Mostly flat with small hills, but one very steep hill near home which is a b*tch to get up on my way home.

Edmonton is pretty flat, but one can get a fair amount of climbing done by going through the river valley. My commute dips into the valley twice, plus once through a ravine; Garmin tells me I get about 450 feet of climbing each way over 16 km/10 miles. Plenty of flats in between.

I quite like my Garmin Edge 500; it has a barometric altimeter for more accurate elevation change tracking. Sign up for a free Garmin Connect account, plug the GPS into a computer, and it all syncs seamlessly. Connect also now has Strava-like segments, if you're into that sort of thing. I don't actually use my GPS on my commute, just a couple times initially to get distance and elevation data.

I live in chicago, what are these things you call "hills"?

I get a bit of both. I used to head up Cariboo hill in the morning through NW and Burnaby down Byrne Road and then flat along the river and over the Knight Street bridge; sometimes I would change it up and head home over Argyle. The trip home was normally over Knight St bridge, along the river and up Byrne Road back to the base of SFU. Some up, some down, some flat. The hills, along the river and bridge are usually where I pushed it since it was a bit meandering in Burnaby; on the side streets with turns that do no promote speed continuously.

Now I get it pretty flat to my sons daycare from Cambie and 20th to Renfrew and Grandview then along Slocan and over the Knight Street bridge, I get up and down. The reverse is a nice climb up Argyle (Strava says 58 m), so fairly short.

If I do not do the daycare run I get to go straight down to the river along Cambie, then over into Richmond and some mornings I tuck and crank it along River road. Then I usually try to blast back home up Cambie.

Both.

15 miles each way with 40 feet of "climbing" on the return trip.

Not flat.
I don't think there's a place on my route that's not climbing or descending.

That's my ride!!!

I've mapped it in Strava and used the Find Altitude site. The hard part is right at 185ft in 1/2 mile with 160ft of the gain in just a bit more than halfway before, mercifully, it "flattens" out from ridiculous to just steep.

If I go the direct route I get a 100 yd flat run at it from the side street. Going the long way gives me a 2 mile downhill run where I can get a 30+ mph start. It helps!!

From this morning's ride:

now? neither , 8 blocks from town center [ PO/County Courthouse) its a short pootle..

18 months ago it was either a half hour around the edge near the sealevel.

Or Get off and Push a lot until at the the top, then try to not smoke the brakes down the other side ..

Astoria is on a peninsula.

Sometimes someone will drive home the point that there are colonies that are much more British than California.

That's a great commuting average speed.

It would be if it were in town, but most of it is a 20 mile detour into the country and I have an hour of riding with no stoplights.

Every hill has a crest.

As for me?

Route Work Commute
Count 49
Distance (miles) 337.97
Ride Time 22:05:06
Ride Time (secs) 79506
Ascent (feet) 78
Descent (feet) 104
Calories 32442
Average Distance (miles) 6.9
Average Ride Time 0:27:03
Average Ride Time (secs) 1623
Average Ascent (feet) 2
Average Descent (feet) 2
Average Calories 662
Average Speed (mph) 15.3
Average Pace 0:03:55
Average Pace (secs) 235
Fastest Speed (mph) 40.77
Fastest Pace 0:01:28
Fastest Pace (secs) 88

I'm gonna have to go with flat "time trial".

Both. It's a couple miles of mild hills to get me onto the bike path, where I join the spandex peloton for a Cat 6 free-for-all.

It's sort of like a strong wind coming off the lake: you're still pedaling hard, but you're going slower.

Well thanks to all the great suggestions here I have entered the modern era and uploaded my commute on mapmyride and got my elevation gain. Not sure if looks tougher or easier on a graph as opposed to riding it at midnight in the rain....


Cheers,

Dave

If you want to make your ride easier, just increase the scale on your y-axis!

Except there's no wind to cool you off and evaporate sweat.

work area is pretty flat:

About a year ago I started picking old steel from CL and rehabbing them. Some I sold, some I kept. One I kept was a mint 1985 Miyata Six Ten that I tore down, greased and rebuilt (switching from the shimano derailleurs and dt shifters to Suntour Mk II and ratcheting barcons). For the past 30+ years when I've gotten on my bike (Trek 660 to Trek 220 to Aegis Aero Svelte cf) its been to push and challenge myself. This past spring I got on the Six Ten. It was a revelation. It's a wonderful, relaxed, soft ride. I started riding trails in our area. We've lived here almost eight years and I'd never ridden them since I think a road bike at speed has no business mixing things up with walkers, runners, roller skiers, BSOs, babies in Burleys and dogs. I really enjoyed myself. I still go out on my road bike (built it up up this past winter: NOS 1991 Team Miyata frame built up with NOS Dura Ace 7400 group with 1st Gen DA brifters), and I still push, but I'm glad I discovered this new dimension.

My commute now fits into that dimension (on my drob bar conversion early '90's Stumpjumper). It's a time to take a look around, wave at other bicyclists and motorists, explore the occasional new route, get ready for and recover from the day. (I also just bought a fat bike, and that's opened up yet another seam) I still put in 120-150 miles a week and only about 40 of it is commuting. My commute has a few modest rises, is mostly on streets, includes a gravel trail through a small wooded area, and it's neither a hill climb nor a time trial. For me it's a time to ride differently. No offense to those who hammer on their commute. None at all. Just not where I am at present.

Well my store is moving and was about to take a slightly different route to get to it till I made the turn off my old route and saw a giant hill. It was massive for a new commuter like me. And I decide the amount of time I would spend walking up it would probably be the same amount of time as it takes for me to take my old route and go down a few streets. But now it's like a challenge to me... one day... I'm gonna ride up that thing without stopping..

Uphill, both ways.


No, really. My commute is bisected by the Trinity River. So the first part of the commute is always slightly downhill, and then a climb. In each direction. The tiebreaker is the wind, which is almost always out of the south making for a headwind on the ride home.

That's a long commute.

Mine would be uphill both ways if I commuted by bike. The difference would be about 600 feet. 2100 feet climbing going into work and 2700 feet going home I think it was when I was curious and checked.