Awful day today :(

funkydisciple

So, this morning i went out from Chorley, Lancashire and took the A6 from Preston towards Lancaster. Surprised to see that my the time i got there i averaged 17moph over 30 miles. The plan was to then to come through the Forest of Bowland towards Preston and then on to home.

However, when i got in to the top part of the Forest of Bowland and encountered hills that were steepest that i have ridden. I’m not sure how steep but the steepest i’ve Ridden is 12% and managed to do ok but these hills were a lot steeper and for the first time i got off the bike and walked it up the hill. But even the slightest of inclines were testing my resolve. I found that I couldn’t really spin up the inclines, i was really really struggling, it demoralised me and after about...40ish miles my avg had come down to 11mph. There was a lot of walking. Other cyclists were getting up these hills without too much struggle, compared to me. I couldn’t understand it.

I’ve been cycling for about 3 months, every time i’ve Been out on the bike i’ve Had a good ride. I’m getting faster and faster every time i’ve Been out and i was really amazed i avg 17mph towards Lancaster.

I reckon it was the nutrition side that let me down...in the morning i had a a couple of toasts and couple of eggs. Within 15 mins i was out the door. When i got to the start of the Forest of Bowland i had a john west tuna pasta lunch and on top of that throughout the journey i had my science in sport gels.

Do you think it was the nutrition side of it that let me down? It’s probably obvious but i reckon it was...or it could be that perhaps I don’t have the fitness/strength to go up the steep hills i encountered on the bike.

When i was cycling three cyclists came whizzing past me, they must have been about 50 odd years old. I know i’m Probably expecting too much too soon but i want to be like that. Any tips on getting up steep hills>? I know that weight will be the main factor, weighing about 100kgs.

Thanks for reading guys. Hope you are all well. I look forward to any help you guys can give me.,

kajjal

You may have had the wind behind you and got a bit carried away putting in too much effort riding harder than you realised. The key thing is to pace yourself as once you put in too much effort it can be hard to recover. Also be careful about how you eat just before and when cycling, normally leave it an hour after a meal to let my body get back to normal and also eat museli bars on the ride as they work well for me. It just takes a bit of experimenting to see what works best for you.

I am 100KG and have a 50/34 chainset with an 11-32 rear cassette which means how ever I am doing I can pretty much ride up anything.

lettingthedaysgoby

Steep hills are hard. You haven’t been cycling long. These things come with time and practice.

frisbee

Its not an awful day, you've found a challenge. Much better than living somewhere where all the hills are easy.

craigus89

There's some top quality trolling going on on here at the moment.

8/10

#prosdontwalk

big_harv

I think we've all been there. You can blame the winds & weather or whatever, nutrition, anything you like, but when you're just finding out what your body is capable of in this particular way, well...you found out!

No shame in it my friend. I have abandoned group rides back in the day so I could discreetly throw up in a field. It gets better...

Oh, and me, I am a completely crap cyclist by any statistical measure. But I bloody love it all the same.

big_harv

Craigus89 wrote:

There's some top quality trolling going on on here at the moment.

8/10

#prosdontwalk

???
#enlightenusplease

sloppyschleckonds

funkydisciple wrote:

i had a john west tuna pasta lunch and on top of that throughout the journey i had my science in sport gels.

What flavour gels?

pblakeney

Big Harv wrote:

Craigus89 wrote:

There's some top quality trolling going on on here at the moment.

8/10

#prosdontwalk

???
#enlightenusplease

If you are not at pro level, then you are a troll.
#obviousinnit

cougie

So you've just been cycling three months and not really done hills. What do you expect ? That you'd be a natural climber ?

Hills are tough. You need to practice on them.

It wasn't an awful day. Nobody died. You just bit off more than you can chew.

I don't think it's anything to do with your nutrition.

big_harv

OP, no I don't understand the above either.

Ride more, get fit, lose a bit of weight, ride more, then ride more. Repeat.

And enjoy.

F00king weird thread. You seem genuine enough to me.

ivor_pye

Even cyclists of many years have off days, just get back out there.

