The best part of riding uphill

These photo's were taken yesterday at the top of Goldstrem Ridge Estates. Kinda makes all the 10-18% grades worth riding.

This is the road that I climbed. It drops down at 15-18%.

Mt. Finlayson is the first peak in this photo.

Saanich in the background

Empty lots up here sell for $499,000. Great view, but you know winter is going to be hard up here.

This is the route that I took to get to Goldstream Ridge Estates. It's the same route as the previous elevation profile from a week ago (I call this route "Rubber Legs"). I wanted to test myself on a tough route to see how my climbing legs can recover from lasts weeks effort. I finished the 2nd ride faster (5 mins) and I was able to stay standing once I got home. A definite improvement over the first time. I was still fairly shattered later in the day and was asleep by 9pm.

Today's run was 2 hours and included the Oak Bay waterfront, 10 mile point, Arbutus Road, partial UVIC's Ring Road, Mt. Tolmie, and finally Richmond & Foul Bay Roads. I followed this up with a solid 1 hr nap. Now it's time to take the dog to the park, or another nap...

Totally destroyed

Today's ride left me completely exhausted.

This is one of many 5hr + rides that I am using to prepare myself for the grulling Silverman bike course. Today's total distance was 120km (5hrs) with just over 2000m elevation gain, with some crazy 15-20% grades. Silverman's bike course is 180km long, with 3000m elevation gain, some grades up to 11%. This ride hurt.

Whoever once told me that the South Island is flat was very, very, very wrong.

Any guesses as to which roads I climbed?

Here is the actual Silverman bike course profile:
And here is the bike profile from my ride (in Imperial units) for comparison:
This race is going to hurt!