How hilly are your training routes?

I am the god of hell fire

Im fortunate enough to live just outside the Peak and so have easy access to hills for practice

Im curious though as to whats a "normal" ride for others

My 2 favourites are:

50km with 1000m climb
80km with 1500m climb

Where do you live then roughly and how much climb would you get in 50km on average

BTW my average speeds are nothing to write home about

peterst6906

Hhahahahaha... Holland.

Flat as a tac (no wonder the turbo trainer company is called tacx).

Seriously, I couldn't find a billiard table flatter than most of The Netherlands.

sagalout

Live in the North Yorkshire dales.

I can take a variety of routes, from flat to very hilly. A typical Sunday ride will be about 50 miles and 4000 - 5000 ft, so in your terms a 50km would be about 1000 metres, ie about the same

micken

I normally try for about 1000 ft of ascent for every 10 miles travelled and consider that to give good variety for any training route or day out.

amaferanga

The ascent figure for rides varies hugely depending on who/what calculates it though.

Most of my rides are also in the Peaks. Don't take much notice of ascent figures (from my Garmin or any of the online mapping sites), but I'd consider a hilly 50 mile ride to be one that has at least 3 proper hills (such as Mam Nick or the climb out of Sheffield over Ringinglow).

micken

Kidstones, Fleetmoss and Park Rash, you can do those within 50 miles, or less and I think they are proper hills. For reference you could/should use a variety of measures for reliability.

ssk2

micken wrote:

I normally try for about 1000 ft of ascent for every 10 miles travelled and consider that to give good variety for any training route or day out.

Bit of a newbie, but I'm doing about 1200ft (365m) climbing over 30 miles. Seems pretty pathetic compared to some here

micken

ssk2 wrote:

micken wrote:

I normally try for about 1000 ft of ascent for every 10 miles travelled and consider that to give good variety for any training route or day out.

Bit of a newbie, but I'm doing about 1200ft (365m) climbing over 30 miles. Seems pretty pathetic compared to some here

That's great, the idea is to enjoy it. I'm currently trying to build up from 50 to 60 miles plus, following injury last year. I would like to get a centuary in this year but doubt that it would have 10,000 ft of ascent.

That's for next year. :twisted:

sagalout

Etape du dales does - nice and close for you, and if you're doing those hills regularly you'll be fine on it

briantrumpet

Devon - and routes vary between 500ft & 1000ft per 10 miles (whatever that is in new money.) There are one or two flatter bits of main roads, but as soon as you go off those bits there isn't really anything flat. It's good training, though just occasionally it would be interesting to see what I could manage on a long flat route (though I'd probably get bored.)

JamesB

Welsh borders and if necessary I`ll do about 1000ft / 10 mile sriding, average 15 mph on a good day; there are soem good long hills too on that (2 miles or so) and ascent is as shown from Suunto altimeter

ps would also be interested to know what `rate of ascent` others manage, ie m / hr. I`m currently on c 900m / hr for steady long hills (gradient 5-7 %, 1- 2 miles) but if a short (<0.3 miles) steep hill (10 % +) this increase to 1500m / hr

briantrumpet

JamesB wrote:

ps would also be interested to know what `rate of ascent` others manage,

No idea, sorry. I haven't worked out what difference the amount of ascent/descent in a route makes to average speed either. I'm not actually sure it reduces average speed much. As I'm a reasonably climber, I think my ideal route has steepish climbs followed by long gradual descents. One of my faster runs, of 44 miles with 2900ft of ascent (the two most recent runs averaging 20 & 19.5mph) gets up fairly quickly near the start of the route, then runs down the Teign Valley. Since I haven't got any flat routes to compare it with, I've no idea if the profile actually helps speed or not. But I do know that I dislike routes where your speed is dragged down by long gradual ascents followed by short sharp descents where you can't really enjoy the fruits of your uphill labour for any length of time.

Hmm, I've just remembered that I've timed my ride up Peak Hill in Sidmouth. Rise is 134m in 0.64 miles, and I've done that in 6'45", so that makes it 1191m/hr.

