Today was a milestone for me!!!

[LoriO]

I DID IT!!!!!!!!!! I decided to make myself try and bike up one of the roads that I've been avoiding due to the fact it is almost all uphill (about 2.5 miles) and I did it!!! I had to stop a couple of times and was down to my last granny gear, but the feeling of accomlishment that I had when I made it to the top was incredible. A few months ago I would never have even made it up half way.

I am just so excited I had to share it with someone and I knew you all would understand how I feel. Now my new goal is make it up those darn hills without having to stop at all!

[redrhodie]

Congratulations!!!! Great job! It will get easier now that you know you can do it.

[Torrilin]

Yay!

It feels so good to get up a hill without stopping. This is probably why I keep throwing myself at my nemesis hill and going splat part way up. (I've gotten to within 50 feet of the second cross street tho... making progress)

[aly]

What a great way to start your weekend! Congrats!!

[Sheesh]

Congratulations!

[northstar]

Hey, way to go!

[Starfish]

Thanks for letting us know! Nothing like that feeling of accomplishment! You did it! :D

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Wow, I know that feeling all too well! Congratulations on a job well done!!! :p :p

Hills are my friend.

(I keep telling myself that and one day I will hopefully really believe it) :D :cool:

[RoadRaven]

That's awesome Lori!
I have only been cycling for 3 years and well remember the first time I conquered a hill that had been troubling me.

I went from stoppping and walking, to stopping a couple of times but resting, not walking... and then the day that will be there for you probably sooner than you realise... getting up that thing without stops.

Congrats.
Even though you stopped, you rode every bit of it. And that, for me , was a huge psychological hurdle (not just physical).
I didn't walk it. I rode it.
And thats what you have done. Ridden every inch, every centimetre.
Well done you!

[LoriO]

Thanks everyone!!! I'm still on cloud 9 that I made it all the up that road. I do a lot of hills becuase nothing in my area is flat at all but this is the first time I have got up the nerve to tackle that much hill.

[twiggjlm]

That is amazing!! Congrats! I did that last summer on a hill by my parents house. It was one of those hills you drive down in your car really fast and your stomach does flips. Yeah, well after riding my bike up that darn hill without stopping, my stomach did something else!! Barf...everywhere....guess I over did it! :o Not to menetion I thought my legs would never me the same! Haven't had the you-know-whats to do it since! Thinking maybe I should try it again!! :rolleyes:

yeah for you!!

[anaphase]

Congratulations! That is a big accomplishment, both physically and mentally.

[lph]

Heeey - cool :)

[rij73]

Good job! I have major hill paranoia, so I can imagine how you feel!

[Popoki_Nui]

Well done! :) I'm allergic to hills myself....

[LoriO]

Well done! :) I'm allergic to hills myself....

LOL, don't ever move to Connecticut then!!!! One thing I never noticed until I bought my bike was that I love on top of a fairly large hill. No matter which way I ride I have a hill to climb up to get home! The worst one is the mile long grade up one road to my house. It isn't steep but just enough of a climb for a full mile that it kicks your a$$. After the hills I did the other day, it looks like an anthill now. WHOO HOOO!!

[SouthernBelle]

One thing I never noticed until I bought my bike was that I love on top of a fairly large hill.

This is the funniest typo in a while. :D

I've noticed as time goes on that hills that I avoided are not even noticed now. Unfortunately not all of them.

[pgsmart]

I am not a big fan of hills, either. I live where it is flat with no good hills to train on. I plan on riding in the Livestrong Challenge in Austin again this year but I really want to do the 60 mile rather than the 40 mile. I hear the hills are a little bit worse on the 60 mile. Any suggestions on a good way to train for the ride on Oct. 14? I've been going to the gym and trying to work out on the cross-trainer, weight machines, etc. and am riding my bike of course. I would appreciate any input.

[Kano]

People say wind counts as hill training, so I guess you could ride into the wind -- it always feels SO good to turn around and go the other way!

'Belle -- Me too! It's not the ones I avoided that I don't notice anymore, but the ones that I used to think were monsters are either manageable, or almost not there and I can go happily charging up them!

Karen in Boise

[sundial]

Woot woot!! Yippeeeeee!!!! I'm very proud of you for doing a really steep hill. :D :D

[LoriO]

I am not a big fan of hills, either. I live where it is flat with no good hills to train on. I plan on riding in the Livestrong Challenge in Austin again this year but I really want to do the 60 mile rather than the 40 mile. I hear the hills are a little bit worse on the 60 mile. Any suggestions on a good way to train for the ride on Oct. 14? I've been going to the gym and trying to work out on the cross-trainer, weight machines, etc. and am riding my bike of course. I would appreciate any input.



Put your bike on the trainer and ride. Do intervals of lower gears and higher gears. I would do about a minute at a really tough gear and then back it down to an easier gear for a few minutes and then another minute at a tougher gear again, basically simulating the harder work you will doing going up a hill.

I was doing that while rehabbing from my knee surgery and when I got back on the road again I was really surprised about just how ready I was to do a lot of the hills in my area.

[alpinerabbit]

Yay Berlin Girl!

Hills. The common enemy of the cyclist.

You will get there.

[teawoman]

Woohoo! I don't think I've even seen a 2.5 mile hill...:eek:

[Kano]

Hills can be sneaky, Teawoman!

