What's a hilly ride?

[papaver]

Gosh girls could you have done it metric? I had to do a spreadsheet! and ended up at 85 ft/mile.

I agree.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

I voted 75 ft/per mile, because my rides are all round trips from home, so any big climbs also have their equally big descents. That brings the average for the ride down 'per mile'.

Besides, it said to vote for 'hilly rides' not 'extreme hills' rides.

[berkeley]

This is hilly to me. I think some of the hillier rides 'round here average in the 60-80 feet/mile category, but I'm not sure. All I know... is it's hilly.

[Caroline]

I agree.

Moi aussi ... Go metric FFS!

[shootingstar]

I'm such a duh in terms of hill elevation in our area. But finally answered this poll, after consulting dearie on some regular hills that I do nearly daily. I tend to know hills only by grade.

I dislike hills that are heavy road traffic hills ascending and there are 4-way traffic lights along the way. Nothing more annoying than breaking one's cycling rhythm.

[roadie gal]

I've never thought of it in terms of ft/mile, always in total feet climbed. Living in the mountains almost all of my rides are hilly. I have to go way out of my way to find a flat ride. An "easy" ride will have over 1000 feet of climbing in 20 miles.

[Vireo]

Here is the elevation chart for Trans Iowa (320 mile non stop gravel race). It averaged out to 5,000 feet of gain per century. But it was the toughest 5k per century I ever remember doing--steep continuous rollers on gravel. Starting elevation was 741ft and max elevation was 1050 ft.



That was much harder and much more painful than doing a long long 30 mile climb.



So while I love 10,000 feet of gain centuries I HATE short steep rollers. And while I used to say 5,000 foot centuries weren't hilly centuries I am now a convert.

[salsabike]

So while I love 10,000 feet of gain centuries I HATE short steep rollers. And while I used to say 5,000 foot centuries weren't hilly centuries I am now a convert.

Yeah---to me, it's all about not the feet per mile per se but the distribution of those feet---where and how they appear---that makes the big difference.

[madscot13]

I have no idea what my rides are. I've never figured out how to calculate ride over run. though i would say rolling hills. Every ride ends or starts with a small hill because I am so close to the river. I usually ride up into Maryland starting at Glen Echo as my base and either do a loop around there or head up to Poolesville. Maryland has rolling hills right?

[malkin]

Keeping track of numbers is not something I do well. I'm pretty sure about how many beers are in a 6 pack, but anything more complicated than that, I end up like Captain Kirk asking, "Is that a lot?"

Still, hilly is when I can't breathe, or can't pedal anymore, or can't believe I'll survive whatever peril awaits at the bottom.

I'm starting to like hills. Some of them.

[sundial]

When I start slowing down enough that I might roll backwards, that's a hilly ride.

[Mr. Bloom]

When I start slowing down enough that I might roll backwards, that's a hilly ride.



[TrekTheKaty]

I didn't answer because my Garmin 305 doesn't do elevation well. And of course, all hills are relative based on mood and the length of the ride. However, I just learned something new. My "hill" workout with DH involves hills that are long--you know can look at it and tell it's gonna hurt. However, I learned in Michigan this summer that a small hill can bring you to a stop, if it's steep enough. They look harmless, then sneak up on you.

My idea of hilly? The Ride the Rivers Century in St. Louis--specifically Calhoun County, Illinois. I have vague memories of wanting to throw brand-new bike in the ditch and lay down on the grass to cry but I made it!

[OakLeaf]

They look harmless, then sneak up on you.

while I love 10,000 feet of gain centuries I HATE short steep rollers. And while I used to say 5,000 foot centuries weren't hilly centuries I am now a convert.

Ah, there's the validation I was looking for when I posted this poll. It's just hard on your legs to go from massive application of force on a climb, to spinning like crazy on a downhill, switch every 90 seconds, repeat, repeat, repeat.

Really I had a bit of a revelation myself today. All we have in my immediate area are the short steep 'uns. Today a group of us drove a short distance for a budget tour in the next county over. There were a couple of pretty good hills, but there was also one that was long but not steep. Now that I look over my data, we gained 374 feet in 2.3 miles (that's in 114 m in 3.7 km ). The max grade on that hill was only 11%, and most of it obviously was much shallower. We all agreed that we could do that all day long. Interesting.