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July challenge: 6,000 vertical feet

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July challenge: 6,000 vertical feet

Old 07-02-12, 09:24 AM
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July challenge: 6,000 vertical feet

Last month we aimed for 5,000 feet. This month we can shoot for 6,000, no?



Funny story. Yesterday I spent the day at my uncle's lodge in a mountainous area of NY, near a lake. His lodge was set back from the lake a ways, about 200 feet in elevation (honestly it was like a 25% grade). It was so steep that they simply do not bother walking to the shore, they walked up the hill once, then bought a golf cart to go up the hill and never walked up the hill again (in over 15 years!). There were about 16 of us, and they could only take us up the hill 3 at a time, so I decided to walk instead of waiting forever for the cart. At first my cousins, in-laws, and various other family members thought I was just joking when I said I would walk up the hill, what with me being 400ish pounds and them all 200 and lower. So... I started walking. Not wanting to be one-upped by a fatty, some of the more athletic young men decided to start walking up as well...

I made it up first, and I barely broke a sweat. Two others gave up halfway up the hill and decided to wait for the cart. One other, a police officer, had to stop several times, and was out of breath for 10 minutes afterwards. No one could believe I made it up the hill. It was fun, and I told them my secret was that I've been hitting up the hills on my bike in earnest for the past 2 months.

So anyway that's one real-world benefit of hill climbing.


Last month I did 12,012 feet. This month I'll increase that by 10% at a minimum for 13,200 feet.
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Old 07-02-12, 09:54 AM
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I'm in. Then again it's not really a challenge here in DFW. Hills and headwind are as much a given as death and taxes here.
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Old 07-02-12, 10:11 AM
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I'll sign up for 10,000 feet, but hoping to get more.
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Old 07-02-12, 10:16 AM
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I'm in. Last month I did 26,000 feet, so even missing a week due to a short vacation, I should be able to clear 20,000.
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Old 07-02-12, 10:24 AM
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OK, I'm not as ambitious as the rest of you. I did 7,000' last month, and I should be able to match it this month.
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Old 07-02-12, 10:37 AM
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I'm not going to track it daily but if I achieve my goal of 700 miles this month i am sure to be over 6K of elevation. Just commuting will give me almost 5K and that is taking 5 days off.
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Old 07-02-12, 10:39 AM
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I recorded 7932 last month. Stinking Edge 305 wouldn't fire up for several runs. I'm aiming for 8500 for July.

Is anyone going for the Rapha Challenge on Strava?

A couple years back there was a spread sheet where the Thread could aim for a Group max. We could set a target of 100K' climbing for the Clydes and Athena's. What do you think?
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Old 07-02-12, 11:57 AM
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I'm not going to put any effort into tracking it this moth; I'll record the rides I do with GPS (as always) but I only upload some of them to Garmin Connect, and it's a pain to do all the math. Still haven't done it for last month. Also, I expect to do a lot less cycling through the summer. This weekend, I didn't touch a bike.

Yesterday I hiked 3,000 feet of elevation gain, over the course of about 3.5 miles. I made a friend just below a summit I was going for. He came within 15 feet of me, and wanted to come closer, but I asked him not to, and he respected my need for space. I did the same, and gave up my summit bid to thank him for not goring me. (More mountain goat pics, and scenery too.)







I don't think hiking elevation should count toward the cycling challenge. But I at least have a very good excuse, it's not like I'm being lazy!
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Old 07-02-12, 12:17 PM
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Originally Posted by Daspydyr
I recorded 7932 last month. Stinking Edge 305 wouldn't fire up for several runs. I'm aiming for 8500 for July.

Is anyone going for the Rapha Challenge on Strava?

A couple years back there was a spread sheet where the Thread could aim for a Group max. We could set a target of 100K' climbing for the Clydes and Athena's. What do you think?
I think you'll find that 100k is pretty easily exceeded, given that at iirc one poster in the previous thread topped 50k on his/her own last month. Of course, it depends who is a member of your strava group...
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Old 07-02-12, 04:19 PM
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I can get to 6,000'
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Old 07-02-12, 04:26 PM
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Originally Posted by IBOHUNT
I can get to 6,000'
probably on your first 2 rides this month.
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Old 07-02-12, 04:44 PM
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I just got to Sault Sainte Marie, Michigan and it is flat as a pancake. And the roads are crap.
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Old 07-02-12, 04:50 PM
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I did 5700 feet in June, so I'm up for 6000+ in July 600 feet in already
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Old 07-02-12, 05:23 PM
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Originally Posted by Seattle Forrest
I'm not going to put any effort into tracking it this moth; I'll record the rides I do with GPS (as always) but I only upload some of them to Garmin Connect, and it's a pain to do all the math. Still haven't done it for last month.
Not sure what math you're referring to. You can just hit up the "reports" section, switch it to "cycling" and "this month", and it'll list your current elevation gain for the month for you (as well as calories, speed, distance, time, etc)
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Old 07-02-12, 06:07 PM
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Originally Posted by ChrisM2097
probably on your first 2 rides this month.
Correct. Ain't living in the mountains cool!

