Will this hill ever get easier?

So after a couple of months break I'm back to commuting to work on my bike again. It's not very far - less than 5 miles one way. No matter how I vary the route I have to go up about half a mile of hill near the start of my ride home.
I've pasted in below the elevation for the 3 routes I take. This probably isn't very daunting to most folks on this board but I'm overweight and my fitness level is low.

Anyway, any words of encouragement on when I might actually start noticing the climb getting easier? At the moment I'm in my lowest gear and aerobically it's killing me. My leg muscles aren't too bad but I'm breathing heavily and sweating :eek:.

I'm feeling discouraged because even when I was cycling this for 6 weeks straight earlier this summer I never really felt it got easier. Any advice? I don't mind being really slow but the red face, gasping and burning lungs are the problem!

Of course on the positive side my trip going to work is a breeze...

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2471/...afed118706.jpg

It won't take long. Just keep trying. Try not to dread it too much. That can make it worse!

In the meantime, can you go up the grade in a less direct way...maybe zig-zagging blocks that climb the hill? That way you'd have a a block of flat perpendicular to the hill, at an interval with a block of uphill. It would take you longer to get home, but it would make the hill easier while still increasing your fitness.

Good luck!

Karen

I agree that it will get easier over time. However, how long it will take for it to become easier also depends on how much you are riding more generally. Do you ride in other circumstances than going to work? Is there any way you could build toward slightly longer rides? It will help you improve as well. But you have to be very patient. Don't give up!

I don't drive so I ride when going on errands, shopping and going to the swimming pool. However, none of these trips are particularly long and even when they add up in one day to 15-25 miles or so they're usually broken up with stops along the way. I probably need to push myself a bit more on these trips.

As for zig-zagging, well the first graph is when I zig-zag. The big hill I have to go up is North but the roads going off it to the East and West go up hills on either side too. I dread it! but at least it's over near the start.

The hills that were so daunting when I started "serious" cycling in September don't even phase me now. I remember at the beginning, though, I had to play games with myself. Games make it easier for me. First, I'd try to only look a few feet ahead of my bike and see how far I got before I gave up and looked to the top of the hill. That was a fun game. Then I'd do little rhythmic things with the pedals - like pedal for 7 counts and then coast "left right left right left right left . . . . coast . . . . right left right left right left right . . . . coast" over and over again. Then I'd count how many times I had to pedal to get to the top. My rule was "if the bike's not falling over, I'm going fast enough."

Keep it up! You can do it!

If you do this route at least 4-5 times per week, for the next 1-2 months you will improve.

And it helps that there are some cooler days to do this to become better.

Just don't hyperventilate, but breathe in smoothly, abit deeper, when going up the hills, try to relax your mind while remain focused and strong.

And you will get to a point, you will want these same/similar hills in a daily ride..for fitness.
You're gonna feel like a goddess soon. :)

FWIW, you might want to take a look at ridewithGPS. Mapmyride is notorious for - I don't know the correct way to say this, but their contour lines are very far apart, so they drastically underestimate grade and total elevation gain if you live in an area with short, steep hills. I don't have much doubt that your hill is a LOT tougher than Mapmyride says it is.

The other thing is, it's actually good to breathe hard and sweat. It is inconvenient to arrive at work all sweaty, I don't underestimate that at all. But if you're not breathing hard and sweating, you're probably not getting stronger... and if you are, then you are. ;) Do you have someplace you can stash clean clothes at work - and if not a shower, then a couple of washcloths for a sponge bath?

Do make sure you're breathing hard on the hill - not holding your breath while you climb and then gasping for air when you reach the top. A lot of people do that on stairs.

Rather than letting the hill psych you out, try attacking it. You already know that you can ride the whole distance. You don't have to save energy for the unknown. So, why not ride the hill a little harder each time? Make it a fun challenge for yourself. That's how you get stronger.

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Originally Posted by OakLeaf

FWIW, you might want to take a look at ridewithGPS. Mapmyride is notorious for - I don't know the correct way to say this, but their contour lines are very far apart, so they drastically underestimate grade and total elevation gain if you live in an area with short, steep hills. I don't have much doubt that your hill is a LOT tougher than Mapmyride says it is.

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What Oakleaf says! Mapmyride frequently underestimates grades, and it seems to get worse as the ride length increases. Try mapping each climb by itself, and I think you'll get a better sense of the true grade.

Keep riding- those hills will get easier!

Yes, it will get easier.

I've had to learn to love climbing, and I find that singing "100 bottles of beer on the wall" while I'm on a long one helps take my mind off of it.

Also, I'd consider myself lucky- there are a lot of beginners who never have to climb things like that who get totally intimidated the first time they encounter such a hill. Even though it's tough now, most hills you encounter in the future will seem laughable to you since you tackle that beaut every day.

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Originally Posted by Andrea

Yes, it will get easier.

I've had to learn to love climbing, and I find that singing "100 bottles of beer on the wall" while I'm on a long one helps take my mind off of it.

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Ditto!!

Only I sing: "100 shiny new bikes on the rack, 100 shiny new bikes. Take one down, ride it around, 99 shiny new bikes on the rack."

