Whats more draining, hills or heat ?

VTech

Ive just done a 1 hour ride in the blistering heat, averaging around 43 degrees with cool breeze head on which was enough too cool me down but not enough to slow me down too much. I managed 26k at a decent speed and it felt real good, I had a litre of squash before I left and kept topped up on the ride but was surprised at how easy it was compared to a half decent hill, I would have thought it would be difficult in the heat but was pleasantly surprised as the terrain was flat and the ride quite easy.

Do you guys find hills far harder than high temps ?

dodgy

Is this thread a veiled way of telling us you're somewhere hot?

Anyway, of course hills are harder. High temps are high temps, just drink more, go out earlier.

rolf_f

dodgy wrote:

Is this thread a veiled way of telling us you're somewhere hot?

But of course it is

Anyway, it isn't just about air temperature but humidity as well. Heat and low humidity (or cold and low humidity) isn't as tough as when humidity is high. Hence why Canadians complain about how cold the winters are in the UK!

meursault

Neither, its wind.

jgsi

" I am Vtech and I sweat a lot in heat and hills...."

Just ride and be sensible mate... last time I was in Mallorca, I got to the top of 1 particular climb out of Puerto Pollenca and threw up... not a pretty sight to various German tourists.

VTech

JGSI wrote:

" I am Vtech and I sweat a lot in heat and hills...."

Just ride and be sensible mate... last time I was in Mallorca, I got to the top of 1 particular climb out of Puerto Pollenca and threw up... not a pretty sight to various German tourists.

This was the kind I reply I was after.
I've done a few hills (nothing mega but tough for me) and been mega sick feeling and drained totally yet I've read here about people in Majorca etc Rodin in the heat and how hard it is so I was expecting to be wrecked after a couple of km but reality was that even 26k wasn't as bad as the single hill I climbed in Malvern a few weeks back. I was simply wondering if in fact others felt the same as for me even a slight hill brings buckets of sweat almost certainly down to being overweight.

paul2718

Heat isn't a problem until you're going up hill...

Paul

Jon_1976

Went up Blackstone Edge the other week, in blazing sunshine. Went up again a few days later at 9pm, pretty chilly. Both times were equally knackering :oops:

smoggysteve

Heat will effect you more if you are overweight. You are not always climbing and you can recover on the flat and downhill. Heat will always be hitting you if you are in it. The bigger you are, the harder your heart has to work to pump blood around and keep you cool so the quicker you will fatigue. Generally, the more aerobically fit you are the better you will adjust to heat. But, it won't necessarily make you a better climber. Better legs does that. A big guy could climb better than someone half his size if he has better leg muscles. Depends on your physique.

VTech

Cheers Steve, does that mean that the only way to be better at hills is to build muscles in the legs ?
I feel like I could go for 100k soon apart from the pain in the backside that appears at around 40k and seems to get more uncomfortable as I go on. I love the cycling part on flat and my legs feel strong and I'm sure the weight I'm losing is helping (225lb down to 212lb now) but the hills make me wince at the sight of them and I've had to walk a few now.
I was very surprised at how easy I found the heat today although it was only an hour, I have a 75k this evening if I can finish work in time and there will be over 120 riders in the group so really looking forward to that. It will be on the flat but I'm not so sure of speed yet.

CiB

Jon_1976 wrote:

Went up Blackstone Edge the other week, in blazing sunshine. Went up again a few days later at 9pm, pretty chilly. Both times were equally knackering :oops:

Blackstone Edge is my favourite ever hill, and I'll prob never get to do it again. Going up it is okay, it's coming down that's the bother - even though it ought to be possible to break your own personal land speed record going down there's always a howling gale holding you back on the descent so silly speeds are out of reach. Pop round the other side and have a go at getting to the White Horse from Mytholmroyd - the climb from that side is England's longest continuous at about 5 miles, but it's worth having a go.

Answer to OP is that hills grind you down quite quickly in a few short miles; heat does it gradually over a longer time, and as hills come & go but heat tends to hang around for the duration heat is probably the bigger hit, assuming you're out for a decent amount of time.

Jon_1976

CiB wrote:

Jon_1976 wrote:

Went up Blackstone Edge the other week, in blazing sunshine. Went up again a few days later at 9pm, pretty chilly. Both times were equally knackering :oops:

Blackstone Edge is my favourite ever hill, and I'll prob never get to do it again. Going up it is okay, it's coming down that's the bother - even though it ought to be possible to break your own personal land speed record going down there's always a howling gale holding you back on the descent so silly speeds are out of reach. Pop round the other side and have a go at getting to the White Horse from Mytholmroyd - the climb from that side is England's longest continuous at about 5 miles, but it's worth having a go.

Does that equate to doing this loop in reverse? http://app.strava.com/activities/54057892#982244290 That descent (which I presume becomes the climb) is awesome. Got to agree, its a great bit of road. Definitely worth the 50 mile round trip to do it.

rolf_f

CiB wrote:

Blackstone Edge is my favourite ever hill, and I'll prob never get to do it again. Going up it is okay, it's coming down that's the bother - even though it ought to be possible to break your own personal land speed record going down there's always a howling gale holding you back on the descent so silly speeds are out of reach. Pop round the other side and have a go at getting to the White Horse from Mytholmroyd - the climb from that side is England's longest continuous at about 5 miles, but it's worth having a go.

Ahh, Cragg Vale. And speaking of headwinds (and Cragg Vale is pretty evil towards the top if you have a headwind), I have a loop out to Littleborough through Calderdale, up Blackstone Edge and down Cragg Vale. I've had a nasty headwind all the way up to Summit in Calderdale and down to Littleborough and consoled myself that it would give me a tailwind down Cragg Vale which would be fun. It didn't. It was another headwind. Cragg Vale isn't steep enough to be fun descending into a headwind.

There's better speed record hills than Blackstone Edge though - steeper and straighter though the surface and width of Blackstone Edge do help.

sungod

as above, degree of fitness plays a big part, also size

the heavier you are, the more energy you must expend to raise your mass through a given distance, combined with proportionately less surface area/kg than a skinny person, i.e. not such a good heat sink

humans are typically around 18-23% efficient, so if you're putting out just 250w mechanical energy to climb, think how much energy is going towards heating you up, to maintain core temperature you have to lose the heat as fast as you generate it

on the flat, you get cooled by the breeze, even in the 30s-40s it's ok, but when you hit a climb and lose the wind you can start to heat up, so it's open jersey time

i was in lanzarote last may when the calima arrived, c. 40c, out on the road it was fine, really only on the climbs that it felt hot, then pacing is important and staying hydrated, pushing it on really hot days i was drinking 1l+ an hour

when you get the salt crust forming on jersey and helmet straps you know it's a hot one :-)

unixnerd

Neither, its wind.

+1. Coming from the Highlands I find hills easy but anything above 17C a nightmare (and thankfully rare).

team47b

worst thing is when you stop to pick up more water and tip the remains of your current bottle over your head and then realise the water in your bottle is hot enough for making tea :shock:

You get acclimatised to cycling in 40c+ and wear arm warmers when it's only 17c (me first thing this morning)