Mauna Kea: reintroduction to altitude

*preparing for the assault.  And, yes, those are in fact armwarmers*

Short post here simply to relate the "fun" I had today while completing my 6x6min threshold ride.  Just like I have always wanted to ride over the Kohalas I have always wanted to ride the saddle road.  I'd been up there once before a few years ago (in a car) and knew that the road was in a horrible state but this of course was no deterent.  I crossed over the saddle two days ago and much to my suprise it's, it's... AWESOME! The State of Hawai'i is doing a major resurfacing project up there and now the saddle road, in stages, is being upgraded to be even nicer, way nicer in fact, then even the Queen K.  So of course now I just _HAD_ to ride it.  I got up there early today while the clouds had still yet to form and it was gorgeous.  Above the humidity layers I could see that crystal clear blue that greets us on so many days in Colorado.  

I rolled around for a bit to get the legs ready and I felt good despite being at 6500 feet.  I still was without my SRM so the effort was to be another round of "going by feel" (it's driving me nuts).  Six rounds of six minutes on with a minute easy.  The sign at the base of the climb says 6 miles to Onizuka Visitor Center.  That was the goal.  I mean come on... it's just six little miles.  

Rounds one, two & three go by well.  I check number four off the list, but by now I am getting hit with a double whammy.  Altitude and steep road grades.  Back home I always see the bottom fall out from my watts around the 8000-8500 mark.  Mauna Kea was no different.  The road grades?  For the entire duration of the 5.3 miles of road that I managed to end up covering the average gradient is 9.5%  The last two miles of that 5.3 miles are 14.5%.  Round five goes by.  Everything burns.  The recovery interval is spent clipped out standing.  10 seconds to go I clip in, three, two, one, GO!  I alternate between staying seated and climbing always being mindful of the effort I am giving (suuuure, riiiiight, yeah i know... I really need my watts back).  I have two base layers, a jersey and fleece armwarmers.  Five minutes go by.  At the same moment that sweat is pouring out of me like a faucet turned on high I am freezing cold.  41:00 flashes across the watch.  DONE!!!  I quickly clip out and crumble into a heap on the side of the road. GASPING for any small amount of oxygen that might be present.  Finally I muster the energy to open my eyes, stand up and look around.  I still can't see the visitor center.  The road gets steeper from this point on.  The clouds are moving in (thick fog).  The wind is picking up.  And all of sudden I am very, very, VERY cold.    

I descend down.  The chill that grips me is the chill that you feel when you have underdressed on a  20 degree morning in Texas with thick humidity and it pierces right through you.  This was no extremity cold this was my core temp going arctic.  Finally back at the car I sit on it's leeward side, spread out on the asphalt in the sun (3000 feet lower now). Trying to soak up any heat that I possibly can.  This is Hawai'i, right?

Chalk another one up on the board of life's awesome experiences.  And of course another great workout.  

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Kona Camp is quickly coming to an end.  I have one more day here and then will be departing on the red-eye back to the mainland tomorrow night.  Despite the shin splints and subsequent aqua jogging over the last few days I have been very pleased with the work completed and know that I've given myself a nice little kick start to getting rolling on the upcoming season.  Looking forward to getting faster and very excited about my ITU debut in April.  But between now and then there is a lot of hard work on the docket.  Can't wait to get home., see the mountains, breath the Rocky Mountain air and get some snowshoeing in.  Till then...

Mahalo and Aloha.