Biking - Grant Hill and French's Hollow

Today's weather started out much better than expected, and it looked t like the rain would hold off until later in the afternoon. After a couple of very easy, and flat, early season rides, today I decided to test my climbing legs just a little. Grant Hill Road in Guilderland is a fairly short climb, only about 0.6 miles, but it does kick up to 12.5% at one point. I use this climb a lot during the season to see how the legs are doing. It also makes a nice 21-mile loop from home.



It was fairly cool and breezy, with the wind gusting over 20 mph, but still much better than the last time I was out. And since I was riding more of a circular loop, it was never from the same direction for very long.

The good news is that I easily made it up the climb with a couple of gears to spare, and the legs felt pretty strong for that short distance. It probably helped a lot to not be carrying 50+ pounds of gear, and also be riding higher pressure tires than on last year's tour. Endurance on climbs has always been my weakness, so there will be some longer ones in the cards as the season progresses, in preparation for ADK's long hilly Ididaride in August.