month-long competition on Strava to see who can lodge the fastest time up the Corkscrew Road segment. As I got to the top of the hill he was slumped over his bike looking utterly shattered. I asked if he was okay and he nodded so I assumed that was a 'yes'. Anyway, he went seriously fast up that hill and I suspect he's one of the serious cyclists at the top of the leader board who do the climb in the 8 - 9 minute bracket. Anyway, when I got to the top I did briefly flirted with the idea of doing it again, but sanity prevailed and I decided I'd leave it for another day.

For most of the the climbs I've done I'm usually between 5 and 15% from the bottom on the Strava leader board. It's more like 1 or 2% from the bottom after my first attempt at the Corkscrew, so I'm pretty keen to have a few more goes at it to see if I can do a little better. Still, I at least managed to get up the thing on two wheels and not two legs which was more than I was expecting.

Anyway, after Corkscrew it was a pleasant coast down Montacute Road, particularly towards the bottom where the road becomes smoother. A bit of a climb up Stradbroke Road and a meandre back across to the top of Greenhill Road and I was done for the day.

Deep one perfect morning

Saturday was a perfect day to be riding a bike, 26 degrees and hardly a breath of wind. I dawdled around the house for a while and eventually headed off to Mt Lofty just after 9am. I thought I might possibly go further than that but I'd see how my legs felt when I reached the summit.

For once I remembered to put the heart rate monitor on. I've been increasingly conscious of my heart rate being pretty high when putting in the maximum effort, so I thought I'd try and keep it around 160 - 170bpm when doing a climb. Using the standard old maximum heart rate calculation of 220bpm minus your age, this is probably near my maximimum and evidently I shouldn't be exceeding 90% of my maximum heart rate. However, that calculation is general at best and I actually feel quite okay sustaining that heart rate for the majority of the hour or so that it takes me to do the Mt Lofty climb. On this occasion my average for the climb was 174bpm with a maximum of 185bpm. My average for the whole ride was 160bpm. I'm still not sure if this is a good thing or not.

Anyway it was a great ride up there and busy with cyclists as is usual on a Saturday morning. I was still about 5 minutes off my best time for the climb but feel like my legs are gradually returning. After the shattering experience of Amy's Ride last week, I think I just need to ride more regularly. I reckon an hour or so on the trainer every night will do me the world of good.

After a break at the summit I felt okay and decided to keep riding. I contemplated heading north through Norton Summit but ended up doing a loop through Summertown, Balhannah, Verdun, Bridgewater and back to Crafers. It was more or less the loop from the Mt Lofty Challenge ride last March so I knew that there was a fair few hills too negotiate, but I felt up to it. Here's some pics:

Just before Summertown and pretty as a picture ....
who wouldn't want to ride a bike in the hills on a day like this???

Germantown Hill - hard work but thankfully short.

The loop was around 32km or so and was just magnificent on Saturday - plenty of challenging climbs, lots of downhill runs and pefect weather. Those nasty hills before and after Bridgewater haven't gotten any easier since March but I managed to get up each of them without stopping (apart from the quick photo opportunity on Germantown Hill), which is more than I could do last week. I arrived back in Crafers with my legs fairly well spent, but thankfully not cramping like last week. Maybe the magnesium is working, maybe it was just because it was a little cooler. Anyway, from Crafers it was 25km of mostly rolling down the big hill.

It ended up being a pretty big ride, my second biggest in fact. It was 84km with just under 1400m of climbing which was basically the same as the Mt Lofty challenge ride. My time of 4:25 was pretty much the same as that ride as well, which I guess means that my fitness level is about the same as it was back in March. All thing considered, I'm reasonably happy with that.

Needless to say my average of 18.8km/h for the ride is very slow. I'm particularly slow going up hills and I'm frequently overtaken by faster cyclists, but it doesn't bother me in the slightest. I'm happy just to grind up those hills and get there eventually. Mind you, I'm pretty keen on getting a bit faster and I'm sure I will if I keep at it, but at the end of the day I'm just really happy to be able to go the distance.

Amy's Ride

Amy's Ride has been and gone for another year. It was a warm last Sunday, around 33 degrees and pretty windy. We (me and the kids) started at Majors Road, avoiding the uphill bit from Darlington which the kids weren't too keen on doing. The run down the Southern Expressway was pretty cruisy and was made even easier by a tail wind. It seemed like we freewheeled most of the way down the Expessway which was great fun. We ended up doing the 25km to McLaren Vale in a leisurely 90 minutes. We love doing this ride together every year (this is our third year) - it's just such a hoot to be part of the big community ride thing. Here's some pics from the end of the Expressway:

After having some lunch at the McLaren Vale visitor centre, Karolle took the kids off to Alison and Troy's place while I trundled off towards Willunga. Climbing Willunga Hill was hard yakka as it was now getting towards midday and warming up. I was a bit annoyed because I got up most of the hill okay, but had to stop about 200m from the top for a couple of minutes because I was feeling a bit dizzy.

With the heat and the wind, it wasn't the most pleasant of riding days. The wind was more noticeable when we turned onto Range Road and headed north. Range Road was okay initially but I found the last part after the Penny's Hill turn off was pretty hard going. I eventually made it to the Wickhams Hill decent - the road was closed to traffic which made the run down the hill great fun despite the head wind. I even managed to catch up to some of those who'd gone past me along the top of the range.

I eventually made it to the final refreshment stop but my legs were tiring and I was feeling the first signs of cramp. I had a break and some food then headed west back through the hills towards Rosemout where the family awaited. The next five or six km's were a continual battle with cramp every time I had to push hard - I had to walk up one particularly nasty hill. Anyway, I finally nursed my failing legs back along Chapel Hill Road towards Rosemount and had just enough in reserve to have a final blast down the hill where Karolle, Miles, Troy and Allison were cheering me on. It hit 73km/h down that hill which is my fastest speed - so I at least had one milestone for the day.

The ride was only 70km in total but, with the fairly unpleasant conditions, it was a pretty challenging ride for me. I was completely spent by the end of it but satisfied that I persisted through the cramping and got there eventually. The main thing I took out of this ride was the need to prepare. I hadn't really ridden at all for the two weeks prior to the ride and my lack of training showed at the end. The other thing I need so sort out is the cramp thing - evidently magnesium is the go, so I'm giving that a try.