I hate hills........help!

You didn't say where "here" is.

I started riding as an adult in my late 40's and went through a phase of hating hills like you. But
then I saw how much they helped my riding.

I'm 58 now and live in an area where there are few flat rides, and I love it.

My cycling mentor was fond of saying, "Hills build strength. Headwinds built character. You
need both."

Mike Yankee

(Address is munged to thwart spammers. To reply, delete everything after "com".)

In article <[email hidden]>, "Scott"

@earthlink.net said:

Any advice will be appreciated. Here is the deal....... I recently moved from Atlanta where I rode
the Silver Comet trail. Not alot of hills. Now there are nothing but dang hills. It has really
taken the enjoyment out of riding for me. What used to great day of riding 4-6 hours is now 45
minutes of "lord please help me make it up this hill, and the next one too". On the flat trail I
could pace myself and make a day of it. With the hills it is blow up and recover. Note..I am not
attacking either, trying to pace. Repeated blow up and recover is killing me. Just not fun
anymore. Thanks for the advice, Scott FYI- 33yo, 190 lbs

Maybe this might inspire ya: chainreaction.comhills.htmOpen ↗

cheers, Tom

--
-- Powered by FreeBSD Above address is just a spam midden. I'm really at: tkeats [curlicue] vcn
[point] bc [point] ca

Quoted message said:

Any advice will be appreciated. Here is the deal....... I recently moved from Atlanta where I rode
the Silver Comet trail. Not alot of hills. Now there are nothing but dang hills. It has really
taken the enjoyment out of riding for me.

Several things. Make sure you have gears that are low enough, and use them. Where are you? What sort
of gears do you have?

Another thing is to learn to take the hills as a challenge, rather than a PITA.

--

David L. Johnson

__o | A mathematician is a machine for turning coffee into theorems. _`\(,_ | -- Paul Erdos
(_)/ (_) |

x-no-archive:yes

Quoted message said:

I started riding as an adult in my late 40's and went through a phase of

hating

Quoted message said:

hills like you. But then I saw how much they helped my riding.

I'm 58 now and live in an area where there are few flat rides, and I love

it.

Quoted message said:

My cycling mentor was fond of saying, "Hills build strength. Headwinds

built

Quoted message said:

character. You need both."

Mike Yankee

one of my mentors used to say (well, still does, come to think of it) "Pain is weakness leaving
your body."

Pat in Texas

"Scott" <@earthlink.net> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Any advice will be appreciated. Here is the deal....... I recently moved from Atlanta where I rode
the Silver Comet trail. Not

alot

Quoted message said:

of hills. Now there are nothing but dang hills. It has really taken the enjoyment

out

Quoted message said:

of riding for me. What used to great day of riding 4-6 hours is now 45 minutes of "lord
please help me make it up this hill, and the next one too". On the flat trail I could pace
myself and make a day of it. With the hills it is blow up and recover. Note..I am not
attacking either, trying

to

Quoted message said:

pace. Repeated blow up and recover is killing me. Just not fun anymore. Thanks for the advice,
Scott FYI- 33yo, 190 lbs

"It doesn't get any easier, you just go faster." - Greg LeMond

Pete

(MikeYankee) said:

My cycling mentor was fond of saying, "Hills build strength. Headwinds built character. You
need both."

Amazingly enough, several good (as in Tour de France mountain stage and even overall winners) racers
have come from the Netherlands, where the biggest mountain in the land rises less than a full 1000
feet above sea level (admittedly, much of it is 10-20 feet below the sea, so that add's a little to
the heightmeters).

Jasper

In article <[email hidden]>, "Scott"
<@earthlink.net> says...

Quoted message said:

Any advice will be appreciated. Here is the deal....... I recently moved from Atlanta where I rode
the Silver Comet trail. Not alot of hills. Now there are nothing but dang hills. It has really
taken the enjoyment out of riding for me. What used to great day of riding 4-6 hours is now 45
minutes of "lord please help me make it up this hill, and the next one too". On the flat trail I
could pace myself and make a day of it. With the hills it is blow up and recover. Note..I am not
attacking either, trying to pace. Repeated blow up and recover is killing me. Just not fun
anymore. Thanks for the advice,

Get some lower gears so you can sit down and spin easily up the hill. You'll probably find yourself
increasing your speed up the hills relatively quickly as you get used to them.

