One Hilly Brick

This past weekend I had a 50/5 mile brick scheduled. After that 85 mile ride the other week I was ready to go a little shorter. But I wanted somewhere new to ride. I came up with the bright idea to park at Hinckley, ride down into the Cuyahoga Valley, and proceed north to the Brecksville Reservation of the Metroparks. Then come back. I didn't know exactly how far that would be, but if it was short I could add some loops around Hinckley. For some reason, I didn't anticipate the hills I would be riding.

They were tough. I began by riding a 3 mile loop around Hinckley Lake to warm up. Then I proceeded up the long climb that is Bellus Rd, turning onto Parker, and eventually turning onto Ledge/Everett Rd which I took all the way down to Riverview in the Valley. That was the easy part of the ride! The climb up Major Rd was tough as was a climb along Riverview north of the ski areas. The big climb up the Valley Parkway in Brecksville really hit me hard but I enjoyed coming back down from the other direction. The climb back up Everett and that huge hill on Ledge had me gasping and my eyes stinging from the sweat dripping into them. And on each and every climb, my right knee hurt. A lot! Like someone was driving a nail into the top of my kneecap every time I tried to really push with it. I was hoping that pain would go away. But it seems to not be doing that. Data for my ride can be found here.

Fortunately my knee is still fine on the run. ??? Your guess is as good as mine. I ran two loops of the all-purpose trail, one in each direction to keep things even. I felt pretty good, even on the uphills. My last mile and a half, though generally downhill, felt really good and I pushed myself to the end of the run as hard as I dared. Run data can be found here.