Knowing that I suck at hills, I decided to tackle some pretty nasty ones around my neighborhood. Living in the East Foothills of San Jose, I haven’t taken advantage of riding the two-lane roads that dot the hillside. Well, on Sunday, I decided to figure all this stuff on my own, and to test different approaches to climbing. All in all, I did about 20-miles of steep, windy roads with a strong headwind (I hate headwinds). Yeah, not that long of a ride, but I learned quite a bit about myself as a result.
- I asked a friend of mine on what he recommended to help me overcome hills — he said high cadence, using fast twitch muscles. I told him I had problems with cramping, and he said that I wasn’t peddling fast enough, not hydrating enough, or not taking a stretch break when the muscle starts dancing on its own. I did a combination of all that and pushed myself up some steep hills. The faster cadence really helped with preventing my muscles from fatiguing — who-wouda-thunk…
- Knowing the bike’s gearing is REALLY important, as well as making the most of any forward momentum I already had. However, at one point, I learned that granny gearing is only part of the equation. The other part was….
- Relaxing. I was noticing that I was anticipating having a difficult time with the hills — as a result, I started to tense up. I could feel the muscles in my back tightening, and then my arms, and then my legs… and then they started to really burn. Since I wasn’t trying to keep up with anyone, I had all day to figure out how best to get up those darn hills. I tried everything I could think of. Then I remembered reading that muscles tend to tense up when getting stressed. To de-stress, I got off the bike and admired the beautiful view of San Jose I had and stretched my quads out. I then got on the bike and loosened everything up to the best that I could, breathing regularly and focusing on simply getting to the top of the hill. Amazingly enough, it seemed to work. My legs didn’t burn as badly and I didn’t feel any tightness anywhere… so I must have been doing something right.
- The hill is a mental challenge – just as I thought I was getting the hang of things, I started anticipating getting tired before the top of the hill. Then I stressed out, my legs started to burn then it was back to square one again…. fortunately there were more hills to do
I did stop and recover — then I realized that I wasn’t tired… and my legs weren’t burning like they once did. My brain told me to stop because that’s what I had been doing — knowing that, I tackled more hills… not stopping, but sticking to what I had just learned. I stayed on the bike… and it was an awesome feeling to be able to get over the following hill without getting off the bike! Next I had to do something to maintain my pace…
- So I started humming/singing songs to myself. Unfortunately, the only song that popped into my head at the time was Rihanna’s Umbrella… yeah, I know… but it worked! I’m searching for other songs to make this task more palatable.
Of course, I didn’t learn all of this from this ride alone, but doing this and doing technical and mental experimentation seemed to help. The good news is there are still even more hills that I haven’t tackled in my neighborhood.
Oh yeah, I had only intended to do just a few miles of hills. I felt so good about what I had just accomplished, I went on for another 10-miles of various types of hills that I had previously stopped on. No, I’m not fast, and I did stop a few times… but nowhere as frequently as I had before. It was an awesome feeling!
I can honestly say that ALC7 has been a life altering experience, and that’s before the ride. I’ve learned more about myself in the last 4-months than I have my entire life! I’ve pushed myself to do things outside of my boundaries… and definitely beyond what I thought my own capabilities are. I will be taking all of these things with me into the rest of my life…
On Sunday, I needed a good ride to go on — work’s been crazy and didn’t get a chance to hop on the bike at all, which really made me sad. With less than a month to go to ALC7, I’m feeling good. I’ve learned to teach myself that this event is more a question of my endurance than a race to get to camp. As a result, I’ve really changed my riding techniques and I’ve really strengthened not just my stamina and endurance, but my psychology while I’m on the bike. I’ve learned not to stress and enjoy the ride.
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