No bugs today! When DH got home from work, we toured the neighborhood as a warm up for a "new" hill climb. He's grumbly about riding this week, but it was an EXCELLENT ride! (good thing we're babysitting on Saturday and can't go on the SPIN ride, he'd never make 50+ miles!) Only 11 miles, but the hill, and head-winds all the way back, wow!

Little rollers and invisible inclines on the way to the hill, with a half mile 100-ft climb just before THE hill. (we didn't know that until I did the toporoute.com thing to that stretch just now!) I stopped at the top of this one for a bit, cuz I had a screw needed tightening. Nothing critical, but I didn't want to forget to deal with it, so I stopped. The hill itself is a mile long, and about 250 feet of elevation gain. Perhaps that's not much in the scheme of things, but considering I stopped three times on the way up, it's a good hill for us! (he didn't stop for my loose screw, but stopped once, claimed he had been about to explode when he did once I finally caught up with him) What excited me was that it was my legs decided I needed to stop pedaling, rather than my head and lungs. I've struggled with hills all summer, and have gotten to the point where I'm pretty sure that much of my problem with them, oh yes, they're hard to climb all right, but a huge issue for me is my head! So, I didn't get all the way to the top in one shot (I'll keep working on this), and yes, I was breathing hard, and working hard, but I didn't get to the point of feeling like things are all crazy, like usually happens when I'm riding up a hill. Now THAT's progress!

Anyway, after seeing something else on the board today, and deciding I'm going to master this hill this fall, I'm heading back over to new riders to ask a question about this hill stuff...

Karen in Boise