Agony and Ecstasy

[pedalfaster]

or "Hill Repeats".

Any one else participate in this particular form of torture?

They hurt so bad; yet feel so good!

And the descents...what a rush. Almost makes your forget the pain, until you turn around to go back up again. and again and again.

[cathy]

I believe that tortuous feeling could be best expressed as,

"hurts so good".

There are some fantastic "hurt so good" rides here in beautiful Prescott, AZ.

Are there lots of fun hills in the Midwest?

[Adventure Girl]

I was training for a race once by riding the 3-mile final climb repeatedly (mountain bike/fire road). I was riding with a guy who is a really strong rider who doesn't have a granny ring!! (For those who are roadies only, it is pretty rare in mountain biking to find someone only a "double"). When we got to the steepest part, the guy (now known in my group as "The Attack Guy") would stand up on his pedals and start screaming at me to "Attack! Attack"!!

We passed another guy riding up the hill and I gave him the universal "please help me" look. Then when we turned and headed back down again, we passed the same guy. He was struggling but he had enough energy to yell, "Are you crazy" when he saw we were going back to do it again.

When you're going back down, you almost forget how hard it was to climb. But the next time up it's just as hard. Yeah… It does feel great!

[pedalfaster]

Originally posted by cathy
I Are there lots of fun hills in the Midwest?

Fun...as in short, but tortuously steep!

I'm a west-coast girl and can handle mountains, altitude and hours and hours of climbing. This stuff (plus the humidity) really kicks me in the butt! I realize that I need to develop strength and power to go along with the endurance. I spent the spring doing seated climbs in big gears