Heart Attack and Vine

Saturday morning, with a little extra time to spare, I rolled out for a training ride. I already knew that I would not be able to cover the 90 miles my self-made training plan called for. I hoped I’d be able to knock out a good portion of it and cover the rest on Sunday. It’s not ideal training but, given the time available, it was the best I could do.

I headed toward the west and began thinking about a hill I’d been saving for just the right day — you know, when I’m feeling strong and the conditions are perfect for safe travels. Was today the day?

Although I wasn’t feeling particularly strong, I figured that traffic would be lighter as it was still early in the day. So, I went for it.  Along the way, I took in the beautiful redwoods thinking how awesome it is that they are so close to home (relatively speaking). It was a bit cool out and I’d opted not to got back home for my forgotten my arm warmers. The shelter of the trees made for an even chillier ride to the feared hill.

By the time I reached the hill, I welcomed it’s sunny ascent. Dropping into my low chainring, I peddled my little heart out and, before I knew it, I was coming down the other side. I celebrated the triumph and was on to the next hill.

This 2nd hill or the day, I thought I knew…but I was wrong. Having only ridden it from the other direction, everything looked the same but different. There was a vineyard I’d not seen before. This was probably because going the other direction requires my full attention to the road, coupled with a death grip on my handlebars.

Well, as you might imagine, any hill that makes the cyclist fly down in record time must have quite the opposite effect going the other direction. Within minutes, I was beyond huffing and puffing. I was gasping for air and my heart was beating fiercely.  In fact, at one point, my heart was beating so fiercely that it actually hurt…so I stopped ON the steepest part of the hill. Although I was pretty certain that I wasn’t experiencing a heart attack, the title to one of my favorite Tom Waits songs, “Heart Attack & Vine” immediately came to mind.

After I caught my breath, I ran through a quick assessment. My heart felt perfectly fine and my heart rate had recovered nicely. I was ready to roll again.

There was only one problem… starting out on a hill this steep is not an easy feat. I played around with trying to click into my pedals while rolling downhill for the width of two driveways before making a sharp u-turn up the hill. It sounded easy but it wasn’t. I had to time it just so to avoid being in the roadway when rapidly approaching cars arrived. It took some time but I finally got rolling again. And when I did, I was happy to discover that the worst was over.

Every hill after that, was a piece of cake.