Today I decided to do a ride that I haven't done before. A ride to the top of Tehachapi Mountain Park on the paved road to the top of the picnic area. So, I made my way there by going through old town road, across 202, left on banducci and right on Water something street. The road was pretty much as I remembered it. If this were a race route, it would no doubt be a cat 1 climb. I was redlining it up the steep parts. It's been a while since I've seen my HR go above 170 bpm. I didn't have any real ailments except the soreness on my upper body from the previous day's strength training. I was having to muscle my part on the areas above 10%. There was one part where I just barely had enough to turn the pedals over! It was around 15%+. Luckily it was close to the top, so I just kept on motivating myself to keep going. I ended up making it to the top without stopping. I think I felt just a slight numbness in my right hand, but it went away. When I reached the top, I stopped in the picnic area to catch my breath. I almost felt like puking for a few seconds, lol! The trip down the mountain was not easy either. Just the sheer steepness and narrowness of the mountain called for breaking all the way down till the gradient let up. So, I was having to ride the breaks on a good chunk of the descent. My arms and hands were sore by the time I got out of the danger zone. The biggest blunder of the day, was that I forgot to turn the camera back on. When I reached the top I turned it off. I think I was too exhausted to think about anything else. At least this will motivate me to do the climb sometime soon!