Climbing Club - July Goals

Sounds like hill repeats are going to be your best option - driving to the long hill would be great, but probably impractical.

Here's something to try to make your hill repeats more challenging/interesting/effective: time yourself the first time you do it. Ride at a comfortable pace you'd think you could sustain for your 8 mile hill. Then try to keep your subsequent repeats at the same time as the first one. It's not easy! Do as many repeats as you can the first time. The next time, add one more. And so on...

I don't consider myself a mountain goat, yet, but here is something I have been doing to combat what you described. (And, I'd be curious if any experienced climbers think this is a bad idea for any reason.)

I am getting fitter and fitter for prolonged climbs because I am blessed with a mountain in my back yard. But, maybe this would work for repeats, too?

In order to train myself to keep going when either my heart or my legs want to explode, I have found I can take a sort of "rolling rest" on the bike, even uphill, by SERIOUSLY slowing down. Slowing both cadence and speed...right down to about 3mph at 60rpm in my granniest gear. It takes concentration not to fall over, but I find I can give both my heart and legs a rest for a couple minutes, and then I can gear up a bit and keep going.

I don't know if this is applicable on hill repeats, when you get a break on the downhills. But, it is something I have noticed helps me stop less frequently on hard climbs, for what it's worth.

I made my goal of 40,000 Motionbased ft. :D

Of course I don't know how many actual feet that is, probably 30,000 or so. The ride I did yesterday had 5,500 feet of climbing and Motionbased gave it 8,900. That was canyon riding, though, the readings seem more accurate on the flatter city roads I spend a lot of time on.

I was really happy yesterday (full account in the July 28th rides post), I figured that I'd be crying at the end of the ride but I felt like I could keep climbing when I got to the descent. Yippee! :D :D :D

I got invited on a several-night self-supported ride in September that includes riding Trail Ridge Road ... so I guess I'm glad to be feeling good about 'hills'!

For July I decreased my goal because June was the big month. I still outdid my goal by 29%! Only a puny 15,529 ft but that's better than the 12,00 I targeted -- and it's all altimeter measured so I feel pretty good about the number.

I'm feeling pretty positive that I'll make my yearly goal but not counting any chickens yet.

I got in a bit over 30,000 feet, as I had hoped.

Oooh, and I'm up to about 160,000 for the year. Booyah! :cool:

32,111. About 10k more than I expected. Probably due to all that crazy mountain biking. :rolleyes:

Yeah, that real riding. :D

I made it to 23,450'. Now I'm headed out the door to start on August!