YOU WANT TO KNOW WHAT STEEP IS????

Today I felt like one of these guys:



There are times when it's better to just say what you did today. Here's what I did today (told largely in the present tense):

• Wake up. 
• Eat breakfast, complete with three visits to Jura the Benevolent. 
• Get my marching orders from Tad: today I shall go with Josh, the Williams Wrench, to some crazy road high high up in the mountains. I shall then climb that mountain road as hard as I possibly can, with a videographer/data analysis guy observing my every move/heart beat/pedal stroke/watt. 
• Digest (both food and information). 
• Apply lotion to the heinous sunburn I received yesterday while constructing my new TT bike. 
• Pack belongings, including my freshly build TT bike, into Josh's rental mini-van. Why is Josh driving around a rental mini-van instead of the sweet Williams VW station wagon? It's a long story -- don't ask. 
• Drive two hours to the airport to pick up Nate from Data Driven Athlete.
• Drive to the tippy-top of Mt. Baldy Ski Area, the finish of stage 7 of the Amgen Tour of California.
• Shit my pants when I see how steep it is. They want me to ride up this? On my bike? 
• Drive back to Mt. Baldy Village, where I strapped on my Garmin Edge 800, and a GoPro Camera. 
• FRIGGIN' BLOW SOME SERIOUS GASKETS CLIMBING THAT SHIT!!!! 
• Numbers as follows: distance: 4.00 miles. Elevation gained ~2000 feet. Average elevation: ~5,200 feet. Time: 22.50 minutes. Average Wattage: 425. Average amount of pain: lots. 
• Submit to short interview with an HD-video-camera-wielding Nate. 
• Change clothes, then drive back to the airport to drop off Nate (that's how he rolls folks). 
• Drive to Eddie's house, our wonderful home stay from San Dimas, and unpack my stuff. 
• Get kitted up again, and ride freshly built TT bike with Eddie over to the Rose Bowl. 
• Spin around the Rose Bowl. Tweak TT bike. Imagine Redlands prologue.  
• Shower! Feel like new man!
• Apply more lotion to heinous sunburn. 
• Eat delicious Mexican food with my hosts -- those were some amazing tacos!
• Drink delicious beer. 
• Blog delicious blog. 

Keep your eyes peeled for the video -- coming to a youtube near you.