High heart rate on hills

[kat_h]

When my HR gets too high on a climb I sort of soft pedal, usually that's enough to bring it back down.

What do you mean by soft pedal? I like the idea of being able to bring it back down without getting off the bike.

what kind of gears to you have?

I have a triple on the front. I'm not sure of the numbers but sometimes I'll shift to too easy of a gear so that I can't spin fast enough to keep my momentum up. That's the weird thing about all of this. I don't feel like I'm putting in a lot of effort. I just get this jackhammer pounding in my chest.

One thing I wonder though (and that would be helpful to tell your doctor as well), is it only hills? What happens when you sprint on the flats? Maybe you aren't breathing properly on hills. I know a lot of people unconsciously hold their breath when they climb stairs, maybe something like that is happening to you?

Sprinting on flat ground is just fine. Even trying to sprint into a headwind doesn't bother me.

I'll keep working on the skills, try to find the right gear, and focus on keeping my breathing under control. Hills are relatively new to me. With my old bike I always just had to walk up them so it's only in the last month that I've been trying to bike them. Would the Evil Coach Troy hills video help, or would it just kill me at this point?