Another very tough climb (video & pics)

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Originally Posted by luv2climb

Sounds like your rides are somewhat similar to mine. The only ride I do that requires me to drive to the start of the ride is a climbing ride, so those are done once a week. The rest of the week I ride down here in the valley where I live. I only drive if it's absolutely necessary, so I probably ride quite a few miles during the week. I don't have a computer on any of my bikes and I only use the Garmin for climbing rides, so I don't keep track of mileage.

Mountain biking will definitely help your road climbing. I used to mtb all the time in the early 90s when I actually had a properly fitting mtb. Lots of good steep stuff on mtb trails! :D

Believe it or not, even though you can clearly hear me suffering in my videos, I love it! :D I'm one of those twisted types who enjoys suffering, so my climbs are done for fun in addition to the challenge of conquering yet another long steep climb.

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You're so lucky to have the Sierras at your disposal for this. While we have some hills in Southern Indiana, few are terribly scenic and certainly they aren't as scenic as your neck of the woods.

Catrin, are you taking your road bike with you on your camping trip? There's certainly some good hills in the park. Maybe too good. I got my heart rate up to 220 on one of them once. That's as high as I've seen it. It's the hill just before you get to the Lodge parking lot.

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Originally Posted by Sardine

luv2climb, I'm totally impressed and inspired. Thanks.

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Thank you. :)

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Originally Posted by indysteel

I got my heart rate up to 220 on one of them once. That's as high as I've seen it.

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I got mine up to 212 last summer. This year I reached 206 on my first sufferfest video that I posted back in February. In the early 90s my max was 215.

Sometimes people on BikeForums freak out over my high heart rate readings in my climbing ride posts, and I always have to reassure them that my heart is healthy.

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Originally Posted by luv2climb

Thank you. :)


I got mine up to 212 last summer. This year I reached 206 on my first sufferfest video that I posted back in February. In the early 90s my max was 215.

Sometimes people on BikeForums freak out over my high heart rate readings in my climbing ride posts, and I always have to reassure them that my heart is healthy.

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I have a high max HR. It's been a while since I regularly wore an HR monitor, but when I did, I would spend most of a spin workout in the 180s to low 190s as my Zone 3. I don't usually blow up until the high 190s.

About mountains, how do you build up to climbing them? Do you just keep riding steeper and longer hills or is there some other training involved? How long did it take before you managed your first summit? Thanks.

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Originally Posted by Sardine

About mountains, how do you build up to climbing them? Do you just keep riding steeper and longer hills or is there some other training involved? How long did it take before you managed your first summit? Thanks.

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You got it right. ;) I just started riding steeper and longer climbs. I also dropped a bunch of weight. Now it's stalled out again with 20 more pounds to go.

The first mountain I climbed last year was after dropping from 214 to 185 pounds. I climbed the Tahoe side of Kingsbury Grade, which is only 3.5 miles long. No problem with that climb. The next day I climbed the Reno side of Mt. Rose, which is 13.7 miles long. That was the most miserable experience I've ever had on a bike, thanks to being 60 pounds over ideal weight, riding a 32 lb mtb because I didn't have a road bike, and not eating enough during the ride.

I don't know how you do it.

Today I chose a "hillier" trail (still really flat, believe me) to work on my fitness and shifting (only my second ever ride on a road bike). I've only been cycling three weeks and am pathetically out of shape. Was on bed rest this fall and then put on meds that packed 35 lbs on me in about 4 months. I'm a train wreck.

Managed to do the inclines (can't call them proper hills) but was so tired and zapped afterwards. I hope someday I'm in half as good shape as you.

Encouraging to hear you lost weight though :)

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Originally Posted by GingerbreadGirl

I don't know how you do it.

Today I chose a "hillier" trail (still really flat, believe me) to work on my fitness and shifting (only my second ever ride on a road bike). I've only been cycling three weeks and am pathetically out of shape. Was on bed rest this fall and then put on meds that packed 35 lbs on me in about 4 months. I'm a train wreck.

Managed to do the inclines (can't call them proper hills) but was so tired and zapped afterwards. I hope someday I'm in half as good shape as you.

