Originally Posted by
Black wallnut
I go with IBOHUNT's description as well. In that most of my rides are not hilly. I ride some hills, climb some mountains, and spend lots of time on false flats of less than 2.5% some of which take a toll. When I want a good hill workout I go climb a mountain which is just about any direction since I live in a valley. Climbing never has gotten easier but I have been getting faster. Yesterday I had a
PR on a local climb and bettered my time by nearly 3 minutes, 760 feet in 2.5 miles some of which was >13%. Needless to say today my legs ache.
I've done some rides with rollers, yeah that is hard as well.
I've adopted the IBOHUNT model, myself. I find that overall, in a month, I do about 55'/mile of climbing. I don't consider that extreme, but I'm in the foothills of the Rockies.
I found the flattest ride I could this weekend, and it was 700' or so in 35 miles. Was kinda nice, except the headwind nicely simulated a hill on the way out!!
If I go east, the numbers add up faster. With the descent, however, it still runs around the same. I can see a bit over 3,000 in a 40 mile ride fairly easily, but most of it is pretty shallow 3-5% grades.
Once I get about 8-10%, things start to go pear-shaped in one hell of a hurry. I need to practice that more; there's a 'nice' climb that's about 1,000' in 2.5 miles near me that is an absolute killer for me. It's a relatively easy Cat 4 climb to get to the base of it, and then the pain starts.