Chasing Hills

Riding the hill to your advantage!!

Hills Always Seemed Challenging and Insurmountable…. But

In cycling hills, mountain passes, always were challenging. Even when I biked across the country, and was in the best shape of my life (perhaps), I found them hard.

BUT…. over the last couple of years I have been doing rides I call “chasing hills”. You go out, find a hill, ride it, turn around come down it, find the next hill. Hills that I thought were daunting were doable. Yes, harder than gong downhill, harder than riding flat land.

Lately, I’ve been pulling a trailer with the new dog in it. She’s learning to run along side the bike with the goal of not having to pull her in the trailer up hills. But right now I do. Last week we went on a ride through a local park. There’s a old closed road in the park with a BIG hill, from what I remembered. We decided to give it a try. When we got to the hill, it was literally a bump. Barely even noticeable.

I kept riding thinking the BIG hill was still coming, but it never did. What I discovered was that I was better at riding hills and that what had seemed BIG in the past was no longer BIG or intimidating or even challenging.

So, how do you ride hills?? In the next couple of posts, I am going to share my strategy for riding the hill for maximum benefit. In the meantime, I challenge YOU to go out and find a couple of hills to ride.

First, don’t be intimidated by hills. Embrace them. You can do it!! You’ve got this!!