Three teeth.

A while has gone by since the Fixed Gears and DOMS post. That initial ride was a rude muscle awakening, but adaptation was pretty quick and it somehow turned to obsession. I love my hour-long commute. Each way presents fun fixed gear challenges.

The way to work starts with challenge one: a 1/4 mile descent right outside my door. Nothing like spinning like mad only two minutes into a ride at 6:30 am. I try to make it all the way to the very bottom and then keep a good cadence along the flat section for another minute or so. I try.

After that pleasant warm up, I wind my way through downtown Portland and among the city's huge bike commuter population. The crowd thins quickly, though, as I keep riding south of town and hit challenge number two: slightly uphill time trial. 4 1/2 minutes. The last 90 seconds are absurd, I'm all over the bike, trying to keep my cadence up. I start making excuses why I should cut the effort short. Where is that stupid marker already?

Barely able to catch my breath, I slowly roll through two stop lights to challenge three: short uphill with false flat. I haven't timed it yet, but it's longer than it should be. I'm going fine up the hill and then the false flat is there and I'm ok for a bit and then it's only three more blocks and I can't seem to hold it and I'm almost there and I'm done. Done sometimes means I made it all the way to the light. Sometimes it just means I'm done. With 20 meters to go.

Oh, well. time for challenge four: another 1/4 mile downhill, maybe a little shorter. The key to the downhill is the transition at the bottom. Try to keep a high cadence all the way down and over the bridge at the bottom until the trees on the other side. Watch out for groggy, impatient morning drivers turning into the convenience market near the bottom when I'm at full speed and my legs are a little tired for sudden stops.

Just two more challenges to go and the hour is over!

Challenge four goes directly into challenge five: three minutes of steady uphill. That's really what makes challenge four a challenge - keeping enough in reserve that I can recover at a good pace and slowly ramp it up on challenge five's long uphill. I can fully recover when I hit the 6-mile sign at the top. The fast food taco place means I'm halfway there. The transit station means I have to dig for that final minute. Ahhh. Roll slowly to the stoplight and recover.

Challenge six: one mile or so of very fast descending all the way to the office, with a few stoplights to keep it interesting. It's actually a blessing if I have at least one stop light as an excuse to slow down for a brief moment. I give up one final cadence burst as the downhill ends and smile if I make it to the sign.

That's it! Easy roll for a few blocks to the office.

Now do it all in reverse and you have the commute home! I usually take the way home pretty easy if I went hard in the morning. Not if I'm in a rush to make it home for my six-month-old daughter's bath time, though. Then it's a fun time trial effort starting with a one-mile climb. Did I mention this all happens with a laptop in my backpack?

So why is this entry called three teeth? (If you're still reading.) Because up to this point I've been able to do the workout better and better each week. Last week I switched out my 39-tooth chainring for a 42. My rear cog is a 17. I had no idea how much harder those three teeth would be to turn over on all of the uphill challenges. I admit - I've cratered on a few efforts since the 42 came aboard. It will be an interesting experiment to see how long it takes me to build up to it. I have nothing to hide - I'll let you know if I make it!