Overcoming cycling down a steep hill

[ipetersen]

This is my 2nd year cycling 220km in support of the official Ride to Conquer Cancer from Toronto to Niagara Falls . I'm a breast cancer survivor myself. A Boston Marathon runner and re-qualifer. I love cycling but have this fear of cycling down a steep hill. How do I overcome this? Would like to complete an Iron Man one day.
Any advice/suggestions.
Izzy

[alpinerabbit]

Please use the search function with the key "descending" (thread title search) for a couple of threads that have happened here.

[AnnieBikes]

I think that going down some short easy hills and then slowly progressing will help you alot. I had many of the same fears before and laid on the brakes every minute. Little by little I got over it by trying various hills on my routes. There are NO flat rides where I live so it was pretty much mandatory that I got over my fear. It will come but riding different types of hills will help you to progress to steeper ones.

[Zen]

This thread (http://forums.teamestrogen.com/showthread.php?t=31103&highlight=downhill) should help.