When I Was A Kid We Walked Two Miles Uphill In The Snow To School- And We LIKED It!... and other optical illusions.

Today I did my first hill climbing session riding with the L.A. TriChicks, a subgroup of the L.A. Triathlon Club. Speaking of "what's in a name?", the choice of TriChicks as a name apparently caused a bit of a fuss with some of the female members. Puhleeze!!! If someone wants to call me a chick at this age, I should thank them! I'm at that point in my life now where I really don't get too worked up over something like that and feel that those who do are a little too uptight PC. But I digress.
The route (or root as some of us like to say) took us from Temescal Cyn up PCH to Latigo Cyn in Malibu. From there we rode to Kanan-Dume to Mulhulland, to Old Topanga Cyn Road to Topanga Cyn (proper) to PCH and back to Temescal for a total of 54 miles.
There are some very strong women riders in this group so I didn't know how I'd fair, not to mention that I'm of the Older TriChick variety (hen?). The ride started and I found myself keeping pace with the middle-to-front of the pack of riders. Since I was the rookie and anticipated being in the back of the pack, I attributed this to the jitters of having to ride Santa Monica to Malibu on PCH- a ride I swore I'd never do because of the narrow to non-existent shoulder of road and the crazy, "driving-too-fast while talking on my cell phone or looking at the ocean" drivers. A recipe for death.
As we rolled along PCH and came to our first very short but steep climb, many women passed me. Not a good sign. The nerves started humming. Before starting the first significant climb up Latigo Cyn (a 9 mile hill), most of us stopped to remove jackets and fuel up. The more experienced riders continued up without stopping.
I adjusted my mental attitude with a false, "I LOVE hills" mantra and started up in the back of the pack. To shorten this rambling story, as I rode up I realized that I was passing quite a few women.
I've discovered over the years that when climbing a hill, whether walking, running or biking, I settle into a rhythm and maintain that pace no matter how steep. My mind flashed back to all those years at Sierra Vista Jr. High when I'd stay late for after-school events (sports, cheerleading, drama) and would walk home up Camp Plenty versus waiting the extra hour for the "late" bus. Whites Canyon to Plum wasn't even a thought much less a road at that time. This "hike" would continue at Canyon High because we lived too close to school for a bus to be provided. It always required that mile long walk up steep Camp Plenty! And in the spirit of honesty it wasn't snow but more like 200 degrees heat. Okay, maybe that is an exaggeration, but it felt like 200 degrees.
As I've advanced my endurance sports I've looked back at that time as the beginning training ground for how to mentally and physically attack a challenge. Yes, true, some of our German/Bavarian(?) genetics may help but still, that stinking hill was always a consistent unavoidable challenge!
Imagine my surprise when I got to the top of the Latigo to discover I was definitely restored to the front of the pack and had passed many of the women who were strong enough to continue up without stopping at the bottom. My confidence bloomed... until we hit the flats and I had to work hard to keep up...until the next hill!
So Camp Plenty Road and 12 lbs of books and a hundred plus degree heat, I salute you!