Going for a ride Wed's 28th Dec

[briztoon]

Well provided it's not raining tomorrow morning. It's an RDO for me after working Sunday and Monday. Leaving Belmont shopping village at 8:30am, meeting a mate at Mt. Gravatt at 9am and riding to Mt. Coot-Tha via the Eleanor Schonell Bridge at Dutton Park. Plan is to ride up Mt. Coot-Tha, but we'll see when we get there.

So if you have the day off and aren't afraid to join a couple of strangers, feel free to come along for the ride.

Peter

[briztoon]

Well Wednesday didn't go as planed. Met one of the guys from work at Mount Gravatt and we headed off to Mount Coot-Tha. We got as far as Indooroopilly and my work mate said he couldn't face the hills through Indooroopilly and asked if we could turn around. He's at least 6 months behind where I am, so I was all cool with it, I remember what is what like being a noob noob. But instead of back tracking Kieren wanted to go over the Indooroo bridge and back through Sherwood, Salisbury and over the back of Toohey Mountain. I was all cool with that as it was at least twice as long as the way we had just come, though I didn't tell him.

So today another of the guys at work was up for a ride, and was all cool to head to Mount Coot-Tha. The ride there was good. But as I have said before, I suck at hills. Got through the first part of the climb, holy cr@p that was steep and hurt, part way up from the first bend in the road and we both quite. What type of insane people get a kick out of climbing hills?!?

So back to the drawing board. First things first. I'm going to try Mount Gravatt first, get up it, then do it again and again before I try Mount Coot-Tha again.

On a positive side, there are many more cyclists on the north and west sides it appears. Cycling through Sherwood, the scenery was good, quite a few good looking and fit girls on bikes. Especially around the tennis centre.

Oh have I mentioned I suck on even small hills.

[koen]

Practice makes perfect. You just have to re-educate your legs to interpret that burning sensation with optimum performance not pain
Actually, hills are good for fitness but don't over do it early. You will find also that a kind of strength/toughness to cope with hills can develop more quickly than the slower process of just getting fitter. If you did Mt Cootha once a week for two months you might expect that some days your lungs burn, other days its the legs. Optimum performance remember ...not pain!

[lethoso]

HTFU

[koen]

HTFU

Yes , short and to the point!
I do remember though that building a base of fitnes does hurt in a way its hard to remember when you've been able to ride up actually quite small hills like Cootha for years.
It does actually get easier to suffer as you get fitter.

[briztoon]

My legs didn't hurt doing the climb, it was my lungs and I guess my lack of fitness. I know I've slowly been getting better riding the small hills on the rode, but I haven't even ridden up Camp Hill along Old Cleveland Road yet. I guess I got to take it one small hill at a time.

Oh and HTFU.