Flagstaff

Out here in Boulder we have a local hill called Flagstaff. Its similar to many other local hills in Anytown, USA. Everyone talks about it as the hard hill to ride. Its the one people use to do intervals, threshold repeats, or strength workouts. And it is also famous for one other thing, kicking your ass.

So in this light, I did a fitness test interval up Flagstaff right before team camp. My coach had warned me prior about not going out too hard on this climb or it will smoke my legs. So I'm like, ok, standard warning, no big deal. He told me where I needed to conserve to because it has some steep pitches and some switchbacks that sap the legs pretty easily. Well I followed the instructions to a T, and still faded hard.

I was a little shocked really, not about my numbers, whatever. Rather how deceptive the perceived exertion of the climb. Its not super steep all the way up, nor is it at a high altitude, or the end of a long road. Its literally 15 minutes from my house. It is about 17-25 minutes long depending on how far you go up, and its in beautiful sun all day.

I love it really. How often are we presented with something so simple we assume we can wrap our heads around it in an instant. Yet the more you dig, the more you learn, the more nuances form and poke their heads out of their shell.

So I started to familiarize myself with this climb today by doing it 4 times in a row. Trust me, I will be back to test myself again on this classic. We'll see what I find next.