Bottom briquettes

This sounds like a mixture of a bit of fatigue, and the hills finding where your fitness level really is. Steep, and / or extended hills are good for that. A very good way to get the fitness and endurance you need for this type of hill, is to ride more of this type of hill. Make sure you rest properly in between rides as well. Riding fatigued, is worse for you than not riding at all. If you absolutely have to ride all the time, build in ( relatively ) very low intensity effort rides ( recovery rides ) and don’t be tempted to smash it all the time.

funkydisciple

Hello all, firstly thanks for the comments. Also, it’s a genuine post when i started cycling i’ve Done quite a lot of hill work in my area, thought i was getting good at them, setting a good pace on the flats and thought I’d go for it but the these hills today were like a wall. , and i wasnt expecting to be a natural climber. I just wasnt expecting to get off the bike and walk when all the other cyclists that were riding these same hills seem to be flying up them. I just thought perhaps maybe it was a nutrition thing, cos i did get awfully tired or just perhaps more training is needed. Sounds like from the mixture of views that it’s both and i intend to work on it.

@cougie maybe i did bite off more than i could chew but as i said as i had done quite a lot of hill work and it was only in the last several weeks i been sticking to the flats and just working on being on the drops.

@sloppyschlekends i had the science in sport ones. Blackcurrant isotonic gels.

@bottombriquettes I appreciate your advice. Thank you.

norvernrob

You probably pushed too hard for the first couple of hours then had very little left when you got to the hills. It’s easy to tire yourself out in any distance, pacing is the key and something you’ll get used to. A HR monitor would maybe be a good investment so you can see your level of exertion.

cld531c

NorvernRob wrote:

You probably pushed too hard for the first couple of hours then had very little left when you got to the hills.

Think this is the key - I wouldnt eat anywhere near as much as you had on a ride so I cant see it was lack of food.

joe_totale-2

There's quite a difference between 10% hills and 18-20% ones.
As you noted above it's perfectly possible to spin up the 10% ones, with the steeper ones you just have to dig in and grind your way up as spinning won't really be possible unless you've got crazy low gears.

What's your technique like with regards to climbing out of the saddle? Whilst it can wear you out quicker, for those steep short ones it can give you the leverage required to get up them .

I echo the other posters, pacing yourself and practice are both important.

sloppyschleckonds

You'll find most experienced riders/ #clubbies etc will glasscrank it in the 4-5 miles leading to steep climbs rather than pushing hard to get there

pinno

100 kg's is heavy but that really is only proportionate to your size and height.
Perhaps a bench mark on what your weight should be and start aiming towards it.
I went up to a very portly 73kg's last February. I ended up walking a climb. First time in over 30 years.
I am now down to a thrifty 64kg's and the hills are fun again. The extra weight you carry seems disproportionate to the amount of effort needed to drag it uphill.
Then add the cumulative effect of a rolling ride.

As a newbie, sustaining a cadence, or more precisely, metering a sustainable cadence is a learnt thing.
I would be concentrating on a healthy cadence and forget about average speed.
Shed some weight and you will notice a huge difference.

fenix

What gearing do you have ? You're a big guy so you will need low gears to get up the hills.
Don't have gels. Do it properly and have a cake stop mid way. Gels are for racing - not just riding. Nasty things.
Please tell me you keep the wrappers at least.

laurentian

The best advice I read on hills (probably on here) was that you should aim to finish them strongly

N0bodyOfTheGoat

Jelly babies for a relatively cheap, quickly digestible carb boost, one every ~15mins after you've been riding ~45mins.

I usually buy the Sainsburys ones, much better value (75p for 250g) than the Bassetts ones (£1 for 195g), not looked anywhere else so there could well be better deals at Aldi, Lidl etc.

It's very easy to over-do things when first starting cycling for fitness, especially up hills, I got my t-shirts in spring 2017... Now I love Strava categorised climbs and short punchy inclines, there's plenty of younger and more talented cyclists out there than I, but I love the challenge of trying to beat my PBs and average 300W+ up 6mins+ climbs.

