Originally Posted by
locolobo13
Yrs ago at age 11 I started delivering papers. The first Sunday I couldn't even ride the bike! I walked the whole route. The other kids laughed at me. I found I could ride the bike weekdays tho.
The next Sunday I walked half the route and was able to finish the route riding. The next Sunday walked about a quarter of the route. The fourth Sunday I was able to ride the whole route. Yay!
I learned from the experience. Within limits you just have to keep trying and pushing. Do what you can today and try to do better next time. Good luck.
Except at my age, it just doesn't happen that fast. I had the impression from other "just keep working at it" threads, and this one, that by the 4th day climbing the 750 metre 10% grade in my area, I should be sailing up and feeling great. People tell these stories that the first time they tried to climb their particular hill, they walked half ... the next time they rode all the way up but were a gasping mess at the top ... and then third time they made it up with minor difficulty ... and the fourth time they flew up like they were Quintana topping a climb on the TDF.
My experience is more like this ... Day 1: I was a gasping painful mess at the top. Day 2: I was even more of a gasping painful mess at the top. Day 3: Same gasping painful mess as on Day 1. Day 4: Same gasping painful mess as Day 2 ... perhaps even worse.
When does it start to get better?
Once I've recovered from a bit of a surgical setback, my plan is to keep working at it until it gets better ... but how many times do I need to climb this thing before I start to see a vague improvement?