Great advice. Wish I had been up to it yesterday.. We did a 90 miler.. Of which about 20 miles were mountains.. About once a week, I go up into the mountains , but usually not 20 miles worth of mountain riding.. That ride beat the crap out of me.. I did fine on the first 16 or so miles which had the greater grade compared to the last 3 or 4 where the grade was likely about 6 %.
Those last few miles killed me in spite of lots of water and power bars.. How often do we have to do those 20 milers in order to have enough endurance to always be up to them. About 2 miles from the top my guads muscle's began cramping. Maybe nutrition. I was so exhausted, when I started to walk, I had not the stamina to reach around and get my cleat covers from my jersey pocket.
At the top we stopped at a cafe and had a sandwich and a beer.. My muscles were fine coming down. Maybe what did not help, I am getting over a cold and maybe still suffer some of the effects of a cold. I sure hope enough practice at climbing will reduced the chances of cramping, because they were so bad, I was screaming in pain.