Maui Trip - Day 5 (Part 3 of 3)

 

I took one last picture and headed towards the top for some more punishment.  The smile here is really hiding quite a lot of pain and suffering that was going on.  Up here, it was also a lot cooler, and you can see I put on my vest to try to keep a bit warmer.  Truth be told, though, I climbed about another mile or two and started to do some assessment on how I was really doing.  I had been climbing for just over four hours straight, had covered about 8200 vertical feet, and probably had another three to four miles to still go.  It doesn't seem like much, but at my current pace it would have taken about 30-45 more minutes.  That would have put me at close to 4:30-4:45 for the ascent and then I would have to deal with the full descent.

I ultimately (and wisely) decided to turn back just a bit short of the summit.  Part of me looks back at the decision and wishes I pushed through, but it's better to live to ride another day and I wanted to be a functioning part of the family for the days to come on the trip.  Truth be told, that was an absolutely punishing climb that was everything I had hoped it would be and more.  The descent was wild, as well as you just rip down this road the descends seemingly forever.  I did stop at this store about half-way down and consumed an entire bag of potato chips and a huge bottle of coke to try to get some more calories in my body.  All in all, the total ride time was 4:48 minutes with 8200 vertical and a 217 estimated TSS.  Besides the regret of not getting to the top, my other regret was not having my power meter to capture my power averages.  I am sure it would have been some of my best power output for that duration that I have put out.  I think this just means I need to come back for a 2nd attempt at some point.

After returning back to the family and taking a short nap, we were on a mission to test out Maui's legendary shave ice.  This is Ululani's Hawaiian Shave Ice in Kihei.  The line was long, so that is usually a good sign of things to come.

It was actually so long that we were getting nervous that we wouldn't make the cut before they closed for the evening, but we did in the end.  The shave ice is kind of weird.  It's like a nice soft, fine snow that is packed into a ball and then topped with tons of sugary flavors.  I will say it was quite amazing and do recommend it for anyone visiting!