Mt. Baldy is considered one of the hardest--if not the hardest--climb in all of Southern California. Although it doesn't have the 21 switchbacks, it's nearly a match for L'Alpe d'Huez. Mt. Baldy is a 12.6 mile, 4,600 foot, 7% average grade climb. The Mt. Baldy climb is actually longer and the final three miles are steeper than d'Huez. You can find more info about Mt. Baldy and check out its profile of pain here.

This was my second attempt at a planned 120 miles, starting with 70 miles of relatively flat (about 3,000ft of ascent) terrain and finishing with two consecutive 4,600ft climbs up Mt. Baldy.

The first attempt went poorly. I screwed up a lot of things in both planning and execution. I'd hoped for redemption on the second try.

I didn't get it.

Although I improved in a lot of areas, I still had two significant issues that eventually did me in.

First, I'd likely not yet fully recovered from an aggressive, 4 1/2 hour climbing session I'd done three days earlier (Wednesday). I thought the buffer would be enough but I think I was still feeling it. In contrast, when I do the actually stage I will go through a 10-day taper cycling to ensure I am fully rested.

The second and real culprit, though, was the heat. I started a little late, at about 7:30am. This isn't crazy late, but given that I had to put in five hours of riding before I even got to Mt. Baldy, it put me on the climb during the hottest time of the day. I knew it was going to be a hot one early on; passing the information sign at Sierra Madre High School at 9:16am I saw that it was already 75 degrees. The temperature when I hit Mt. Baldy was 103 degrees.

I only lasted an hour in that heat before my body simply shut down. There are some conditions where it is incredibly difficult to push the body without serious consequences, and that's one of them.

I won't have another attempt at a full stage simulation before I leave for Europe. I do, however, still have a few serious climbing Saturdays left. I'm going to switch those from Little Tujunga Canyon to Mt. Baldy. I'm going to keep throwing myself at this mountain until I beat it. Watch the News section for my progress.