Now that we're getting near the end of training season, we're starting to see some training rides with a lot of climbing in them. But how much is "a lot"? The answer can vary widely depending on what mapping software you use.
If you're like me, you've looked at some rides in the San Francisco training series and thought, "Good grief, all that climbing! Why do they do so much?" For example, the Alpine Dam training ride is advertised as 7,644 feet of climbing, and the Marshall Wall ride is advertised as a whopping 8,293 feet.
But here's the secret: The folks who put together the San Francisco rides use a different piece of mapping software than I do, and the numbers are vastly different whenever substantial climbing comes into play. I mapped these same two rides using Bikely (which is what I used for all of the rides that I lead), and the difference was startling: Alpine Dam was 5,002 feet, and Marshall Wall was 5,381 feet.
In other words, our recent San Gregorio and Pescadero ride had more climbing than the Marshall Wall ride!
This doesn't diminish the difficulty of the San Francisco rides in any way whatsoever -- those hills are very challenging. But what it means is that the training you've been getting on the Peninsula is indeed quite comparable to what's on offer in the San Francisco series.
(Photo credit: Climbing the Marshall Wall, by "babageik" on Flickr)
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