Most Vertical Feet in a Year ??

Quoted message said:

404,000 feet? Well woop dee doo! Bicycling Mag has got to be pulling
our skinny legs with this one. Our local club lists 3 riders with
more vertical than that last year, and that's just on club rides...

Quoted message said:

My Polar computer says I've logged 848,948 feet so far this year,
with 117 days left (I'm shooting for a vertical double century by
New Year's). While that may sound like a lot, I suspect there are
some riders out there with double that amount, or more. That guy
that climbed Mt. Ventoux 10 times in 24 hours: that's almost 48,000
feet in one day!

Terry: I dunno, I think you just may have it all to yourself. The Ventoux
guy is probably peaking for that ride (a la Lance) and quite possibly does a
fairly moderate amount of climbing most of the year. One of those things
where, if you gave your legs too much warning that you were going to attempt
something like that, they're rebel!

But now I understand why you don't ride with my people; just 3k feet of
climbing on our regular Tuesday & Thursday ride would put you way behind
schedule. Even today's 7k of climbing would be a risky endeavor for you!
Funny, but heading to the coast via 92, then doing Lobitos etc before
Tunitas, then back down 84 to LaHonda and up West Alpine *sounds* like more
than 7k. Or not. To you, it just sounds like not enough.

And people give *me* a bad time for spending a lot of time in the hills!

--Mike-- Chain Reaction Bicycles
www.ChainReactionBicycles.com

"Terry Morse" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I was goggling around, looking for climbing totals for cycling, and
came upon this item on bicycling.com:

http://tinyurl.com/56exb

"Most Vertical Feet Climbed In A Year

Mongo, a.k.a. Bruce Brown, of Bellingham, Washington climbed
404,000 vertical feet in 2000. That's the equivalent of 13 ascents
from sea level to the summit of Everest and back down."

404,000 feet? Well woop dee doo! Bicycling Mag has got to be pulling
our skinny legs with this one. Our local club lists 3 riders with
more vertical than that last year, and that's just on club rides:

http://westernwheelers.org/main/stats/2003/wwstat03climb.htm

My Polar computer says I've logged 848,948 feet so far this year,
with 117 days left (I'm shooting for a vertical double century by
New Year's). While that may sound like a lot, I suspect there are
some riders out there with double that amount, or more. That guy
that climbed Mt. Ventoux 10 times in 24 hours: that's almost 48,000
feet in one day!

Bicycling must have googled to find this "unofficial" climbing
record. Not very good googling skills, I'd say.
--
terry morse Palo Alto, CA http://bike.terrymorse.com/

On Sun, 05 Sep 2004 23:42:32 -0700, Terry Morse <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

I was goggling around, looking for climbing totals for cycling, and
came upon this item on bicycling.com:

http://tinyurl.com/56exb

"Most Vertical Feet Climbed In A Year

Mongo, a.k.a. Bruce Brown, of Bellingham, Washington climbed
404,000 vertical feet in 2000. That's the equivalent of 13 ascents
from sea level to the summit of Everest and back down."

404,000 feet? Well woop dee doo! Bicycling Mag has got to be pulling
our skinny legs with this one. Our local club lists 3 riders with
more vertical than that last year, and that's just on club rides:

http://westernwheelers.org/main/stats/2003/wwstat03climb.htm

My Polar computer says I've logged 848,948 feet so far this year,
with 117 days left (I'm shooting for a vertical double century by
New Year's). While that may sound like a lot, I suspect there are
some riders out there with double that amount, or more. That guy
that climbed Mt. Ventoux 10 times in 24 hours: that's almost 48,000
feet in one day!

Bicycling must have googled to find this "unofficial" climbing
record. Not very good googling skills, I'd say.

Terry,

Congrats! Looks like you will make the 1M mark. Cool!

The 'record' was supposedly broken last year by Mongo who did
something close to 450K ft, as reported by Bicycling earlier this
year. As I told you at that time, I suspect that the record was a
crock and suspect the only reason Bicycling keeps reporting his
'records' is that Mongo is marketing himself to the editors. I did
more than Mongo did last year, and that was with a month off due to
pulled groin muscle, which kept me off the hills for even a bit
longer. So far this year I am close to his 'record' from last year
but have been off the bike for most of the past 6 weeks due to a
broken hand (hit head-on by day worker on an old Stumpjumper coming
around a blind curve on the wrong side of the ped bridge between Palo
Alto and Mountain View).

Perhaps you can out-market Mongo; if he is hyoing himself to the
editors of Bicycling it will probably irritate him to have someone
come in with more than double his 'record' :-)

See you on the road,

- rick warner

Mike Jacoubowsky said:

Even today's 7k of climbing would be a risky endeavor for you!
Funny, but heading to the coast via 92, then doing Lobitos etc before
Tunitas, then back down 84 to LaHonda and up West Alpine *sounds* like more
than 7k. Or not. To you, it just sounds like not enough.