--
David Kerber An optimist says "Good morning, Lord." While a pessimist says "Good Lord,
it's morning".

Remove the ns_ from the address before e-mailing.

"Scott" <@earthlink.net> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I recently moved from Atlanta where I rode the Silver Comet trail. Not

alot

Quoted message said:

of hills. Now there are nothing but dang hills. It has really taken the

enjoyment out

Quoted message said:

of riding for me.<snip> Scott

Hello Scott -

Our esteemed colleagues' responses to your question so far have included excellent advice, but in my
humble opinion have missed one imporant point: Do not start with hills so steep and long (for your
current fitness level) that you come to think of bicycling as not being fun. That is a good way to
end up as an ex-cyclist.

Start with smaller hills.

I find that if I ride the same, small hill(s) frequently, it starts getting much easier and more fun
after a few weeks, and I then start wanting to tackle a tougher hills.

It also helps to smile while you're climbing. Of course, you have to be a behavioralist to
believe in that.

Finally, if you can find a riding partner, that will help a lot. If you are chatting (between huffs
and puffs) while climbing, it is amazing how much less you will think about the discomfort, and how
smaller a given hill seems.

Good luck.

x-no-archive:yes

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

My cycling mentor was fond of saying, "Hills build strength. Headwinds

built

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

character. You need both."

Quoted message said:

Amazingly enough, several good (as in Tour de France mountain stage and even overall winners)
racers have come from the Netherlands, where the biggest mountain in the land rises less than a
full 1000 feet above sea level (admittedly, much of it is 10-20 feet below the sea, so that add's
a little to the heightmeters).

Jasper

Just because they come from the Netherlands doesn't mean they train there. Texas has had some
excellent skiers and I doubt any of them train in Dallas.

Pat

Scott said:

Now there are nothing but dang hills. It has really taken the enjoyment out of riding for me. What
used to great day of riding 4-6 hours is now 45 minutes of "lord please help me make it up this
hill, and the next one too".

This worked for me, maybe it will for you:

When I started back riding two years ago, I was terrible on the hills. I would get passed by
virtually everyone. Having a rather stubborn disposition, my reaction was to ride as many of the
steepest and longest hills as I could, as often as possible. Now, I almost never get passed on the
hills, and climbing is a real pleasure. I'm doing about 25,000-30,000 feet of climbing per week.
--
terry morse Palo Alto, CA terrymorse.combikeOpen ↗

Quoted message said:

Now there are nothing but dang hills. It has really taken the enjoyment out of riding for me. What
used to great day of riding 4-6 hours is now 45 minutes of "lord please help me make it up this
hill, and the next one

Ah but the thrill of going down the hill that was torturous to go up makes it worth it doesn't it?

Try a lower gear? Also with practice the same hill does get easier. Where you might have to stop and
rest partway up now in a few weeks you'll be wondering why you found it hard.

Tanya

I recently moved from Illinois to Arkansas, so I know some of the pain you're feeling. Things that
have helped me:

Intervals to build strength. Climbing only some of the hill (my route allows me to turn around
without climbing the whole hill.) Sitting at the rear of the saddle. Patience.

The hills that gave me the most trouble had more than 200ft of vertical gain in 1/2 mile. It's still
painful getting to the top, but now I don't have to stop.

"Scott" <@earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Any advice will be appreciated. Here is the deal....... I recently moved from Atlanta where I rode
the Silver Comet trail. Not alot of hills. Now there are nothing but dang hills. It has really
taken the enjoyment out of riding for me. What used to great day of riding 4-6 hours is now 45
minutes of "lord please help me make it up this hill, and the next one too". On the flat trail I
could pace myself and make a day of it. With the hills it is blow up and recover. Note..I am not
attacking either, trying to pace. Repeated blow up and recover is killing me. Just not fun
anymore. Thanks for the advice, Scott FYI- 33yo, 190 lbs

Ride up very slowly; in fact find the steepest hill you can and ride up it as slowly as you can,
making it a balancing challenge.

You will find that when you get to the top that you're not tired at all. It may take a while, is
all. That's physics for you.

