Ok, I've had 5 months experience under my belt now, been reading the forum and trying to learn what I can from the postings and from experience. This is a great site, btw...the best I've found for new riders.

#1-building muscle: now 5 mos in the saddle and we've figured I'm a distance person...I've done 47 miles essentiallly on a flat out and 44 miles w/what *I* call hills just yesterday. I was completely exhausted on the hills, but can still really crank it out on a flat out (I even start to recover from the hills *while* doing a flat out). I'm breathing like a lung is about to come out on the hills, but then I recover so quickly. I'm assuming I don't have the muscle mass to push up the hills? But how do you get that...my partner says I need to do weights. But if you ride every other day and do weights every other day, your legs never have time to recover. He doesn't think doing the hills is really building. So, what do I do?

#2-hills vs. flat out: we have a bit of an argument going on. Anyone from the Portland area who knows the west hills area? What exactly *IS* considered a hill? I thought Vista and all the connecting roads are basically hills. My partner pretty much just considers Vista the hill, the others are just a "ride". I'm frustrated because I really feel I'm having to push hard to get around the connecting roads and it all feels like hills to me. But maybe I'm just really too much lacking muscle and these are really just a regular ride? I swear, I'm really really having to work to get through these routes, and I'm concerned at my lack of progress if I haven't even really done hills yet (still getting ready for Cycle Oregon on 9/10/05, average of 70 mile days).

#3-endurance: I've only ridden w/my male partner, so I have no basis for understanding male/female differences. I know I'm new, so that will account for a lot, but I seem to be most naturally comfortable pumping at what he calls a low cadence and a high gear on a flat out. I love getting speed and pushing hard on flat outs, and I can get cruising pretty good. I look at him, and he looks like he's just pedaling his butt off. I try that, and I feel like I'm bouncing up and down in the saddle. I know low cadence/high gear can cause knee problems. Also, not only don't I get hungry when I do flat outs, but I also don't get any extra energy by eating something like a power bar, typically (unless I actually *feel* tired). So, I'm eating before I'm hungry, it's not really doing anything. Is it possible that flat out and distance are natural for me and I burn my body fat more efficiently? (this question doesn't look right, but I can't think of a better way to express it; maybe with questions I can clarify)

Thanks-sorry for the long post! So many more questions....