Sometimes, they don't look like a hill, and sometimes, the land around you makes you think you should be going down, but your legs know you're working too hard for that...

And yes, they can be long and keep on going, and going, and going, and going... When I find one of those, I sure celebrate at the top when I surprise myself by keeping going on them!

The most evil hills are the ones like when I ride my bike to work: I go up, then it's flat, then I go up, then it's flat, then I go up, then it's flat, then you go up and it's flat -- no reward! It's about a seven mile ride -- they call 'em benches here.

Karen in Boise

[wiseowl]

I totally know the feeling! CONGRATS! I always think it is funny when some hill I have been dreading turns out...not so bad. Or that hill I expected to be cake...kicked my butt. But mostly, they look big and are big! Yay for you!

[robinmary]

Wow Lori thats fantastic!:)

[Starfish]

Hills. The common enemy of the cyclist.

Aaaahhh...or the common friend, Grasshopper! :p ;) :D

[RoseC]

Eek...2.5 miles is quite a hill! Way to go, LoriO!

[MaineMaid]

Congrats! There is a road near here which is great to ride on. However it has, when driving;) ;) , an ever so slight incline. There is a meat market half way up this..um incline. I have driven this road for 25 years, noting in passing the "incline".
When I challenged myself to do the Trek Across Maine this July, the road was recommended as a great training ride. So, I rode it and came to the incline, AKA Meat Hill. I was truly amazed at the EVEREST that was before me. The first few times I managed to make it to the "first crack before the guardrail"; that was my goal. Then it was "get the rear wheel past the first crack.."blah, blah. Then it was "get the bike to the crack AFTER the guardrail".
The day I managed to make it all the way to the top I was in tears. I was cranking down in my granny gear but I just knew I could make it all the way. I was so proud of myself. One of my biking buddies who was also doing the Trek was at the top waiting for me...I thought he had rode ahead to a designated rest stop. Nope, there he was, standing in a cloud of bugs, and when he saw my tears he was thinking that I had fallen and was hurt. When I got to him I just reached across and hugged him, laughing and crying at the same time. I felt like I had won an Olympic medal.
That moment has stayed with me because it was the very first moment that I could see how much stronger I had become, how much determined I had become and how much "grit" I had cultivated. Getting up that hill has become almost a defining moment for me in my very new cycling life.

Jan

[indigoiis]

Hills can be sneaky, Teawoman!

Sometimes, they don't look like a hill, and sometimes, the land around you makes you think you should be going down, but your legs know you're working too hard for that...

And yes, they can be long and keep on going, and going, and going, and going... When I find one of those, I sure celebrate at the top when I surprise myself by keeping going on them!

The most evil hills are the ones like when I ride my bike to work: I go up, then it's flat, then I go up, then it's flat, then I go up, then it's flat, then you go up and it's flat -- no reward! It's about a seven mile ride -- they call 'em benches here.

Karen in Boise

I know of the "ghost hills" of which you speak.

They are legendary around here.

You don't know they are there until you are on them.

Look down... do I have a flat??? Nope. Maybe it's that time of month? Nope. Maybe I suddenly contracted lyme disease? Nope. Is this road going ever so slightly upwards??? Ah yes!!!

[sundial]

Oooh, I just did a devil of a hill this past weekend. I don't know how steep it was, but it reminded me of going up on a roller coaster ride. :eek: I had just come down a steep hill and was pedaling like a mad woman to get up that blasted hill when......I accidentally geared up to the highest gear--front and rear. :eek: :eek: Dumb! Dumb! I almost came to a halt and had to jump off my bike to run up the hill. In the meantime, there are cars whizzing right by me on a road that has no shoulder. :eek: Geez! The things we do! :rolleyes:

[Livin the Dream]

Great news about conquering the hill! What a great confidence booster!

One of my goals for this year is to ride up a VERY hated hill on John Bryan Park Road near Yellow Springs, Ohio. The last time I rode -- make that walked -- up that hill with my bike I was grumbling at DH all the way up.

[teigyr]

That is fantastic! I know the feeling and once you've done it, you know you can do it again. Yay!!!

I swear at them as I climb them, I found it intimidates them a bit and makes them behave.

[teawoman]

Look down... do I have a flat??? Nope. Maybe it's that time of month? Nope. Maybe I suddenly contracted lyme disease? Nope. Is this road going ever so slightly upwards??? Ah yes!!!

LOL!! I soooo know that feeling! Some kind of evil headwind I somehow can't feel?

[indigoiis]

LOL!! I soooo know that feeling! Some kind of evil headwind I somehow can't feel?

Oh and have you ever done this? I have stem end shifters. The other day at mile fifteen I was going up a ghost hill, and I looked at the right shifter and it was all the way up, meaning, I was on the easiest of gears.

I forgot to look at the left though. I was on the biggest ring!

There I was slugging away, thinking, "That's it, I've lost it. I suck."

When I got to the top (and with ghost hills, where exactly IS the top? [insert twilight zone theme here]) I looked at the left shifter and was like, well DUH!!!

[RoadRaven]

Although it sucks as you go up a hill like this feeling like you are performing badly, I really love looking down and realising that I went up in the big chain ring!

You muscled your way up - congrats Indi!

Next time you know you can do a few higher gears in you small chain ring!

[DDH]

That is so great. Way to Go!!!!!

I know the avoiding hills feeling. LOL Now you know you can do it and nothing will stop you. Congratulations again!!