Having proved that there is a too-slow speed and you're not bothered at all by it, obviously it's a
matter of refining your pacing skills for hills. Go faster but not a lot faster until you get good
at estimating how hard you ought to be working on hills. The visual cues are different; I myself go
on breathing but my legs never tire so I can ignore them.
--
Ron Hardin [email hidden]

On the internet, nobody knows you're a jerk.

Pat <[email hidden]> wrote:
: one of my mentors used to say (well, still does, come to think of it) "Pain is weakness leaving
: your body."

yea, i saw that in a Nike ad.

good christ. pain is usually my body's (or mind's) way of telling me i'm doing something
seriously wrong.

climbing doesn't hurt .. it burns.

i also like to redefine terms a lot.
--
david reuteler [email hidden]

In article <[email hidden]>, [email hidden] says...

...

Quoted message said:

cues are different; I myself go on breathing but my legs never tire so I can ignore them.

You're lucky; my breathing can handle everything my legs need and more, so it's my legs which give
out first. I know, I know: ride more! I'm trying, but it's tough to fit into the schedule. I'm
working on figuring out good routes to rack-and-ride to work, but it's not all organized yet; that
should help a lot.

--
David Kerber An optimist says "Good morning, Lord." While a pessimist says "Good Lord,
it's morning".

Remove the ns_ from the address before e-mailing.

"archer" <ns_archer1960@ns_hotmail.com> wrote in message "]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

You're lucky; my breathing can handle everything my legs need and more, so it's my legs which give
out first. I know, I know: ride more! I'm trying, but it's tough to fit into the schedule. I'm
working on figuring out good routes to rack-and-ride to work, but it's not all organized yet; that
should help a lot.

Actually, that kind of fitness builds more quickly, even though it might hurt more. It's the cardio
deficits that take a long time to overcome. If you have a good cardio base, gaining strength for
hills should only take a few weeks, at least to get to where you're comfortable.

Matt O.

Quoted message said:

Ride up very slowly; in fact find the steepest hill you can and ride

up it as slowly as you can, making it a balancing challenge.

Good advice if one has low enough gearing. If the gear is too big, or the saddle height too low,
this could be a recipe for knee problems (especially for a rider not accustomed to hills).

Mike Yankee

(Address is munged to thwart spammers. To reply, delete everything after "com".)

In article <[email hidden]>, [email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

"archer" <ns_archer1960@ns_hotmail.com> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

You're lucky; my breathing can handle everything my legs need and more, so it's my legs which
give out first. I know, I know: ride more! I'm trying, but it's tough to fit into the schedule.
I'm working on figuring out good routes to rack-and-ride to work, but it's not all organized
yet; that should help a lot.

Actually, that kind of fitness builds more quickly, even though it might hurt more. It's the
cardio deficits that take a long time to overcome. If you have a good cardio base, gaining
strength for hills should only take a few weeks, at least to get to where you're comfortable.

For normal, everyday riding, I'm in good enough shape for the hills I meet. It's when I try to push
hard on my normal exercise ride or push a decent time for a 15k TT on my old Schwinn LeTank that my
legs start complaining, even though my lungs and heart say "we can go at least a _little_ faster". I
did my first one last Monday (it's part of a summer- long series), and came up with a 29:04. Better
than I expected, but still not where I'd like to be.

--
David Kerber An optimist says "Good morning, Lord." While a pessimist says "Good Lord,
it's morning".

Remove the ns_ from the address before e-mailing.

x-no-archive:yes

Quoted message said:

: one of my mentors used to say (well, still does, come to think of it)

"Pain

Quoted message said:

: is weakness leaving your body."

Pat

Quoted message said:

yea, i saw that in a Nike ad.

good christ. pain is usually my body's (or mind's) way of telling me i'm doing something
seriously wrong.

climbing doesn't hurt .. it burns.

i also like to redefine terms a lot.
--
david reuteler

Funny, the guy who told me that several years ago is a Marine....

Now Nike's stealing from the Marines!

Climbing is making your muscles extend themselves--microscopic tears in the muscle tissue occur, but
the tears heal and make the muscles stronger. So, in a weird way, it's good for you!

Pat in Texas