Mike, the problem with your described route is too many flat
sections. All those hill climbs are great fun, but they're too far
apart. To really rack up the vertical efficiently, you need to do
hill repeats. I did 3 Old La Hondas today before heading for the
refreshing breezes on the coast via 84, then Stage, Pescadero, and
Alpine West. Still too many flat miles, but at least it was a little
cooler on the coast.

Pretty hot on Alpine today, eh? I went through 2 bottles from
Pescadero to Skyline and still was dehydrated. Thank goodness for
the water faucet at Montebello OSP, and double thank goodness that
it was working. Scale says I lost "only" 3 pounds.
--
terry morse Palo Alto, CA http://bike.terrymorse.com/

Rick Warner said:

Terry,

Congrats! Looks like you will make the 1M mark. Cool!

Thanks, but thanks to Mike J's suggestion, I won't be satisfied
until I hit 200 vertical miles (1,056,000 ft.).

Quoted message said:

So far this year I am close to his 'record' from last year
but have been off the bike for most of the past 6 weeks due to a
broken hand (hit head-on by day worker on an old Stumpjumper coming
around a blind curve on the wrong side of the ped bridge between Palo
Alto and Mountain View).

The Wilkie Bridge? I've had some close calls there, too. Sorry to
hear about your hand (I was off the bike for six weeks last year
with a hip fracture, and I still doubled Mongo's "record"😉.

Quoted message said:

Perhaps you can out-market Mongo; if he is hyoing himself to the
editors of Bicycling it will probably irritate him to have someone
come in with more than double his 'record' :-)

Hmm, maybe I'll send them a letter in January, when I'll have
complete stats for the year.
--
terry morse Palo Alto, CA http://bike.terrymorse.com/

Terry Morse wrote:
|| Mike Jacoubowsky wrote:
||
||| Even today's 7k of climbing would be a risky endeavor for you!
||| Funny, but heading to the coast via 92, then doing Lobitos etc
||| before Tunitas, then back down 84 to LaHonda and up West Alpine
||| *sounds* like more than 7k. Or not. To you, it just sounds like
||| not enough.
||
|| Mike, the problem with your described route is too many flat
|| sections. All those hill climbs are great fun, but they're too far
|| apart. To really rack up the vertical efficiently, you need to do
|| hill repeats. I did 3 Old La Hondas today before heading for the
|| refreshing breezes on the coast via 84, then Stage, Pescadero, and
|| Alpine West. Still too many flat miles, but at least it was a little
|| cooler on the coast.
||
|| Pretty hot on Alpine today, eh? I went through 2 bottles from
|| Pescadero to Skyline and still was dehydrated. Thank goodness for
|| the water faucet at Montebello OSP, and double thank goodness that
|| it was working. Scale says I lost "only" 3 pounds.

Terry - how do you track your climbing, Polar? If so, do you find it
accurate?

Roger Zoul said:

Terry - how do you track your climbing, Polar? If so, do you find it
accurate?

Yes, I track my vertical with a Polar 720i. Its cumulative vertical
seems to be very accurate, although the altitude reading appears to
always be low by a couple hundred feet when ascending from sea level
to over 6000 feet. On Clinb to Kaiser, which starts at ~300' and
goes up over 9000', my reading at Kaiser Pass was low by 400'. When
I returned to the start, the altitude reading was accurate again.
--
terry morse Palo Alto, CA http://bike.terrymorse.com/

Rick Warner wrote:

[...]

|| Perhaps you can out-market Mongo; if he is hyoing himself to the
|| editors of Bicycling it will probably irritate him to have someone
|| come in with more than double his 'record' :-)
||
|| See you on the road,
||
|| - rick warner

I think you both (you and Terry) ought to get in the game...It's cool!

Terry Morse <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Thanks, but thanks to Mike J's suggestion, I won't be satisfied
until I hit 200 vertical miles (1,056,000 ft.).

Perhaps a bit odd ;-) Maybe next goal should be in meters.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

So far this year I am close to his 'record' from last year
but have been off the bike for most of the past 6 weeks due to a
broken hand (hit head-on by day worker on an old Stumpjumper coming
around a blind curve on the wrong side of the ped bridge between Palo
Alto and Mountain View).

The Wilkie Bridge?

Yep; coming from Mtn View, happened near the Wilkie side; guy came on
fast and on the wrong side. By the time he cleared that redwood tree
at the end and came into view I was almost to that turn and right
against the fence on the right. It was a head-on with my left hand
getting caught between the two bars. That path is narrow, and with
3 more or less blind turns it is sucky design, but convenient to where
I live and much better than El Camino.

But I did OLH twice this weekend; ascending is fine, but the bumps of
descending are a bit tough; it will be a couple of weeks or more
before the hand can handle a Page Mill descent, even on wide/soft
tires.

- rick