The hill heading up to my house is about a quarter-mile at 6-8% grade then it turns and goes up 12-14% for another 200 yards or so. This is definitely a workout, but I feel like I've been getting better at it. At least, I did feel that way until last night.

Last night, as I was riding up the 8% section, a woman on the sidewalk ran past me like I was standing still.

The computer said I was going 5.9 mph at the time, so she was definitely hauling. I caught up to her at the bend, but she was turning around to go back down the hill.

Has anyone else had an experience like this, or is it just me?

i've never been passed by anyone on foot, but i live in chicago, one of the flattest cities in the nation, so there are no hill situations here like the one you do battle with everyday.

When I first started riding, going into the 35 mph coastal headwinds I was passed by seniors on Rascal scooters all the time. Then there was that time I was passed by an old guy in a WWII vets hat. He was on a bicycle as well. And he had his walker strapped to the back rack.

You start to get numb to the shame after the first 10 or 20.

Hasn't happened yet, but I am sometimes going up a certain hill at the same time as a group of runners that all wear the same burgundy t-shirts (all buff young men...might be military?)...the hill isn't terribly steep, maybe 8% max, but I'm waiting for one of them to race me up the hill.

Ouch...

I play a little game when running.

If I hear a car coming up behind me, I pick a point farther down the road and try to get there before the car passes me. If I manage to do it, I pick another spot.

It's not hard for me to imagine changing the game a little and make my goal to pass a bike struggling up a hill. I've probably done it.

So it may not be that she always runs that fast up hill. On the other hand, 6 mph is only a 10 minute mile, - which is pretty slow for a runner.

Sorry.

Edit: If she turned around it's possible she was doing some hill work and she was pushing herself pretty hard.

Nope.. You're the only one

Seriously, I've been passed at one time or another by just about everything.
I've found some of the oldster Freds can be surprising.
To my credit, I have yet to be passed by anything on training wheels or handlegrip tassles, but that time may be coming....

In my defense, I was trying to avoid being winded when I hit the really steep part. Even so, I'm not sure I could have kept up with her if I had gone all out when she was next to me.

I'm trying to console myself by thinking back to the day I passed a young guy on an electric scooter on a milder hill.

I was passed by an older couple on a tandem last night. No runners yet though.

One of my former commuting routes contained a serious grade, and one evening, almost 2 years ago, I had a runner pass me. I cheered as he passed. Could I climb faster than him? Now, almost certainly. Then? Not if I wanted to make it all the way home.

There was a cyclocross race here a few years ago where a guy on a unicycle passed about a quarter of the two-wheeled beginner field after starting more than a minute behind them. Happily, I was racing in a later group that day and avoided the humiliation.

Happens to the pros too...even the dopers...

Meanwhile on the running forum...

"I dropped some guy on a BIKE!!!"

I hadn't even thought about it that way. Thanks! Now when I replay it in my mind, I'll picture her wearing a devil costume and waving a pitchfork at me.

I was passed by a guy on a skateboard once and it was infuriating! I couldn't understand how he was going so much faster than me and exhausted myself hauling butt to catch up with him. Turns out he had a motor on the darn thing!

BUT when I was running hills for a race I was training in, I did pass bikes because I was throwing all of myself into sprinting up hills and then walking back down them. If I kept myself at that pace for a distance, I'd be dead by now.

She didn't have to haul a heavy bike up the hill, so no win for the runner. Still, you should be ashamed.

On extreme hill climbs, there's not a lot of difference between being on foot and on a bike. For example, there are annual bike and foot races up Mt. Washington in New Hampshire, and if you compare the winning times of both, they are in the same ballpark (typically about 55-65 minutes for a 7.6 mile climb at 12% average grade). Compare that, to say, a conventional marathon where even a casual cyclist can easily beat the time of a world class runner (about 2 hrs).

So the upshot is that the runner in your case wasn't particularly handicapped by being on foot, like she would have been on level ground. So personally, I wouldn't be any more freaked out by this than I would be if I were passed by another cyclist. It just means you encountered someone in slightly better shape, or more well-rested, or just starting out on their run etc.

been passed just when I thought I was doing good? YES
by a runner? no

I clocked a guy on a long board doing 15 mph.....those things can truck

I have never been unintentionally passed.

Although one time I was working on a sprint (on my bike) and literally tore the pedal off the bike with my foot. That day I was passed by everything INCLUDING my pride.

I think the running me could easily beat the cycling me up certain hills.

What's unusual about being passed by runners? Some of them suckers are fast.

A few months ago I passed a runner, only to have him catch up to me when I hit the steep part of the hill about 500 feet away. That spurred me to go a bit faster and I passed him again for good.

Last year when I first started riding, a rollerblader passed me. I have no idea how slow I was going because I didn't have a computer then, but it was very humbling.

Some rollerbladers can go very, very fast. I had trouble catching up to one once, and I was probably doing about 17+ mph.

They are not your every day rollerbladers. Most have team uniforms, professional skates that cost well over $500, helmets and no elbow pads....