January 29th rides

[SouthernBelle]

Robyn,

You might take a look at those cages that fit on the back of your saddle.

[Brandy]

Today was hill repeats. Not "hill play" as I've been doing to stave off the boredom. Honest to goodness repeats on Newport Coast. Hill repeats with a purpose and my eyes glued to the power meter. I got six of them in. Not bad. 22.4 miles and 3100 ft. of climbing.



This came after a talking to from the coach about how the steep hills that I've been climbing are not going to help me and that I need sustained climbing. When that is not available...hill repeats with a purpose. So that's what I did today.

[Starfish]

Wow, Brandy, very nice! My coach has added, for this next month, something called GWHR (Gut Wrenching Hill Repeats) afraid, very afraid.

Brandy, how long would you say the hills are, and how steep, that you're doing?

Today, no ride outdoors. An hour of body conditioning/resistance class, followed by an hour of spin class. Spin class takes on a whole new meaning after an hour of total body conditioning, including squats and lunges.

(This is new to me...I actually went home in the morning right after class and took a 30 minute nap. ) But, I know I will build up to this and just have to push through the initial surprise to my body!

[Brandy]

Thanks Starfish-Here's the info and charts for Newport Coast. It's the top entry...

http://epictrain.com/My_Favorite_Climbs.html

1.6 miles with 462 Elevation Gain 5.83% Grade

[Ticia]

Brandy, That is a LOT of climbing! Wow. I have a question. How do you figure the Grade of a hill if you have the elevation and the mileage? I know there must be some equation. I'm not understanding. There is this huge hill I see ppl training on that is right down the road from me and it is 717ft of elev. gain in .86 miles The one I finally did last year that I was so proud of was 306 ft in 1.06 miles. So how do I know the grade?

[Brandy]

Brandy, That is a LOT of climbing! Wow. I have a question. How do you figure the Grade of a hill if you have the elevation and the mileage? I know there must be some equation. I'm not understanding. There is this huge hill I see ppl training on that is right down the road from me and it is 717ft of elev. gain in .86 miles The one I finally did last year that I was so proud of was 306 ft in 1.06 miles. So how do I know the grade?

TICIA!!! Good to see you here! It's a good amount of climbing for the limited amount of time that I have to ride on Mon/Tues mornings.

There's a Percent Grade Calculator on the bottom of the page in the links section on George's website.
http://epictrain.com/links.html

Yes, your hill is steep! Around 15.8% average grade. Your other hill is about 5.46% average grade...pretty similar, though shorter in length than Newport Coast.

[tulip]

Robin,

Do you have the water bottle cage on the seat tube or the down tube (the diagonal)? Mine is tight on my road bike on the seat tube, but fine on the down tube.

You'll be faster than on your mountain bike just by virtue of less friction due to the narrowness of the tires.