I cruise along during the weekend on my new Sirrus huffing and puffing up and down the hills of Palos Verdes as roadie after roadie zip past me. :irritated

I try tell myself it's cuz I don't have a real road bike but I know the truth....

But I keep plugging away and having a good time. More water and less cramps this weekend.

Getting out in the morning during the week has been tough though

Overall having a blast.

Thanks all....

You'll get there. Never give up. I used to not make it up the top of the street on my MTP with many gears and now I big chain ring it up at 40km/h on my roiad bike

Brendon

yeah you may be discouraged when competing with other people, but when you compete with yourself, you almost always win - at least, as long as you're faithful to your training.

It's so awesome to see progress in increased speed, increased mileage, less weight etc etc. That's enough to encourage me to keep going at it!

Just one month ago, this wimpy little hill would leave me panting and gasping for breath at the top... now that hill is like nothing to me!

Passing is sooooo much fun. The only time it sucks is when the person you passed can hammer harder than you can.

Don't worry about it, everybody has their place in cycling, and there's no shame in being happy with your place. Thats the beauty of it, you can be happy where you are, or you can be happy pushing for a new level.

There's a hill I go up on my commute each day. I still huff and puff on my way up - but I'm going up in higher and higher gears.

If I'd been told a couple of months back that I could reach the peak in anything other than my lowest gear I would have said, "Yeah - right."

I've now got a couple of cogs left to try before I need to slip it into the big ring to go up.

There are probably lots of other cyclist who could do that hill better and faster than me - but I know that I'm improving and that's what matters.

If you think cycling is humbling, try riding out here. Imagine launching what you think is a blistering attack on a hill, only to have the watching kookaburras literally laugh at you!

In all seriousness though, there's no real shame in being passed, and there's no real reason to gloat to the world about passing someone either. Fact is, you just don't know their circumstances. I, for one, am a lot easier to pass after 250km than I am after 2.5km. Here endeth the lesson.

Greg LeMond said something to the effect "it doesn't get any easier, you just go faster" He was absolutely right.

CHEERS.

Mark

It's cool Rats... I've driven the hills near Palos Verdes... they suck.. but lemme tell ya.. I started back into cycling about a year ago... there was a hill over here in Irvine, that I struggled... I mean I was in the lowest gear, standing up, huffing, and puffing, gasping for air, thinking I was gonna pass out after I got to the top... the whole time getting passed by old ladies.. it was terrible... but I kept at it.. this year, on my first real club ride I went over that hill... and ya know what.. instead of feeling like Everest.. it was just a minor inconvenience... I think I powered up it in one of my middle gears.. no problem at all... I was actually kinda proud of myself... it jsut takes time, and as long as you are having fun, you will get better, and faster :-)

Jeff

Keep at it !!

I got passed a couple times in the last two days.

The first one yesterday was an old roadie on a Team Festina (I think?) Specialized. He came up along side me and said good morning, I smiled and said hi. He then tore my legs off. Damn! He had legs like Hemi's on him.

I was riding my MTB so he had an unfair advantage. Yeah that's it. Actually that's not a really decent excuse. My bike is a fairly light hardtail, 23 lbs w/discs. So I was just spinning, yeah that's it. It was an easy day for me. Ahh...whatever...

Then this morning, I another dude on his aerobars went cruising by me while I struggled along into a 16km headwind on my MTB.

Damn legs, hurry up and get BIG would ya!!!

This morning I passed a guy on the bike trail who was riding a nearly identical Trek 5200. Same set up, same wheels, same paint job even. As we go by, I say "Hey, nice bike!" The problem is that I was trying to catch the guy's eye to be friendly and as I swung my head, I drifted into my buddy. (We touched briefly but John's an experienced racer so it was nothing to him.) I was mortified that I almost caused a crash just trying to be cute.

Now that would have been humbling!

So I go out for my second road ride of the season, thinking some MTB riding kept me in good shape.

I am 15 miles out when I turn around to go home and see a lone cyclist ahead. I decide to push it and see if I can catch him. You know how you know how you're doing? I knew I was gaining on him and I felt good. As I passed a side street a fast group came around behind me. I picked up the pace. When I looked back I could barely see them. I felt great!

Seconds later they were passing, no effort, no hello, just here and gone.

The worst part? As they passed the lone cyclist I was almost on top off, he went "WOW" and took off with them.

Left in the dust.