Encouraging to hear you lost weight though :)

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You've already taken the first step to getting stronger. Keep up the good work and it will get easier. I know about the old saying "it never gets easier, you just get faster", but when you are losing weight as well as gaining fitness, it does get easier. :)

Thanks, I get discouraged when I read about everyone's 30+ mi rides. Right now 5 miles is work for me. Three weeks ago, 2 miles was tough. Last year I was *jogging* 5 miles at this time... I'm so out of condition. I love to see posts like yours to remind me things are possible. Not for me necessarily, but you know... for some people lol.

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Originally Posted by GingerbreadGirl

Thanks, I get discouraged when I read about everyone's 30+ mi rides. Right now 5 miles is work for me. Three weeks ago, 2 miles was tough. Last year I was *jogging* 5 miles at this time... I'm so out of condition. I love to see posts like yours to remind me things are possible. Not for me necessarily, but you know... for some people lol.

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I know how you feel. I don't even bother reading the Garmin stats and ride reports from the "super-roadies" over in the road cycling section of BikeForums. They are all much faster than me and I know it. I've been posting a few of my videos in their ride video thread, but they almost never get feedback. I don't care though. I post them with the knowledge that not every reader of that forum is a lycra-clad superhero with a 20 mph average speed on a hilly ride. Hopefully some of the slower riders will see the videos and not be quite as discouraged after reading some of the other stuff in there. ;)

I'd say you totally inspire a lot of women here!

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Originally Posted by GingerbreadGirl

I'd say you totally inspire a lot of women here!

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Thank you. :)

Well, I must say that I think you are all inspiring in your own way! At least you're out there doing something. I live in the NW and we have hills around. Some shorter ones in town. Some that I wouldn't ride because no shoulder or bike lane with heavy traffic. Also I don't like and am fearful going fast down hills. Anyway you all ROCK! Keep it up.

Luvs2climb, you will get that weight off. As I was losing, I found it challenging to figure how much to eat in order to fuel my exercise without eating too much. It's a balance for sure.

@luvs2climb, what camera do you use? I notice that the information like mph, grade, etc. Superimposed on the video. Howndoesnit do that? I would totally geek out on something likemthat. My DH has GoPro camera but it doesn't have any info. on it.
Thanks.

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Originally Posted by Velocivixen

Well, I must say that I think you are all inspiring in your own way! At least you're out there doing something. I live in the NW and we have hills around. Some shorter ones in town. Some that I wouldn't ride because no shoulder or bike lane with heavy traffic. Also I don't like and am fearful going fast down hills. Anyway you all ROCK! Keep it up.

Luvs2climb, you will get that weight off. As I was losing, I found it challenging to figure how much to eat in order to fuel my exercise without eating too much. It's a balance for sure.

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Not only are the women here inspiring, they are supportive and friendly. I don't feel out of place here like I do on some other forums. The ones where I feel I don't belong are probably the same ones that would be intimidating to someone who is just getting into cycling.

You're right about the weight. I probably require fewer calories than I did when I was 214 pounds. I refuse to go hungry though, so I just ride more. :D

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Originally Posted by Velocivixen

@luvs2climb, what camera do you use? I notice that the information like mph, grade, etc. Superimposed on the video. Howndoesnit do that? I would totally geek out on something likemthat. My DH has GoPro camera but it doesn't have any info. on it.
Thanks.

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I use a Kodak Playsport Zx3 on a Pedco UltraClamp universal mount. Unfortunately I may have overtightened the camera on the mount one too many times because now the tripod hole is cracked and I have to use a small bungee cord to keep the camera from moving around too much on the mount. I hope I can get a little more life out of it. It works great otherwise.

I use software called DashWare to overlay the data onto the video. It's pretty easy to use once you get the hang of it. I just export the TCX file from the Garmin activity page for the ride I want the data from. Then I import that into DashWare along with the raw video file. I made the simple text gauges for heart rate, speed, distance, and altitude. I used the default gauge for percent grade.

The tricky part is synchronizing the data to the video. So far it hasn't been too hard since I've been able to easily find the beginnings of the long climbs I want the data from.

After DashWare renders the video in the highest quality setting I use Windows Movie Maker 2011 to do the final editing.

Hi,

Just wanted to say i love seeing the pictures and vids from your rides.
I'm sooooo jealous, cycling in California looks amazing!

The elevation chart on your Garmin scares me :eek:

I hope I'll be able to climb like that one day. I've been trying to practice 'hills', I'm getting a little better but I can't imagine myself ever getting up a mountain.