Whistler Hill Climb

Kris Freeman It’s been a couple of days since the bounding session on the WOP red course, and today was the hill-climb time trial that Amy uses with the CVTC team. The last couple of days were pretty low-key. It’s worth putting that last comment in context though. I went on Tuesday’s recovery run - three hours, From Diamond Head parking lot up past Elfin Lakes to the Gargoyles and back the same way. It was the hardest session I’ve been on this year by far. My average HR was 148 and I was pleased to keep up. Kris averaged 104. It’s all a matter of perspective - recovery or epic.

Today’s effort on the hill climb test was quite good. The course is 3.7K with 500 meters of climbing at quite a steady grade - no downhills or flats at all. By comparison Sunapee is 3.45K with 470 meters of climbing, but it starts flatter and actually has a bit of a downhill section in the middle before a very steep second half. Kris ran a 21:17 today. As a benchmark it’s not terribly useful. It’s tempting to look at the 13.5% grade of the two hillclimbs and just do the math. By that standard Kris would have run under 20 minutes on Sunapee. However, it’s pretty clear that such a direct comparison is not accurate. All it tells us is that today’s time is good.

Tomorrow will be very easy - just a two hour classic ski. Saturday is the final intensity session of the camp - a 30K pursuit on roller skis on Alta Lake Road. That means one more report from the July Whistler Intensity Camp. I’ll try to make it a good one…

Whistler Hill Climb

Kris Freeman

Mon, Jul 28, 2008 - By Zach Caldwell