You probably won't notice it getting easier, but one day you'll realize that, hey, you just made it up the hill without thinking about it much AND you did it faster than you used to. One thing I've noticed with hills is that a lot of times they don't get noticeably easier, but I DO get noticeably faster at them. I'm maxing out my heart rate still, but I'm getting more power for that same heart rate than I was before.

Sarah

Looeez,
When i started biking over three years ago there were some long daunting hills like you describe that made me feel like I was going to have a heart attack, my legs were screaming in pain, I was gasping for breath and making the most awful gasping noises.

Now, just by having ridden them repeatedly, they present no special problem other than my breathing a bit more deeply and my heart rate rising a bit. No gasping, no pounding heart, no leg pain.
I don't 'train' or ride huge amounts like some others, I just do various 10-30 mile routes maybe two or three times a week. The routes are a combo of hilly and flattish, with a few pretty steep hills thrown in.

It WILL get better, don't sweat over charts and graphs, just ride and it'll happen. :)

hey, that's MY commute. only the 6% grade on my commute is in the last half, not the first half.
It will get better. I commuted over 100 times this year and I can tell you it DOES get better. But you're never going to feel like a butterfly going up that hill. It will always be work, but I promise, it WILL get better.

PS you have to start from somewhere and the fact is, you ARE getting up that hill.

I often think that about hills - but I also notice that I'm taking hills a lot faster and in a lot higher gears than I used to... So the hills remain hard, but ones that i used to find godawful, I now find not so bad - even if I'm still sweating & breathing hard at the top.

What I want to know is, will the hills ever get effortless? because I see some people riding and it just looks effortless...

My opinion? The hardest hill you do will never be effortless.

"Effortless" hills are the ones that are so low on your scale of what's a hill, that you don't notice them any more. People who seem to take your hill so easily probably train on much steeper and/or longer ones.

That would be my thinking, anyway. I occasionally ride with people who are much stronger than I am, pretty much the strongest riders in my area, and the toughest hills we do are still an effort for them. A lot easier for them than they are for me - but still an effort.

From the opposite perspective, there's a hill on TOSRV that, to us hillbillies, literally is not a hill, but to the many Columbusites who ride that ride, is quite daunting.

Wasn't it Greg Lemond who said, "It never gets easier, you just get faster?" It's so true!

As for the effortless part, that's someone's darn good poker face :D

I don't remember WHEN it got easier, but the hills on my way home are definately easier now than they were a year ago.

I used to actually fear steep hills, thinking I would fall. Not any more. I'll try just about any hill once. I've even had to slolom up some hills they are so steep. It's always a win for me if I can stay on the bike moving in the desired direction!


I'm also overweight and not in great shape. But I'm less overweight and in better shape than a year ago!

I do know that when I started commuting part time on a fixie I got MUCH stronger, in a short amount of time, and the geared bike seemed so easy after that.

My mantra up steep hills is "it's just temporary pain".

BTW, 300 feet of climbing in a mile is not a breezy easy climb for me, for sure.

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Originally Posted by Loraura

BTW, 300 feet of climbing in a mile is not a breezy easy climb for me, for sure.

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+300!!!!!

Looeez -- I feel your pain. I'm a slug on hills, too, but I know I am getting better. I'm still not good on them, but I'm better than a few months ago and I know I'll be better yet next year. Don't let 'dem hills mess with your mind!

You know you can do them so now you are just moving towards doing them a little faster or with a little less effort. There's some tips and tricks to getting up hills. Stay relaxed, sit a little more upright so you can breathe better. Don't tense up which will increase your heart rate and make your breathing harder. Pull in big breaths through your nose and blow them out hard through your mouth. Slow down your cadence, put your hands on the top bar with a relaxed grip and focus on smooth pedaling rather than mashing on the pedals. Try not to look up to the top of the hill.. find a target like 20 feet in front of you and focus on getting to it. Then find another target a little further away. Congratulate yourself as you reach each small target. Maybe think of a mantra that you can say over and over -- "I eat hills" or "I'm the best" :D:D

Oh I feel your pain. My ride to university is pretty much all up hill. Up and down and up and up and up and down and then up up up. lol The hills are getting easier but it's been two months! And by easier I mean I can do them but they still wind me and I get to school exhausted. At least your hills are on the way home! he he. I agree with the poster above that the hills won't seem easy until you do more challenging hills. <sigh>

Try a little experiment and time yourself periodically on that hill. Maybe you just are the type of person who pushes herself really hard...and that level of effort may feel the same, but perhaps you really are getting faster! Don't forget to relax as much as possible and sit up to let your chest expand as you breath. Putting energy into squeezing your shoulders & hands might be stealing the energy you need to breath and pedal. I completely transformed myself as a hill climber this year, and I attribute my hilly commute as the primary catalyst. I even treated myself to the "She Loves Hills" TE jersey. Keep it up.

I had anxiety attacks before I even got to a hill when I started riding but it took several hundred miles under my belt to learn to relax and just climb. I now enjoy hills but I had to learn to accept the challenge. Remember that most of it is mental. Just relax, breathe easy and SMILE:D You automatically release tension when you smile. As your mileage increases so will your fitness and your confidence. Next year you will climb that hill and chuckle about how difficult it used to be. You can do it.