Moonbiker

Maybe hes riding a single speed bike?

ddraver

To be honest...sounds like you re overthinking it a bit. You had a bad day. If it was really your first, it certainly won't be the last. Cycling is great but there are days when it suuuucks!

Have a day off, make sure you re getting a good nights sleep, eat your greens and try again next weekend.

funkydisciple

Jelly babies sound like a great idea. I’ll certainly buy them next time I’m out for a long ride.

@ddraver perhaps i am overthinking it a bit. Like i said in my OP that any incline i came to, not necessarily steep ones, i was struggling both mentally and physically with them. I think i put in so much effort on the first steep climb i came across i just didn’t have it for the many others i came across afterwards.

Listen, i appreciate everyone giving me the advice and it’s great so many of you responded. I am passionate about my cycling, I want to become really goood at it. With a lot of training and effort i hope within a few years i can get much better, faster and stronger.

weezyswiss

Hills are tough, period. I'm no climber and there is zero shame in having a bad day on them. Last weekend I did coast 2 coast and decided to ride through Hardnott and Wrynose passes. 30% is such a difference to 10% and the experience was eye opening!! I did the 15 mile approach at as slow a pace as I could to conserve energy, as has been stated (love the phrase glasscranking it), and still struggled big style (never thought an 8%er was a break before).

So, for me, as a non-climber, it's case of conserve effort, get the sugars in for energy boost and don't hit the base of the hill hard, but steady pace it to finish as strong as possible when the weariness creeps in.

Oh, and if I have a bad day, it's just a bad day and I know other days will be good, but to get my boost back I'll throw in a flatter ride for the next one so as to not worry too much about blowing on the hills and just enjoy the ride and not over think if I'm struggling as at the end if the day I ride my bike to be in the countryside with my mates enjoying life

hairy_boy

Can you work a training route out that includes one climb of the steepness you struggled with ? Then do that as a regular training ride. Much easier mentally to get up one steep climb as part of a longer training route rather than multiple steep climbs to struggle with.

See how you go along with that in say 8-10 weeks time and plan/adjust/extend routes gradually from there. You are still early in your riding journey and will improve with time - persistence is the key.

Is there a local club you could ride with ? I joined a club to ride with twice a week around 4 months ago, struggled with the pace initially and have been amazed how my fitness has improved over that time.

singleton

Most of us will have had a bad day in the saddle, try not to let it discourage you.
Next ride, go out and do something achievable and fun to get your mojo back.
For nutrition, don't eat too much and don't rely on gels - even bars or better, or a banana.

pinno

Flapjacks
Chocolate cake
Cafe stops
Coffee
In any mix...

#sorted

InconveniencedBadger

Singleton wrote:

Most of us will have had a bad day in the saddle, try not to let it discourage you.
Next ride, go out and do something achievable and fun to get your mojo back.

What he said. I had many rides like this when I started riding so I can imagine how you would've felt! It does sound like you went too hard for the first 30 miles - perhaps you had a tailwind for that part of the ride. I would devise a training route that takes in a few of these steep hills at a time and do it frequently or perhaps consider joining a local club.

As for the nutritional side, it sounds like you ate plenty although personally I'd avoid using gels in most situations. Bars/flapjacks are better as they give more sustained energy.

Bumo_b

We have all done it when we started ie had to get off and walk, just most of us do it in private (hopefully). There was a local hill I attempted when I first started, 2km averaging about 8% with a max of 15%. Failed three times to get up it without getting off, once resulting in projectile vomiting after giving it my all. The 4th time I attempted it was on a cold November night about midnight, so none of the local cyclists who seemed to go up it with ease could see my abject failure. I finally managed it that night and still have the screenshot of my Strava that night. Was probably my greatest achievement as it was always my biggest struggle, despite having since completed several European mountain sportives. Trust me when I say it was probably a very good ride when you look back in hindsight and as others have said, stick with it, look at what you did wrong, and go back and keep trying!