Road Work Ahead

When I lived in Boston, autumn meant easy rides and enjoying being at peak fitness. But in Pittsburgh, it’s just the opposite.

Before the move, my entire season was structured to put me in peak form for early August and the Pan-Mass Challenge. Once that was over, I had three months or more to enjoy riding for pleasure, rather than for performance, before the weather put an end to my season. Sure, there’d probably be a fall century or two, but nothing I needed to train for, since I was already at peak form. Autumn rides in New England were part of the payback for all the painful spring and summer training.

The calendar is a little different here in Pittsburgh. Instead of having most of August free, I had two centuries and three very hilly metrics, right through Labor Day. So I couldn’t think about taking it easy until after the end of August.

From Labor Day onward, the calendar is mostly open for the rest of the year. I’ve got a very flat (and mostly crushed limestone) metric century 3-2-1 charity ride in the middle of October, but that’ll be a cakewalk.

But there is one major event left on Pittsburgh’s annual cycling calendar, and it’s hard enough to destroy any notion of taking it easy: the Dirty Dozen.

For over thirty years cycling legend Danny Chew (who was recently paralyzed) has run the Dirty Dozen ride, where two or three hundred cyclists tackle thirteen of the steepest streets in this extremely hilly town. It’s Pittsburgh’s most legendary, mythical, signature cycling event.

How can I communicate how ridiculously steep these hills are? In Boston, if people want a workout, they might climb Park Ave hill up to the town’s water tower. Park Ave has a slope of 6 percent. None of the Dirty Dozen hills are less than 20 percent—several surpass 30 percent—and Canton Ave tops out at 37 percent, steeper than any other public street in the world. Steeper than anything you have ever seen in San Francisco, Los Angeles, or the Alps. Much steeper than anything professional cyclists tackle.

Imagine trying to ride up a ramp that’s steeper than a staircase. You might think that’s an overstatement, but the sidewalks along Dirty Dozen streets—when there are any—are in the form of stairs, as you can see here or here.

Needless to say, average riders—even proficient roadies—don’t undertake the Dirty Dozen without some very serious hill training. The ludicrous harshness of each hill, combined with trying to cajole your legs into doing no less than thirteen of them back-to-back, demand preparation via a very focused period of incredibly intense training.

For that reason, there’s a seven-week series of group training rides that run through all of October and most of November. They begin by tackling three hills per ride, then graduate to six, and culminate with a full practice run of all thirteen, two weeks before the race, which is held on the Saturday following Thanksgiving.

This year’s first training ride (GPS log) was held yesterday. It was wet and rainy, which provided a test of tire traction that two riders of our fourteen failed spectacularly. The biggest lesson I learned is that I need to replace the cleats on my winter shoes. No harm done.

The group ride covered the first three hills (Center/Guyasuta, Ravine, and Berryhill), and the fourth hill (High/Seavey) was optional. After finishing those, I went and added the 13th hill (Flowers/Kilbourne/Tesla), since it’s on my way home. It was my first time doing five DD hills in one ride, and I definitely felt it.

Over the past couple weeks, I’ve ridden eleven of the thirteen hills, for a total of 20 ascents. I haven’t gotten around to #9 Canton and #10 Boustead, since they’re very hard to get to. And there are two (#5 Logan and #7 Suffolk) that I haven’t completed without stopping, so I’m going to have to work up to those. And that’s gonna be a full-time job for the next eight weeks.

So unlike years past in Boston, there’s no easy wind-down of the cycling year in Pittsburgh; at least not if you’re going to ride the Dirty Dozen. And because they’re so intense and require recovery time afterward, intense hill repeats don’t combine well with the kind of long-distance rides I usually prefer. That means my lengthy endurance rides are over for this year; instead I’m embarking on a very steep and painful build-up to what will undoubtedly be the hardest and most challenging ride of my life.

WQED did a half-hour story during the 2010 Dirty Dozen ride. If you’re curious to learn more about the riders and the hills and the overall spectacle, it’s a pretty digestible nugget. You can find that here.