How quick could you do a 3.3km ride ascending 200 metres?

garnett
garnett Posts: 196
edited May 2008 in Health, fitness & training
I've got to do a hill climb on a mountain bike as a timed race. Trouble is I have no idea what sort of time'll be competitive. I'm very bad at pushing myself so I have to do things like use a watch and know "I'm half way, I'm feeling good, time to take it up a level" - otherwise I'll invariably end up wishing I'd pushed harder, or blowing up half way.

So what's a good time? I'm pretty fit (but heavy - 90kgs) and I'd like to think I could keep up with most people over the (relatively) short distance.

Comments

  • garnett
    garnett Posts: 196
    Anyone? I'm guessing about 15 mins. That would be about 13kmh. Sound reasonable/feasable?
  • garnett
    garnett Posts: 196
    Has anyone ever commented on the disparity between the amount of posts in the "fitness" forum in the Road bike section, compared to this "fitness" forum in the Mountain Bike section? :lol:

    I'm guessing the mountain bikers are more about driving up the hills so they can do downhilling on the bikes... Is that right?
  • supersonic
    supersonic Posts: 82,708
    MTBers do ride up hills, just usually not tarmacced ones lol

    So 13kph is about 8mph. I just dunno!
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  • Matteeboy
    Matteeboy Posts: 996
    Garnett wrote:
    Has anyone ever commented on the disparity between the amount of posts in the "fitness" forum in the Road bike section, compared to this "fitness" forum in the Mountain Bike section? :lol:

    I'm guessing the mountain bikers are more about driving up the hills so they can do downhilling on the bikes... Is that right?

    Nope. I actually prefer to blast UP a hill successfully than hammer down one. I'm quite good at ascending, but take it steady on downhills after I half wrote myself off on a bike crash once. Running a company and with a baby on the way, it's not worth the risk of a bad injury.

    I can't see the point in having an MTB that can't be ridden up hills - but I'm in the minority it seems.

    No idea how long that ascent would take - 200m is a reasonable climb so I'd say 10mph max so about 13 minutes if you're pretty fit?
    Two Stumpjumpers, a Rockhopper Disk and an old British Eagle.

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  • garnett
    garnett Posts: 196
    Good point Supersonic!

    The race is on Saturday. It's like a relay of different events and I've been picked for the uphill bike part. I'm pretty certain it'll take about 15 mins so I'm going to just hammer it and see. I'll let you know how I get on.
  • Thewaylander
    Thewaylander Posts: 8,594
    Trick is on your post,

    if the climb is fire road or single track, tarmac, rock or smooth, how steep and incline is it steady or not, i mean it is truly an impossible question to answer until you ride that exact climb
  • god1406
    god1406 Posts: 554
    keeping a constant 8mph is probably harder than you think, for 3.3km...
    Rocky Ridge

    Stuff
  • toasty
    toasty Posts: 2,598
    god1406 wrote:
    keeping a constant 8mph is probably harder than you think, for 3.3km...

    You did say that you felt unsafe on bikes under 30 pounds though, might have something to do with it :wink:
    Stumpy FSR 29er
  • god1406
    god1406 Posts: 554
    Toasty wrote:
    god1406 wrote:
    keeping a constant 8mph is probably harder than you think, for 3.3km...

    You did say that you felt unsafe on bikes under 30 pounds though, might have something to do with it :wink:

    They don't call me 'hill-eater Oli' for nothing.

    actually... nobody calls me that :(
    Rocky Ridge

    Stuff
  • Pippen33
    Pippen33 Posts: 235
    Aswell as fitness, bike weight, tyre width/pressure, hill gradient, you'd have to take wind direction & speed, into consideration, aswell as terrain, and whether or not you gt p***** up the night before.

    On average you should be hitting 11-14mph, assuming you have above avg fitness levels
    spammer
  • Bengdogg
    Bengdogg Posts: 383
    Matteeboy wrote:

    Nope. I actually prefer to blast UP a hill successfully than hammer down one. I'm quite good at ascending, but take it steady on downhills after I half wrote myself off on a bike crash once. Running a company and with a baby on the way, it's not worth the risk of a bad injury.

    I can't see the point in having an MTB that can't be ridden up hills - but I'm in the minority it seems.

    I'm with you on this after doing a nasty ankle injury last year it still hurts 14 months on, gotta stay in one piece
    You just gotta peddle
  • dennisn
    dennisn Posts: 10,601
    Quite possible that you will be able to see the top of the hill as you ride and this should
    give you a pretty good idea of the pace required fairly quickly after you start.

    Dennis Noward
  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Posts: 79,667
    There's people who actually prefer riding up to hauling arse downhill? WHY?
    Go and get your coat, don't let the door hit you on the way out, sell your MTB and get a road bike. :evil:
  • Bengdogg
    Bengdogg Posts: 383
    yeehaamcgee wrote:
    There's people who actually prefer riding up to hauling ars* downhill? WHY?
    Go and get your coat, don't let the door hit you on the way out, sell your MTB and get a road bike. :evil:

    Lol i don't like road riding either, bottom line is being self employed if i cant work i cant get paid , cant support my family and i loose my home, dramatic but true as a worse case.

    I do go down hills fast just not as fast as i could if i wanted and tbh the ankle injury meant 10 weeks of not being able to ride my luvverly bike which was depressing as hell when you are missing the summer and your riding mates are out.
    You just gotta peddle
  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Posts: 79,667
    haha! no offence meant, just a tongue in cheek remark!
  • Father Faff
    Father Faff Posts: 1,176
    Well I got me one of them Garmin Edge gadgets and that seems to suggest I average about 14mph on hilly Yorkshire Dales roadbike territory with up to 50mph downhill and very little mph uphill. Off road my average tends to be about 8mph with up to about 30mph downhill and extremely little uphill. So if you can manage 8mph uphill off road you are doing pretty well. But as others have said all you can do is go as hard as you can - worth warming up a bit before your race though, I always find it takes me about half an hour to warm up but then I'm an old fart.
    Commencal Meta 5.5.1
    Scott CR1
  • Bengdogg
    Bengdogg Posts: 383
    yeehaamcgee wrote:
    haha! no offence meant, just a tongue in cheek remark!

    None taken my man, luckily im good up hills ;)
    You just gotta peddle

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