Climbing Club - July Goals

[Trekhawk]

Well done Starfish!!!
LOL I guess I better get off my bottom and set some goals next month. Apparently taking holidays that dont involve cycling is not a good training method.

[RolliePollie]

I am excited to report that despite no riding for the first week of July due to a vacation, I'm going to meet my 20,000' goal this month. My rather inaccurate estimating method now puts me at 19,020' with one more week to go. I can also now ride about 20-25 miles with +/-1,800 feet of climbing without stopping to rest. I'm very happy about this!

You Death Riders amaze me...but I may try it next year. Maybe two or three passes? It would be a good goal to strive for.

[Starfish]

I can also now ride about 20-25 miles with +/-1,800 feet of climbing without stopping to rest.

Sara, that's great! I am also very impressed with your monthly total. And, I'm with you...I daydream about things like the Death Ride...

[maillotpois]

You Death Riders amaze me...but I may try it next year. Maybe two or three passes? It would be a good goal to strive for.

It's definitely do-able. If you can get into the ride (lottery), then give it a shot. My advice is just start the ride and see how the day goes. You may surprise yourself. In the group we coached, we had a guy in his 60's who'd had polio and lost all muscle in a leg (he has a brace), a guy with diabetes who fractured his pelvis last year and the DR marked his one year anniversary off crutches, and a woman who'd had leukemia. I take so much inspiration from folks like that. They all made all 5 passes. (Oh yeah, and we also had a woman who had pulmonary emboli last year and was not able to ride her bike for 6 months! )

[RolliePollie]

It's definitely do-able. If you can get into the ride (lottery), then give it a shot. My advice is just start the ride and see how the day goes. You may surprise yourself. In the group we coached, we had a guy in his 60's who'd had polio and lost all muscle in a leg (he has a brace), a guy with diabetes who fractured his pelvis last year and the DR marked his one year anniversary off crutches, and a woman who'd had leukemia. I take so much inspiration from folks like that. They all made all 5 passes. (Oh yeah, and we also had a woman who had pulmonary emboli last year and was not able to ride her bike for 6 months! )

I was thinking I should go ahead and enter, then see what happens with the lottery. I have a friend who's ridden it three times, so I bet he'd be a great "coach." Sounds like the group you coached was amazing!!! It is definitely inspirational to hear stories like that. If those folks can do it, then I should be able to do it too!

Starfish - maybe you should enter the lottery too! You certainly have a good training route for climbing rides. If you come do the Death Ride with me, I'll come ride Hurricane Ridge with you next summer. Sound like a good deal?

[Starfish]

Starfish - maybe you should enter the lottery too! You certainly have a good training route for climbing rides. If you come do the Death Ride with me, I'll come ride Hurricane Ridge with you next summer. Sound like a good deal?

Sara, definitely PM me all the info you learn about joining the lottery, etc! I am sickly and strangely intrigued. What is the matter with all of us drawn to these rides?

I kind of had a different ride in mind for next summer's goal, but they might not be mutually exclusive...perhaps only from a time-off, travel-time perspective!

[maillotpois]

Boy do I have some Death Ride stories for you guys. Get in, and then we'll talk!!

[Starfish]

Boy do I have some Death Ride stories for you guys. Get in, and then we'll talk!!

Sara, see, this is how they hook us. We have to get in, and only then will they give us the realities!

[maillotpois]

wait til I tell you the "uniballer" story. It will all be worth it.

[GLC1968]

I didn't set a goal for July, but I've already got over 20K in and I expect at least another 5K this weekend.

Can I ask you mountain goats a question? I rode my first real 'mountain' a couple of weekends ago. It was about 3-7% grade (varying) for 8 miles. It's a tough one around here because there is no flattening out at all, it's all climbing for 8 miles. That said, I did it, but I didn't do it well. I found that if I could spin comfortably in my lowest gear, my HR would get too high and I'd get dizzy and nauseous. If I kept the HR manageable, the cadence was too low and my legs would burn out. I obviously need some work.

How do I train for something like this when I just don't have those types of long climbs around me? We have plenty of hills, but nothing longer than maybe a mile, and even those aren't all that steep. I can get to a 2 mile 8% climb, but even that would be more of a weekend trip (it's an hour from me). The hills in my immediate area are easy for me compared to the long climbs that I need to be able to ride (by the end of September).

What should I do? Hill repeats? HR training? Weight lifting? Drive my lazy a$$ to the mountains every weekend and ride there?

Thanks!

[maillotpois]

Sounds like hill repeats are going to be your best option - driving to the long hill would be great, but probably impractical.

Here's something to try to make your hill repeats more challenging/interesting/effective: time yourself the first time you do it. Ride at a comfortable pace you'd think you could sustain for your 8 mile hill. Then try to keep your subsequent repeats at the same time as the first one. It's not easy! Do as many repeats as you can the first time. The next time, add one more. And so on...

[Starfish]

I don't consider myself a mountain goat, yet, but here is something I have been doing to combat what you described. (And, I'd be curious if any experienced climbers think this is a bad idea for any reason.)

I am getting fitter and fitter for prolonged climbs because I am blessed with a mountain in my back yard. But, maybe this would work for repeats, too?

In order to train myself to keep going when either my heart or my legs want to explode, I have found I can take a sort of "rolling rest" on the bike, even uphill, by SERIOUSLY slowing down. Slowing both cadence and speed...right down to about 3mph at 60rpm in my granniest gear. It takes concentration not to fall over, but I find I can give both my heart and legs a rest for a couple minutes, and then I can gear up a bit and keep going.

I don't know if this is applicable on hill repeats, when you get a break on the downhills. But, it is something I have noticed helps me stop less frequently on hard climbs, for what it's worth.

[onimity]

I made my goal of 40,000 Motionbased ft.

Of course I don't know how many actual feet that is, probably 30,000 or so. The ride I did yesterday had 5,500 feet of climbing and Motionbased gave it 8,900. That was canyon riding, though, the readings seem more accurate on the flatter city roads I spend a lot of time on.

I was really happy yesterday (full account in the July 28th rides post), I figured that I'd be crying at the end of the ride but I felt like I could keep climbing when I got to the descent. Yippee!

I got invited on a several-night self-supported ride in September that includes riding Trail Ridge Road ... so I guess I'm glad to be feeling good about 'hills'!

[SadieKate]

For July I decreased my goal because June was the big month. I still outdid my goal by 29%! Only a puny 15,529 ft but that's better than the 12,00 I targeted -- and it's all altimeter measured so I feel pretty good about the number.

I'm feeling pretty positive that I'll make my yearly goal but not counting any chickens yet.

[jobob]

I got in a bit over 30,000 feet, as I had hoped.

Oooh, and I'm up to about 160,000 for the year. Booyah!