Hospital Hills Bike Recce

Tonight was to be my triumphant return to running with my beloved club XSNRG. Turned out I forgot to pack my running shoes! Realized it in the parking lot at the park. So I decided not to waste the evening, pulled the bike out of the trunk and went out to recce a hill workout that my temporary AE Coach had suggested.

Sunnybrook Park has a few paved hills, but two of them are close enough together that you can go up one, coast down, recover in between, and go back up the other, over and over again. Distances: 680m with 15m climb (2%), 300m across the bottom, 400m with 7m climb (1.7%) - hmm... I find it hard to believe the second climb is only 7m, as it's much steeper than the first one. But that is what MapMyRun tells me.

I managed to do the longer gradual hill all well within the big ring, except maxing it out at the very top, which is steeper. The shorter steeper hill was also all big ring, but maxed it out a bit sooner. I loved both. Never got up out of my seat either. I could do these over and over, except I had my running club's annual membership dinner to catch. I decided to do the hills one more time so that I could really say that I could do them.

Then I hammered back up what we in SOF used to call Victory Hill back up to the upper fields. This one is about 350m with 10m climb (2.8%) and a nice smooth surface. I stayed in my seat the whole time again, but I heard another cyclist coming up behind me - a roadie out of his saddle. I decided not to race him because I felt that I could win this mentally by staying seated like a gentleman. He just edged me out at the top - good for him and special needs, haha.

--Distance: 8.7km
--Elevation Gain: 73m
--Duration: ~30mins, wasn't counting

Road Surfaces:
- the flat park road is okay but has endless speed bumps, so impossible to really ride it
- the gradual hill is mostly okay, but has some very rough asphalt at the bottom
- the steep hill is totally cool
- Victory hill is smooth and nice