I probably should have put "some" before people. I'm not in the 3's (yet...), so I still see it in men's D races.

Great vid UMD....but I didn't hear anyone breathing heavy...:D
If it were me going up that climb you'd certainly hear me from a distance!

[QUOTE=wens;10997626]And that is why I said "in shape and carrying less weight" to eliminate top heavy, muscle dude bros.

[QUOTE=Terex;10997627]You got me there jersey boy. Have a Jager Bomb on me, and then hit those massive elevations in jersey.

Try this: broke a seatpost clamp and had to ride 15 miles standing up to get home. Pain in the xxx, even when it is flat.

Done that, but after the seat was stolen!

Agreed!

[QUOTE=ktanner777;11005374]A fairly comprehensive site for climbs in NJ. Also includes NY and other areas.

http://www.roberts-1.com/b/u/nj/hills/index.htm

I did a few workouts in the spring where I did hill repeats, but switched off every other time between staying seated and standing the whole way up. It dramatically improved my standing ability, and I've noticed recently I've lost some of that since I moved away from that mountain I was using for the repeats. I am mostly a seated climber and stand when the gradient is 14%+ when my cadence drops out of my preferred range while seated.

Update:

Saturday evening I did a good hard ride with lots of out-of-the-saddle climbing up the hills. I really got my heart rate up, and felt some good pain in the quads. Sunday I rested, and then Monday evening I did a nice easy ride without getting my heart rate up at all. You know what I noticed on Monday, though? I felt good, and the hills I casually went up (seated on the saddle) didn't seem hard at all.

Questions:

1. Did my muscles recover and get a bit stronger?
2. If so, what's my next move to build on this progress?
3. Or, is my perceived improvement mostly psychosomatic?
4. If so, does it matter?

P.S. I may have a lot of posts, but I overtrained when I first got back on the bike a few years ago, and then I was off the bike for almost a year, and I tend to forget stuff, anyway, so I'm not what you might call very knowledgeable about all this.

Probably just a case of "fresh legs" from your rest day. Also... I wouldn't ride in this crap i was out for a couple hours sunday and drank about 5L of water! So your next step is to ride super-early in the morning or after the sun goes down wait out the smog/heat wave... it can have a negative impact on your training if you're out there huffing ozone and baking like a tortoise lying on it's back under the hot sun.

So how do you get stronger legs, then?

I'm riding in the late evenings just before the sun goes down. I'm also in a smaller town about an hour and a half southwest of Toronto, so I do a lot of riding in the country. No smog here, just the sweet fragrance of pig manure when they spray the fields in spring!

umd i agree nice video and yoiu shouldve attacked on the hill =)

Keep training and pushing the limit of course.

The "smog" i'm talking about is low level ozone which is quite different than the particulate smog you'll find in the city. This ozone is generated by the sun's rays hitting smog. Ground level ozone is distributed fairly evenly across SW Ontario, you won't be safe just because you're 30 minutes outside the city limits, smog from London, Hamilton, Windsor or Detroit can generate ozone in your area if the winds are right(See the futility of closing our smog belching coal plants and buying power from Americans who just open another coal plant upwind in Detroit and smoke us out just the same!). Ozone can become concentrated enough to burn the leaves of certain crops - so just imagine what it is doing to your lungs - you might as well be smoking if you're out vigoursly exercising on days when the o3 levels are high.

The best option during a smog wave is to exercise very early in the morning or indoors only. Maybe do some weight training and "core" exercises to help your out of saddle stability instead of cardio.