I'm looking forward to your ride story too! I looked at the web site, and it looks like a beautiful ride, and I've got to admit, I'm a little bit envious!

There's been so much good advice, and I want to echo what Evil Twin said about stopping to recover on hills.

Like she said, when I'm about to start up a hill, I pick a spot and when I get to it, I stop and breathe a while, have some water, and maybe a bit of my trail mix. (I've been experimenting with a sort of "steady stream" of trail mix lately, and it's made a difference in my energy levels on longer rides.) When I'm ready, I pick a new spot and start on up to it -- and I actually get a couple of gears back after the break, so I have room to shift down again. This helps my confidence, knowing I have somewhere I can go with the gears. If I "run out of gears" I might stop to recover a bit earlier than planned, but I've learned to allow myself those pauses. I think that was the hardest part of hill climbing: giving myself permission to take a hill in stages, and that stopping isn't failure just because someone else can do the whole hill at once. I'm still working on convincing myself that it's okay to be slow as mud, as long as I get there eventually!

If it will help you, I'll share my permission with you!

Karen in Boise