Sherman Road Ride

I skipped Westlake this week since T-storms were forecast, and the radar was busy all afternoon. I thought I'd be able to sneak in a ride in the early afternoon, so I did the good old Sherman Road Ride. Sherman runs East/West from Bass Lake all the way to Chagrin River Road. Heading west, it goes over 5 short steep climbs (80 vertical feet/10%+) before a gradual rolling climb to Caves Road, then plunging about 500 feet in 3 miles to the valley floor. There's hardly ever any traffic on the road.

The challenge of the ride is to keep the pressure on over the top of the little climbs and not zone out and coast to recover on the descents. There are a few road crossings, though, where it's usual to have to wait for traffic.

I thought I'd try out the heart rate monitor function of the new bike computer. I haven't used an HRM for the past few years, so some new data points would be interesting.

I rolled out Bass Lake at a good tempo. The wind was ripping out of the south east, and it was like swimming in batter to get to the Sherman, but once I turned west and got shelter from the trees, the cross wind wasn't noticable. I stayed in the saddle over the first climb but was really banging the pedals and kept it over my LT power for the duration. The HRM popped up over 170 bpm briefly as I went over the summit. Ok. So it looks like my LT heart rate is about 170 and I start noticing an effort at about 160.

The second leg of the ride from Auburn to the summit of Sand Hill is a bitch. It's a slow drag from Auburn to the base of the Fowlers Mill hill, then it kicks hard at 12% to the intersection, there's a quick descent into a stream valley, then another climb to the top of Sand Hill. I kept the power up way over LT to Fowlers then kept the pressure on during the quick descent before the Sand Hill climb. I blasted up Sand Hill, still no sign of cracking!

I felt pretty good all the way to 306 in spite of the high effort level. I had to wait a few minutes for traffic to clear. I started up again and felt the power plant start to flicker offline. I managed about 44 minutes with 5 difficult efforts. So, I'll aim to improve on that through June.

I rolled down to Chagrin River Road and planned to loop around via Rogers Road toward Kirtland Chardon. Unfortunately, River Road is now closed at Wilson Mills. The bridge is missing! I'd have to take Wilson back to 306, to get to KCR. I tried to keep the over LT pace up on the climb. I made it half way up and blew up spectacularly. Wow. The HR was still only 170.

I felt like crap for the rest of the ride. I tried to drill it up KCR, but wilted about half way up when I was exposed to a brutal headwind. I rode easy tempo all the way home. The TSS for the ride was 116. I've been doing too many flat intervals lately. I need more rides like that!