Feet of ascent

jame58rown

I was just wondering if 3522ft of ascent is a lot for a 30 mile ride? IIt feels like a lot, but I don't have any other routes to compare it to, so I don't really know.

I just found the route today and feel like I may have found an awesome training run XD

Thanks.

MountainMonster

That's just under 1000m of climbing if i'm converting right, which really is not that much. Depends on your fitness though, and if you ride hills regularly.

SLX01

It also depends on the climb is it gradual for 30 miles or is 25 miles dead flat then a steep climb?

jame58rown

It has a very similar amount of descent, 2 long gradual climbs and a few short steep ones.

Thanks for the replies. :')
It feels like a hellish amount of climbing to me, lol. Guess I'm just being a wimp ;(

MountainMonster

You'll get there eventually. Took about 6 months of riding the same route over and over before I truely felt I owned the climb.

Fitness takes a good while to build up!

chrishd883

Hills can vary in grade, dustance , etc
But as a guide I divide the amount of ascent (in ft) by the distance.

One of my flatest rides (primarily cycle path along old railway lines) = 17ft per mile
Or roughly 490 feet in circa 30 miles.

My toughest ride has been The Monmouth Spring Classic
At 87 miles and circa 9,250 ft that is equal to 106 ft per mile.

Your ride at 30 miles and 3,52ft = 117.4 ft per mile - I'd say that was a hilly route!
The total ascent may not be considered high by many - but in 30 miles it is a lot!

Pro rate your ride up to say a 100k and you'd get say 65 miles and 7,600 ft of ascent.
And that's not too shabby. My winter "easy" rides are circa 5-6,000 ft in that distance.

But as with everything - flat or mountains - it's the intensity at which you ride that makes it hard or easy!

Keep going!

sub55

jame58rown wrote:

I was just wondering if 3522ft of ascent is a lot for a 30 mile ride? IIt feels like a lot, but I don't have any other routes to compare it to, so I don't really know.

I just found the route today and feel like I may have found an awesome training run XD

Thanks.

James, i see you`re a student in ceredigion. Aber uni by any chance?
Tell me what this 30 miler that you`ve found. might be able to help you out here.
being sort of local

jame58rown

sub55 wrote:

jame58rown wrote:

I was just wondering if 3522ft of ascent is a lot for a 30 mile ride? IIt feels like a lot, but I don't have any other routes to compare it to, so I don't really know.

I just found the route today and feel like I may have found an awesome training run XD

Thanks.

James, i see you`re a student in ceredigion. Aber uni by any chance?
Tell me what this 30 miler that you`ve found. might be able to help you out here.
being sort of local

Hi sub (: , the routes closer to Lampeter and goes round to Llandysul. I'm not Aber based I'm afraid.

I've got the route on bikehike, but I don't know how to link it

SLX01

Try looking for local climbs on www.strava.com it will give you a comparison and shows route profiles.

itboffin

Yeh i'd consider that hilly, I did the tour of the black mtns in Wales a couple of weeks ago that's 12,000ft in 121 miles - bloody brutal!

Yet yesterday I went out locally and did 2,200ft in 40 miles so a lot less but they both hurt like hell.

Never seems to get any easier or faster

vorsprung

Yes it is quite a lot of ascent

Converting from miles and feet into km and metres, you did 48.28km with 1073 metres ascent

That is equivalent to 22.22 metres per km

Anything over 15 metres per km has a significant amount of ascent

rolf_f

Yep - it is a hilly route - very hilly. Most of my random West Yorkshire routes are no more than that. Many parts of the country you couldn't get close to that if you tried!

To put it into context, the Fred Whitton covers 112 miles and 12500 feet. That's slightly less hilly than your route

jame58rown

Rolf F wrote:

Yep - it is a hilly route - very hilly. Most of my random West Yorkshire routes are no more than that. Many parts of the country you couldn't get close to that if you tried!

To put it into context, the Fred Whitton covers 112 miles and 12500 feet. That's slightly less hilly than your route

Is the Fred whitton a sportive in the lake district? With mega 33% hills? If so, I'm chuffed, lol

rolf_f

jame58rown wrote:

Rolf F wrote:

Yep - it is a hilly route - very hilly. Most of my random West Yorkshire routes are no more than that. Many parts of the country you couldn't get close to that if you tried!

To put it into context, the Fred Whitton covers 112 miles and 12500 feet. That's slightly less hilly than your route

Is the Fred whitton a sportive in the lake district? With mega 33% hills? If so, I'm chuffed, lol

It is indeed! It does have some fairly lengthy flattish (relatively!) sections that connect the big climbs so there is a fair bit of recovery between some of the hard bits and it is the combination of mileage and climbage that makes it what it is but you are still doing more climbing on your route per mile than most people average.

kettrinboy

Done a 33 mile ride today, Northants and Leics and 1350 ft of climb,all rolling terrain so to me the OP,s route is what i,d call very hilly in comparison to my usual routes,its hard to average much more than about 10m per km round here.

Bobbinogs

vorsprung wrote:

Yes it is quite a lot of ascent

Converting from miles and feet into km and metres, you did 48.28km with 1073 metres ascent

That is equivalent to 22.22 metres per km

Which funnily enough was almost exactly what I did yesterday, a lovely audax out from Rhosgoch which had 2,500km of climbing over 110km (so 22.7m/km). It was up and down more times then the proverbial lady's undergarments.

No more climbing for me today, just a pan-flat spin on the turbo to refresh my legs.

Benjamin Hall

2500km of climbing.....jeesus

Bobbinogs

Benjamin Hall wrote:

2500km of climbing.....jeesus

Heh heh, we're feckin 'ard here in 'Nam. It felt like 2500km but was a mere 2,500m, still lumpy though