cfforum

The Nifty Ten Fifty is held in April each year consisting of 10,000 feet of climbing in a little over 50 miles through some of the steeper areas of the Berkeley Hills.

I’ve never done the Nifty Ten Fifty but have always wondered what it would be like to do that much climbing in so little distance.

This morning I got a feel for it by trying the “Sporty Ten Forty”.

The route for this esthetically vapid ride is very simple. You start at the base of Beatty and ride to the stop sign at the top over and over again until you climb over 10,000 feet. It’s a great ride for those who enjoy lap swimming and running on a treadmill.

The stats worked out as follows:

Distance: 41.4 Miles
Ascent: 10,240 Feet
Beatty Laps: 26
Average Speed: 10.7 MPH
Max Speed: 52.6 MPH
Ride Time: 3:51:15

I stopped three times; once to chat with Ueli who was driving by, and twice to re-charge my water bottles/ grab a bite to eat.

I’m wondering if this ride should be added to Scott’s “What Makes it Hard?” musing…maybe it belongs in another category like “What Makes it Stupid?”

I think a 39 Beatty lap mini-Death Ride consisting of 15,000 feet of climbing in a little over 60 miles has Curtis Taylor written all over it …I doubt I’ll be trying that one.

Wow!

That is amazing, 26 times up beatty. I wonder how many people left then came home and thought " Is that the same rider climbing" I dont know if I could do that many repeats, I think I would go mad before the day was over.

You have set the bar very high. Great work.

Incredible. My knees hurt as I type. What kind of gearing were you using? Were you steady throughout, or slowing significantly toward the end?

Mark

I've got a triple crank and I used all of it (30/27) on each climb in the steep sections. I rode at a steady, slow, pace (over 7 minutes per climb). There was a fairly strong headwind that slowed me down a little on each climb but also helped keep me from sweating too much.

With the easy gearing it really wasn't that hard on the knees, just kind of boring.

I'm signed up for the Death Ride and thought I should start getting some climbing in. I didn't have much time to ride last Saturday so the ride on Beatty was a way to get in a lot of climbing in a relatively short amount of time.

Mark. It would never occur to me in a million years to continually ride up Beatty for over 3 hours. I would get dizzy, my nose would bleed and I'd do a "Jan & Dean" on the 13th descent.

You can't fool me. I know you're monster strong when write silly little statements like: "That hurricane force headwind on the 22% grade really didn't affect me that much, actually, it was beneficial becasue it kept my from sweating too much."

What, EPO every 10 laps? Helium in the tires and frame?

Good job!! I'll bet that ride builds your mental toughness as much or more than the physical benefit of the workout. That, more than anything, will get you over Carson Pass when the wind is screaming in your face. I see ice cream in your future.

Steve

Wow.....

uhm.....

Wow.....

Monster effort. Not stupid at all - I'm sure that it really will pay off for you.


I would have stopped three times as well -
Once to grab food and fill water bottles
Once for I.V. fluids
Once to be fitted for a casket!

Very impressive - man - you have raised the bar in a big way!

....so I have not seen anyone trying for the "dirty 10 - 30"

My calculation shows there are a couple roads around here steep enough to get it done.....Aberdeen among them. Wonder how many repeats you could do on Aberdeen before someone called the cops?

Aberdeen is one of Oz's favorites - maybe you could do this for us and let us know how it was OZ?

Where is Aberdeen? I don't think I'm familiar with that one.

Rats...I was wrong - well... Motionbased was wrong I should say. It inflated the climbing numbers on Aberdeen. When I rode it yesterday afternoon, they were significantly different so I will trust Mr. Garmin

It's Aberdeen Ln. in El Dorado Hills. It's off Appian Way, which starts at Silva Valley. It's a loop, so you could potentially ride it continuously. It climbs 335 feet in .56 miles. While it tips up to 17% in one spot (Garmin said 18 twice yesterday but training center said 17), it averages 11% overall. It would take less than 40 miles to get in 10K climbing but significantly over 30. My math says 35 - 36 miles. So I have to keep looking.

Perhaps Mix Canyon, or Jurgens Road (if anyone dares do repeats down in that "holler") would get us closer. I know Jurgens hits 22% for a short burst. I also know from Steve's article that Mix canyon hits 23%.

Results from the Mix Canyon indicate that the steepest incline was 32.1%.

As noted below, the numbers leading up to, and following, the 32.1% grade appear to validate the peak reading. If you're so inclined, you may read the post-ride write up at: http://www.cyclefolsom.com/pdf/rides/mixcanyon.pdf


Here's the excerpt from the article the relates to the this discussion:


This climb is probably more difficult than the numbers would indicate. To illustrate the
point, here a few series of track point recordings (% grade) from my Garmin Edge 305
GPS unit, all of which occur on the top half of the climb (track points recorded at 5.8
second intervals):

14.0, 29.6, 25.8, 14.1 (switch backs)
13.1, 25.6, 27.5, 26.1, 26.4, 18.5, 19.3, 21.5, 21.1

19.7, 22.0, 32.1, 28.2, 18.2 (switch backs)
15.6, 17.3, 18.9, 19.7, 22.0, 32.1, 28.2, 18.2, 15.7
17.3, 29.2, 25.7, 23.0, 14.3

Pretty sure Mix Canyon would do it then. You may even have a "money 10-20" based on the numbers you have there. Almost unfathomable to me.

Question though - in the Monticello Solano Century, we went down Pleasants Valley Road and at the base of Mix Canyon there was like 5 signs warning people that the road was impassable in places, etc.... did this happen before you rode it? Is it still rideable?