cthenn

I'm curious as to what people think is a good day of climbing, in terms of total elevation gain? For those of you who have a Garmin/altimeter, at what point do you think you've done "a lot" of climbing? For me, a "normal" day of climbing, I probably get 3,000-3,500 feet, maybe up to 4,000'. On a "big" day, I'll do 5,000-6,000'. Most I have ever done is 10,000', climbing Haleakala from sea level.

I'm not "extreme" and rarely ride more than 60-65 miles. I prefer to go hard for 3+ hours, rather than do a hundred miles at an easier pace. So when I climb, I am usually pushing the pace and riding hard. I could probably average more gain if I took it easier, but again, I prefer to ride hard and really get the heart rate up.

So...what do people consider a good day?

bianchi10

Average for me is about the same for you. on a 2 hour morning ride, my rides will usually contain 3K-5K

Elvo

3000 on rolling hills, 5000 if there's an actual mountain

Doughboy6

Living in West Virginia 90% of my rides are around 1000 ft per 10 miles, even my "flat" ride is 25 miles with 2200 ft. So I guess it really depends on the hills themselves, any continuous climb of 5% or greater with over 700 feet of elevation I'd consider a good climbing ride.

metalheart44

Anything over six feet

wallrat

I live in Marin County in Northern California. It's about 75 - 100' per mile on road and 100' - 200' per mile on dirt. A good climb day would be 6-8000'.

Long Tom

4400 feet in 33.5 miles is my winter hill route. It's enough!

Bob Dopolina 

If I ride for 3 hours it is very difficult not to do at least 1000m. Doing 3000m in anything like that time is a lot of climbing.

the fat climber

Living in a relatively hilly area,I usually do around 1600 - 1800 metres for every 100 -120 km ride. So for me personally I consider anything over 2000m per ride a lot. Heading to the higher country (approx 200m higher than home) southwest from home I can usually tick up over 2000m gain in a 100k ride.

Most I've managed is a bit over 2800m in a 130km ride. Some mighty hills that day!

macca33

Any hill that I can get to the top of is a good day!

DXchulo

100 feet per mile has always been the magic number for me.

diphthong

^this

c_mack9

For my part of the country, 3000 ft in 50 miles is a lot. I have to drive to ride in an area like that. If I ride from home I usually do about half that elevation.

NealH

The generally accepted benchmark for a hilly, or mountain ride is 100'/mile. So if you're within 10 or 15% of that after a metric (about 60 miles), then you've had a good climbing day.

moppeddler

We did a bike vacation in South Dakota where we climbed 7000' 2 days in a row! While I'm glad I did it, I'm not rushing back to do it again!

sijray21

i stick with the 100'/mile average with minimum of 50 miles for the ride.

scububa

Climbing out of bed does it for me!

Seriously, one thing I learned as I was learning to "love climbing' is that there is a HUGE difference between riding up a hill and racing up a hill (even if it's a self imposed 'race')

mike12

100/mile also

aaronmcd

I think this is all dependent on where you live/ride. On MWF I commute, so very little climbing. On T/H I add is some hill repeats or climbing, so 2000 - 3000 in 16-24 miles. On weekends I race, but when I'm not racing, I consider a ride out to the coast and back pretty good. 60-70 miles, 6000-7000 ft of climbing.

As scububa said, riding vs "racing" uphill makes all the difference. Climbing isn't any harder than riding flats - it's just the tendency to want to go faster than 6 mph that makes the difference! That and group rides, of course, where every sustained climb is a race.

Fogre

Wow... I don't think I've ever done more than 900' of climbing in a single ride. The highest elevation point within 50 miles of me is only 1000 feet above sea level, and the base of the hill starts at 400'.

I had to do loop around and do a few hills twice just to get my paltry high of 800' or 900', whatever it was. Welcome to Indiana!

(For the record, there are some pretty big hills in the southwest of the state, but I've never made it over that far yet.)

jaxgtr

Considering I live in NE Florida which is all flat....a 100 ft bridge is all I have to look for so a few times back and forth is about it for me...so maybe 400-600 ft depending on the route I take.

generalkdi

Over 1200m is a good day for me.

hyhuu

I only ride for fitness so there is no such thing as a bad day of climbing for me, only slow and slower day of climbing.

RPK79

I'd say my average rides have 1-2000 feet of climbing and when I shoot for hills my rides are 3-5000 feet of climbing.

iamtim

If there are climbs on the route I've chosen, and I climb them better and/or faster than I did the last time I rode that route, that's a good day of climbing.