Originally Posted by
Mithrandir
Just curious, those that say 5k over 63 miles isn't too bad; how much do you weigh and how much experience do you have?
I'm 400lb and just hit my first cycling anniversary. Did 1k over 30 miles last week, and couldn't make it up one of the climbs, and ended up hurting my back enough to keep me off the bike for 6 days. I'm trying real hard to train for an event in September, which is two days of 50 mile rides, 3k climbing each. I seriously don't think I can do it at this point, if last week is any indication. People claiming that an event with twice as much climbing as a ride that's twice my current limit (ie 4x total) isn't much climbing... that's ridiculous. How is that even realistic?
To answer your specific question, I weigh about 200lbs and I have a lot of experience. I don't do many organised rides any more, but next weekend I'm doing a sportive which is 104 miles with 7800 ft of climbing. I've done it a number of times before, it's a fairly tough day on the bike but far from the most challenging of its type.
I've said before how different the experience would be at your weight, and how much I admire those who get out there despite being very heavy. And obviously it is futile and counter-productive to tell you to do rides that are, for the moment, beyond you. But my earlier advice, and that given by Beanz, remains sound. The key to hills is to manage your effort and not charge them. Gear down, don't worry about how slowly you're going, just set a pace, and a level of effort, you can maintain, and keep going. If the hills you are riding are too steep to allow that, find some shallower gradients and use them instead. You get better at it, but it takes time and patience.