Before today I had not yet made it to the top of Mt. Baldy “the hard way.”   From bottom to top it is 13 miles and averages 7.4%, ending with a half mile of 15% incline at the top.  Click here for a description of the climb with pictures.

I tried it twice before but did not feel strong enough to make it to the top.  It was weighing on my mind and today I was determined to get that monkey off of my back.  Plus, Jonathan had already done it twice and I couldn’t let him have that over me any longer!  🙂

Although we both had sore legs, we (translation: me) wanted to climb Baldy today, then finish with one of our favorite climbs, Glendora Mountain Road. Despite significant heat, we did it!  Below is a picture of me finishing at 15% (I even added an arrow for the sign that shows the gradient), and a second one of Jonathan and me at the top.  I’ve never been happier to see the top of a climb!  It was pretty brutal.  Jonathan is still working on videos of our descent and our ride back on Glendora Mountain Road, so I’ll post those later.

Because apparently the Mt. Baldy climb wasn’t enough, we climbed back on Glendora Mountain Road and once we reached the bottom we had the pleasure of riding 12 more miles mostly uphill to the car.  On the day, we climbed a total of 6608 feet in about 4 and a half hours and felt good doing it (or as good as you can feel after climbing that much in the heat!).

We agreed that we are finally feeling really confident doing these types of rides while on a ketogenic diet.  Neither of us ate much at all on the bike today but had plenty of energy, and our muscles are recovering very quickly after each tough ride.  We  are committed to maintaining this way of eating, even in France – home of irresistible baked goods!  However, we may have a trick or two up our sleeves to try and have the best of both worlds for a few days…stay tuned for our upcoming experiments with ketone esters!

My stats are below, and after an early morning and long day of riding I am ready for bed!