Love the Hills? No. Live With Them? You Bet.
I’m a clydesdale, not a thoroughbred racer. My strength on the bike is riding long distances, not riding fast, and certainly not riding up hills.
But the reality is, there’s nowhere around here that’s just flats.
So I must deal with hills.
My main enemy on the hills riding is weight, so shedding every ounce is helpful. Now, I’m not a weight weenie about my bike, but I try to be one about myself.
After that, it’s mostly about attitude.
It’s really nice to accomplish finishing a big climb, but I’m usually huffing and puffing too much to feel like it’s an accomplishment. On the other hand, walking the bike up hills in cleats is not going to be much to brag about.
I doubt I’ll ever love climbing hills, but the rare times I can catch someone going up one encourages me to keep going.
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March 4th, 2010 at 2:22 pm
I really didn’t think about it much when I started running. Except that running near my house was all hills and I hated that I couldn’t run that far. Prior to GAR, I was running 2-5 mile routes on hilly terrain. I planned to get up to 8 miles right before GAR but never made it due to illness, weather or other setbacks. I was really apprehensive about running the GAR because I had never done 8 miles before. But after finishing the 8 miles I felt great, like I could’ve run another 8. Lesson learned,hills are your friend. Now on my runs, I welcome all the hills.