JamesB

Down in Sidmouth over Easter so I`ll have to try and betetr that tine --unlikely I think, it is a tough hill indeed

briantrumpet

JamesB wrote:

Down in Sidmouth over Easter so I`ll have to try and betetr that tine --unlikely I think, it is a tough hill indeed

That's timed from where the hill kicks in properly (just after Connaught Gardens, by the gate) to the first entrance into the car park at the top. Have fun!

bompington

Don't do a lot of pure training rides but my most practical commute (i.e. quickest route that isn't along a busy dual carriageway) is 30km & 400m ascent (19 miles and 1300' for oldies )
I'm sure some folks can top that?

lonewolf3890

Lucky for me, I live near steep hill climbs and mountains. There's a habit a true climber always does during the climb. He's out the saddle all the way to the top of the climb. Climbers don't use no 11-28 or 11-32 cogs either. You ever seen a rider using 39-28 on the climb. It's just funny. My point is that, to get those legs stronger. You have to climb steep hills. It becomes normal after a while.

Slack

briantrumpet wrote:

Devon - and routes vary between 500ft & 1000ft per 10 miles (whatever that is in new money.) There are one or two flatter bits of main roads, but as soon as you go off those bits there isn't really anything flat. It's good training, though just occasionally it would be interesting to see what I could manage on a long flat route (though I'd probably get bored.)

I'm Devon also, and the only flat bit of road nearby is the bit at Slapton Sands! But of interest, I went up to Somerset for a long flat ride to see what the difference would be, and the average speed was the same!!

solsurf

Live in the Lake District Staveley. Its just one big hill. For a quick killer it's right out of my house, right at Ings and then up the Kirkstone Pass and back down the struggle and home all in little over an hour and that is me pooped for the day!

vs

Exmoor: 10 miles = 1000 feet of climbing on most routes with plenty of 25% plus gradients.

The toughest well known climbs are of course Porlock Hill and Dunkery Beacon both of which are fairly brutal. There are also countless 'hidden' climbs which come close and in a few cases exceed these in terms of difficulty.

Buckled_Rims

Yesterdays training route, short and very sharp. I think there was a few brief sections over 20%. I'm normally on the 39/24 gearing for climbing, with the 27t cog as the bail out.

Distance: 65.9 mi
Elevation: + 7758 / - 7827 ft
Departed: Apr 17, '11, 09:05AM
Moving time: 04:22:42

unixnerd

My favourite is the Cairngorm ski road, will be doing it in a few hours time hopefully :-)

http://www.livestrong.com/loops/aviemor ... Lk25zbaRg/

Another good one is over Slochd Summit to Tomatin and back to Aviemore. Not as steep but a bit longer.

cogidubnus

I tend to do about 1000m in 30 miles if I am specifically doing climbing training. But normally it will be anything between 800m-1400m in a 50 mile ride. I live in Sheffield so cannot go anywhere for hills..

starlet_gt

my 18 mile route is around 1000ft, 44 mile route has 3200ft and a 25 mile route with 2800ft. I live in Wales so theres hills wherever I go really.

unixnerd

Sometimes I promise myself a cycling holiday in Norfolk, just for a nice change! :-) I enjoy hills, but just now and then a nice flat run would be a real treat.

ddraver

peterst6906 wrote:

Hhahahahaha... Holland.

Flat as a tac (no wonder the turbo trainer company is called tacx).

Seriously, I couldn't find a billiard table flatter than most of The Netherlands.

Beat me to it!!

ben16v

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/79984203

todays training ride, pretty typical of what i do in Snowdonia, on Anglesey is a fair bit flatter but still enough lumps to get the Heart rate up

owenlars

50 ish miles covers Wimbledon to Epsom Downs, Ranmore, Leith Hill, Whitedown and Box Hill and back to Wimbledon maybe 3000-3500 feet.

I am the god of hell fire

blimey - thanks for the interest!

Ive only just realised that having to ride hills out of necessity can be a blessing
Being built like an anorexic stick insect does have its benefits

I was curious really about whats normal for a training ride after some mates from the SE decided they needed to come and visit as part of their Etape preparation

They are keen riders but have never ridden up anything more major than Highgate Hill - which I admit is steep but not that long

Cheers

Mr Plum

Living on the south coast I can avoid any climbing if I'm feeling really lazy, but a typical wednesday route for me would cover 60 miles with 3500ft ascent. Sundays vary, but over 80 miles it would be more like 4500ft+.

genki

I do most of my training in Luxembourg. Here the terrain is awesome for cycling. I aim for about 500m of ascent an hour on a rolling route. If you cut across the grain of the land you can spend all day going up and down. But if you go with the grain, and follow the rivers, you can do a 100km route with no more than 400m of ascent.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/80248110

Mark Alexander

I'm in Wales and as the club name suggests, the Ogmore valley, runs into the Bwlch and Rhigos so they can be regular jaunts.