An eight year old girl to her father, “ this hill is so steep my legs are out of breath”

Hills, I hate them. Being a full figured rider standing 6’3 and weighing in at 265 (for now) they are my bane.

While I can cruise pretty easily at 17-20 mph on the flats, on the hills I’m a turtle. Want a blow to your ego? Ride up a long hill stretch pounding it only to have a Middle Aged woman wearing a Snoopy T-shirt riding a mountain bike blow by you.

Now I’ve got nothing against Snoopy, or middle aged women or mountain bikes for that matter. But pleeese, it just isn’t fair. But darn it, Newtonian Physics favors the slight of build when climbing hills on a bike. The riders I crush on the flats leave me in the dust going up hill. So we know the answer to being

a better bike rider, right?

To give you an illustration, the following is from an article on Bike.com

“On a slow-burn climb, where you hold 200 watts up a six-mile climb with a three-percent grade. If you weigh 180 pounds, you’d average 11.46mph. If you weigh 175 pounds, you’d go 11.65mph. At the top of the climb, you’d have saved 30 seconds. That might not seem like a lot, but if you’ve ever watched someone slowly roll away from you, you know what a difference even a few seconds can make.”

So at 265 or 85 lbs more than that 180 lb rider I would be 510 seconds or 8.5 minutes behind. Ugh.

So if I took off just 30 lbs. , which is realistic, ( yeah right) I would improve my time by 3 minutes. Snoopy girl look out!! My best training for hills is to push away from the table, bar and the dessert tray.

They say the ideal weight for a climber is 2 lbs per inch. At 6’3 that would be 150lbs. Hell I didn’t weigh that little in 5th grade.

But the numbers don’t lie and frankly my biggest fear on the trip will be taking on those 5000 ft climb days. I have two months til departure so, WW it is. As I mentioned in my prior posts. A big part of the training is mental, and maintaining a good balance of diet with my riding will be a mental challenge for me.

But now you can understand why riders are so obsessed with equipment weight. When you have 3% body fat you look for other ways to reduce weight.

For hacks like me, we are much better off losing 5-10 lbs than buying $3000 Zip carbon fiber wheels or a $15,000 15lb bike. True these purchases will make you quicker but REALLY? Why not just lose a little of that spare tire?

We all have mental images of ourselves and then there is reality. Below are the two versions

Darn it the camera makes you look fat, I hear. But really… The fact is pictures are sobering and a reality check for sure.

So while I’m training and struggling up hills I always call up the famous Jens Voight quote: “Shut up Legs” or as my brother would say “do yourself a favor a drop a few pounds you fat a$$. Gotta love family…

In addition to riding and diet, I am hitting the weight room. This is more to build muscle to support the long ride. Lots of upper body for shoulders and back as well as arms. I did leg work earlier this winter but am backing off on that and riding. I am told muscle burns calories so I am trying to add lean muscle. German training high reps at 60% of max effort.

Typically, I am doing 3 sets of 20 reps and 3 exercises per muscle group. Feels good we will see about the results.

So the beat goes on. I sent my check for $9k today so now I am financially as well as mentally committed. One reason I started this blog is to provide another reason for not backing out. (We all have our mind games don’t we). So it looks like I’m in for the long haul😎.

So till next time, smooth roads and may the wind be at your back 🚴‍♂️