Quote Originally Posted by RoadRaven
YES SNAPPY!!!!


A great bit of advice I got from my sister in law (which I have mentioned here before) was to never walk up a hill. If you have to stop, just stop, rest for a few minutes, then get back on and continue (although you may need to go down for a fraction to get re-started)

The first time I did this on a hill I had never been able to bike up (about 11% gradient for 200 metres or so) I felt such a sense of achievement. That hill had not made me walk, I might have needed to rest, but I biked THE WHOLE WAY up!
I am truly truly bad on hills, but I keep trying. I used to climb off when I couldn't go on, and walk up the hill before starting again. One day when reading a cycling travel book (French Revolutions by Tim Moore - one of the funniest books on cycling ever) I saw a quote from an early 'Tour cyclist on just this subject. He said that if you stop, that is where you start from and you do NOT get off the bike. He said, "I am a cyclist. I do not walk." That is the quote that echoes in my head when I am even vaguely tempted. As for getting into a zone when climbing - one of my legs is named "good", and the other is "girl" - when the going gets hard, I call their names, once per revolution. Dear old things - they just keep going until they can't!