Originally Posted by
Barrettscv
When I lived in northeastern Illinois, a lack of hills made it difficult to climb more than 1500 ft in a day. My big climbing days were few and far between and required a road trip to Wisconsin or a vacation in Italy. There, I could climb more than 6000 ft on a long, hard, day.
Now that I can find a few local routes that can provide 6000 ft of climbing and I'm starting to wonder: How much climbing can a 50+ cyclist do? What is your one-day climbing maximum? How often do you climb several thousand ft in a day?
I am going right back to the OP with one simple observation: Patience is a virtue.
To me, climbing is as much a game of patience as it is anything else. It takes time to develop climbing legs, and more broadly skills... such as choosing the right gearing and hence cadence, eaerly shifting to be in the right gear all the time, and having the skill to stand and keep pedalling without putting the heart rate through the roof.
It's also a matter of trying to divert the mind away from the task ahead. Some have said don't look up the road because that can be demoralising. But it can help measure the effort you might have to get to the crest or flat(tish) bit to rest a little. Looking around at low speed can be a bit dicey but it can take attention to the scenery rather than the slope. And there are always your world's problems to solve...
And finally, the skills to drink and eat on the way up cannot be underestimated. I know riders often get to the top of climbs completely done-in and likely because they are dehydrated and undernourished. Taking out and putting in the water bottle from its cage up a 12% grade is not easy if you do so on the flats by coasting. And you get to know that liquid fuel is probably a better proposition on major climbs than hard food, bits of which can be inhaled and cause issues that are prety dramatic.
Machka is a good Prairie girl. Moving to where we lived in the Australian Alpine area in Victoria, Australia, and then to Tasmania was a cycling culture shock for her. But once she got over the idea that she had to attack climbs from the very bottom, and learned how to measure her output to remain viable right to the top, she can now tolerate climbs.
I am not sure, however, if she can understand why I like climbing. Just like I cannot understand why she can tolerate strong winds... as only a good Prairie girl can.