Hill Climb Time Trial

I lucked out with the weather today as the temperature hit a balmy 46 degrees and I was able to get out of the garage with my road bike and attempt my first-monthly hill climb time trial on Snoqualmie Parkway. The plan was to do 3 consecutive laps from Douglas Rd down the Snoq. Pkwy to the U-turn right before the railroad tracks at the bottom of the hill. Each lap was 4.3 miles and roughly 480 feet of climbing. The way the road runs is that it's about 95% downhill from Douglas to the U-turn, then all the way back up. It's not rolling by any means. One direction is all down, the other all up. Perfect for this sort of test.

Lap 1 - 15:15
Lap 2 - 15:31
Lap 3 - 15:41

Total Time: 46:27
Total Dist: 12.9 miles
Total Elev Gain: 1460 feet

Everything went really well with this time trial. I never had to slow for cars, as I happened to hit the road during a lull in the daily traffic. Thanks to this, there was no slowing or stopping for the entire 46:27 I was out on the course. I wanted to try and group each lap's time within 10-15 seconds of the lap before it and I more or less did. I knew there would be some slow-down (after all, it was 1460 feet of climbing in under 13 miles) but I really wanted to see the second lap come in a little faster. Believe it or not, I think what actually slowed me down a bit was that the wind picked up as the ride went on. Usually, I can just about coast down the hill at 40 mph, but today thanks to a headwind I was pedaling hard and barely topping 35 mph. That definitely had an impact on the times. Nevertheless, it was good to set a benchmark for future time trials.