Not sure if you roadies check out the ride reports forum, but I thought this was worth a cross-post. But so that it isn't an exact copy of the other thread, I'll leave the pics in the other thread, and try to add a bit more substance about the ride here...
I live out in the country, and in the hilliest (is that even a word?) part of "town". The longer I live there and the more I ride the hills, the more I realize how lucky I am to have this type of riding just yards from my house.
I've never liked riding the same section of road twice, especially in the same direction. Several times I've thought about doing hill repeats to get stronger, but the thought of riding the same hill 3 or 4 times kills me. So I mapped out a slightly different route...
I start at my house and ride about 1.5 miles to the top of the first hill, I ride down and back up, then down and back up the second hill, down and back up the third hill. All told it's about 18 miles with roughly 3000' of climbing. I start with the easiest hill and finish with the hardest. There are two places on the ride where the grade is over 19% (one on the second hill and one on the third hill). There are virtually no flat/level spots - you're either bombing down a hill or suffering up one. Not much real recovery time. I didn't pay real close attention to my computer, but I'd guess it was about 5 minutes down the hills and 20 minutes back up.
It's a hell of a ride.
I live out in the country, and in the hilliest (is that even a word?) part of "town". The longer I live there and the more I ride the hills, the more I realize how lucky I am to have this type of riding just yards from my house.
I've never liked riding the same section of road twice, especially in the same direction. Several times I've thought about doing hill repeats to get stronger, but the thought of riding the same hill 3 or 4 times kills me. So I mapped out a slightly different route...
I start at my house and ride about 1.5 miles to the top of the first hill, I ride down and back up, then down and back up the second hill, down and back up the third hill. All told it's about 18 miles with roughly 3000' of climbing. I start with the easiest hill and finish with the hardest. There are two places on the ride where the grade is over 19% (one on the second hill and one on the third hill). There are virtually no flat/level spots - you're either bombing down a hill or suffering up one. Not much real recovery time. I didn't pay real close attention to my computer, but I'd guess it was about 5 minutes down the hills and 20 minutes back up.
It's a hell of a ride.