Will this hill ever get easier?

[Andrea]

Yes, it will get easier.

I've had to learn to love climbing, and I find that singing "100 bottles of beer on the wall" while I'm on a long one helps take my mind off of it.

Also, I'd consider myself lucky- there are a lot of beginners who never have to climb things like that who get totally intimidated the first time they encounter such a hill. Even though it's tough now, most hills you encounter in the future will seem laughable to you since you tackle that beaut every day.

[HoosierGiant]

Yes, it will get easier.

I've had to learn to love climbing, and I find that singing "100 bottles of beer on the wall" while I'm on a long one helps take my mind off of it.

Ditto!!

Only I sing: "100 shiny new bikes on the rack, 100 shiny new bikes. Take one down, ride it around, 99 shiny new bikes on the rack."

[sfa]

You probably won't notice it getting easier, but one day you'll realize that, hey, you just made it up the hill without thinking about it much AND you did it faster than you used to. One thing I've noticed with hills is that a lot of times they don't get noticeably easier, but I DO get noticeably faster at them. I'm maxing out my heart rate still, but I'm getting more power for that same heart rate than I was before.

Sarah

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Looeez,
When i started biking over three years ago there were some long daunting hills like you describe that made me feel like I was going to have a heart attack, my legs were screaming in pain, I was gasping for breath and making the most awful gasping noises.

Now, just by having ridden them repeatedly, they present no special problem other than my breathing a bit more deeply and my heart rate rising a bit. No gasping, no pounding heart, no leg pain.
I don't 'train' or ride huge amounts like some others, I just do various 10-30 mile routes maybe two or three times a week. The routes are a combo of hilly and flattish, with a few pretty steep hills thrown in.

It WILL get better, don't sweat over charts and graphs, just ride and it'll happen.

[Biciclista]

hey, that's MY commute. only the 6% grade on my commute is in the last half, not the first half.
It will get better. I commuted over 100 times this year and I can tell you it DOES get better. But you're never going to feel like a butterfly going up that hill. It will always be work, but I promise, it WILL get better.

PS you have to start from somewhere and the fact is, you ARE getting up that hill.

[Cataboo]

I often think that about hills - but I also notice that I'm taking hills a lot faster and in a lot higher gears than I used to... So the hills remain hard, but ones that i used to find godawful, I now find not so bad - even if I'm still sweating & breathing hard at the top.

What I want to know is, will the hills ever get effortless? because I see some people riding and it just looks effortless...

[OakLeaf]

My opinion? The hardest hill you do will never be effortless.

"Effortless" hills are the ones that are so low on your scale of what's a hill, that you don't notice them any more. People who seem to take your hill so easily probably train on much steeper and/or longer ones.

That would be my thinking, anyway. I occasionally ride with people who are much stronger than I am, pretty much the strongest riders in my area, and the toughest hills we do are still an effort for them. A lot easier for them than they are for me - but still an effort.

From the opposite perspective, there's a hill on TOSRV that, to us hillbillies, literally is not a hill, but to the many Columbusites who ride that ride, is quite daunting.

[Becky]

Wasn't it Greg Lemond who said, "It never gets easier, you just get faster?" It's so true!

As for the effortless part, that's someone's darn good poker face

[Loraura]

I don't remember WHEN it got easier, but the hills on my way home are definately easier now than they were a year ago.

I used to actually fear steep hills, thinking I would fall. Not any more. I'll try just about any hill once. I've even had to slolom up some hills they are so steep. It's always a win for me if I can stay on the bike moving in the desired direction!


I'm also overweight and not in great shape. But I'm less overweight and in better shape than a year ago!

I do know that when I started commuting part time on a fixie I got MUCH stronger, in a short amount of time, and the geared bike seemed so easy after that.

My mantra up steep hills is "it's just temporary pain".

BTW, 300 feet of climbing in a mile is not a breezy easy climb for me, for sure.