Holy Hills

Yesterday afternoon my cyclist boyfriend and I set out to do a 37 mile bike ride with way more climbing than my legs are used to. I think it was because of my lack of sleep over the weekend but my legs were pretty tired from the beginning. I tried not to think about the distance and instead just focused on what we were doing at that moment. This was only my second ride out on the road so I was still pretty nervous. I told him we needed to take the ride slowly so I could use my energy on the hills, not maintaining a fast pace.

Not far into the ride we were greeted with a closed bridge. We were able to carry our bikes over the bridge and keep going. Unfortunately, though, that was only the first of four closed roads/bridges we ran into. Soon enough we were following a map on our phones rather than the cue sheets we had printed off. Because of the road closures we ended up on some pretty busy roads with constant traffic. We made the decision to cut the ride short so we could get off those roads and not get lost.

The ride itself really wasn't too hilly, it was just the1.5 mile climb at the bottom of my neighborhood back to my house that really did me in. I made it almost the whole way but had to walk my bike a tiny section because I couldn't get clipped in. I was extremely frustrated and felt defeated on this hill. I started panicking about my upcoming triathlon and how I am supposed to handle 1,000+ ft of climbing when I am struggling with only 600+.

My boyfriend noticed how upset I was and suggested I try to ride only that hill a few times a week for practice. I am going to spend more time riding on the road and even try to drive out to the race site to practice riding on the course some. I have five weeks to become somewhat successful at climbing hills. Let's go!