I took the easy route, haven't tried the harder road yet. Last time I rode with the 35 year old, I made her start out at the same time as me on the Tide Pool Hill, which is about 1/2 mile long and a little steeper then Torrey Pines. I told her to pace herself, but she still had to stop twice. I beat her by a good 2 minutes on that one. She is built like a bull dog (short and stocky, but not really over weight) and can go like mad on the flats but has no good cardio training on the hills. I'm just not comfortable on a down hill I don't know, with lots of people walking around and cars parked on the side and cars racing by on the other side. If it was a flat area or even a down hill with little or no traffic, I wouldn't have a problem.