1 July 40.7 miles 3383'
2 July 54.1 miles / 5466'


MTD - 94.8 miles / 8849'
YTD - 2774 miles / 155,245'
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Old 07-02-12, 06:09 PM
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Originally Posted by chasm54
I think you'll find that 100k is pretty easily exceeded, given that at iirc one poster in the previous thread topped 50k on his/her own last month. Of course, it depends who is a member of your strava group...
Yeah, there was a 50K and I was at 40K+
Not hard to get to 100K that way.
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Old 07-02-12, 07:02 PM
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Originally Posted by IBOHUNT
Correct. Ain't living in the mountains cool!
I'm fortunate that I live in fairly large valley, right at the edge of the foothills - so my rides can be as flat as I want (150' in 25 miles), or as steep as I want (2,000'+ in 4 miles). Unfortunately, there's not a whole lot of long, gradual climbs. Once you get to the hills, you're typically facing 10%-15% grade for miles. No good for my knees.
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Old 07-02-12, 08:00 PM
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My goal is 20k

Only report at the end of the month.i do log all my rides into garmin connect.
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Old 07-02-12, 08:06 PM
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I'll go for 10,000'. I'll have to do at least one 40 mile ride/week on the single to hit that.

Date miles gain tot miles tot gain
7/3 31.9 1200' 31.9 1200'
7/4 17.9 315' 49.8 1515'
7/7 42.3 650' 92.1 2165' (I better step it up)
7/8 40.3 2250' 132.4 miles total 4415' total
7/10 15.6 335' 148.0 miles total 4750' total
7/11 12.7 140' 160.7 miles total 4890' total
7/12 24.6 700' 185.3 miles total 5590' total
7/14 39.4 1040' 224.7 miles total 6630' total
7/20 33.2 282' 257.9 miles total 6912' total
7/22 44.0 1709' 301.9 miles total 8621' total
7/25 13.4 275' 315.3 miles total 8896' total
7/26 19.0 1723 334.2 miles total 10,619' total DONE!
Business travel has put my goal in jeopardy.

When all was said and done I hit 439 miles, 13,500' of climbing for the month. Next month I'll go for 15,000' which should be easy since our normal (not climbing) rides around here are between 40 and 50 feet/mile. This has been my best month in a long time, maybe in 25-30 years!

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Old 07-02-12, 11:43 PM
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I'm in.
Shooting for 20k.
Now that I'm mostly all healed up from my crash, I plan on milking July for all it is worth.
I missed so much riding in June.
I rode yesterday and did 2000' in 11 miles.
Won't be able to ride until wed, but will squeeze in at least 1500'+
I'm 800' away from 100k ytd.
My goal was 150k for the year.
We'll see.
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Old 07-03-12, 02:47 AM
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Originally Posted by Mithrandir
Last month we aimed for 5,000 feet. This month we can shoot for 6,000, no?

So anyway that's one real-world benefit of hill climbing.
super cool intro story.

I had one good day with 3000 feet of climbing last week. I surprised myself by coming within 11 seconds of my PR on the first 1300 foot hill - which I knocked down in 32 1/2 minutes.

The most I've done in a month was over 9000 one time when I was training for a week-long tour ride.

If you guys are really all clydes, hats off and a bow. You sound like my friend who rides like Marco Pantani - small, skinny guy who rides a bike like 48cm frame or something.

Since I've got lots of baby sitting to do this month (the baby is 15 months, too young to sit in a bike seat for long rides ;-( and not a lot of very convenient hills, I'll commit to something besides quantity of vertical feet.

Here goes: I will set a PR for number of "blisters" in a month.
And not literally, thank goodness. There is one hill around hill which only goes up 120 feet or so, but at upwards of a 20% grade - aka the "blister": It's small, but it hurts! So I will knock it down a PR number of times. At least 30. And if I actually figure out how high it is, maybe I can by repetitions also target a monthly vertical count. Will update you.
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Old 07-03-12, 08:52 AM
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Originally Posted by Mithrandir
Not sure what math you're referring to. You can just hit up the "reports" section, switch it to "cycling" and "this month", and it'll list your current elevation gain for the month for you (as well as calories, speed, distance, time, etc)
That only works for the ones I upload to the web site; it can't tell me about the ones I haven't told it about. And the majority of the rides I do aren't really novel enough to bother with on the computer.
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Old 07-03-12, 08:59 AM
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Originally Posted by Seattle Forrest
That only works for the ones I upload to the web site; it can't tell me about the ones I haven't told it about. And the majority of the rides I do aren't really novel enough to bother with on the computer.
Heh, just hit "upload all activities". I upload everything, even 1-mile inter-ride "rides" (ie: riding from the car to the start of a ride). Miles are miles.
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Old 07-03-12, 09:26 AM
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I shouldnt have a problem making it - lots of hills here in Portland. Yesterdays ride was 58 miles and 3200' - https://connect.garmin.com/activity/195162064

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Old 07-03-12, 10:20 AM
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I'll try for 25,000'.
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