How do you do hills first thing in the morning?

[Sheffield_Tiger]

Nice morning so thought I'd get up early and take a scenic route into work.

I did enjoy it overall but the first 4 miles were a bit of an endurance for me...I could feel my legs not wanting to work, they were turning but up the long gradual hills at the start they felt about as free-moving as a 1970s sachs-huret derailleur on a bike just fished out of the river humber.

http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-kingdom/sheffield/770126760852093866

(switch to street map, default topo map doesn't seem to work in UK)

"View Elevation" you can see that it's pretty much 5 miles of constant climbing straight from home. Nice ride along lanes for the most part and some cracking downhills as a reward later saw me get 45 out of the tourer for the first time.

DOes it just "get easier" to set off uphill if I carry on or should I really be looking at changing route to include a couple of warm-up miles?

 

[HaloJ]

I actually changed my route and I go around the hill first thing and take a less direct route as I was finding that the exertion from the off with no warm up was making me want to puke my breakfast (sorry for the details).

 

[dan_bo]

Ooh you jammy jammy get that's one of my favourite parts of the world.

 

[MacB]

you do hills first thing in the morning the same as you do them any other time, with whatever you have in the tank at the time. The pain will never go away but you should be able to look forward to it getting shorter.

 

[Downward]

It might be nice weather but it's still cold and still a battle at the moment. I always seem to find Feb and March to be a real struggle.

 

[mr_cellophane]

I just coast down them. Unfortunately that means the last 2 miles on the way home is up hill.

 

[marinyork]

I'd say bottom half of Whirlowdale is a nice warm up before the upper half of it and Long Line. You've got 1.25 miles of flat stuff to warm up. I guess most people would say doing Long Line was crazy though .

 

[BentMikey]

Slowly and in a low gear?

 

[Sheffield_Tiger]

I guess most people would say doing Long Line was crazy though .

It doesn't LOOK steep, standing at the bottom of it, it LOOKS like nothing. Deceptive is Long Line....

Done Long Line on the Virtuoso and REALLY felt it in my legs, done it on the MTB and cursed knobbly tyres, so the Explorer was by far the better machine for doing it

What VWM going up didn't seem to realise is that it's not wide enough for two cars AND a bike all to pass at the same time without brushing arms with wing mirrors. Had enough in my lungs for an "OI" and a "W**ker" at a decibel level I was proud of, but no way was I going to chase after! (Wish I had a cam for that one, I keep promising myself....)

 

[iLB]

i would definately go to sheephill road on the 625 instead of longline, horrible looking piece of road imo

 

[marinyork]

Sheephill and Whitelow Lane used to be horrid until they resurfaced bits of them the last year or so. I think LL is all right myself but many people hate it.

 

[Bay Runner]

I live 450 feet above mean sea level and I work on the coast - well about 30 feet above high water springs! Go in the morning is a breeze comming home in the morning gets my heart and lungs going. In fact it can get very cold going in at 0640, no self generated heat and 30 knots of head wind

 

[Sheffield_Tiger]

Mixed feelings on Long Line

Cycling and walking alike, though I get those "I hate this" moments, I do feel like I get the climb "out of the way" rather than an even longer path to the same end point.

Might try carrying on and then back up Sheephill next time for the sake of comparison

I need big hills right now, with EBC opening a shop on my doorstep I need to NOT be tempted to buy a new fixie just because I had one before and would like to have one again for real misery* on my commute

*hopefully temporary until the effects of the effort take hold

 

[marinyork]

Well, on the way home you could do Hagg Hill (the crookes one).

 

[Sheffield_Tiger]

Well, on the way home you could do Hagg Hill (the crookes one).

I could.

I could also stick rusty forks in my eyeballs.

(For the onlooker unfamiliar to the road concerned, I even avoided Hagg Hill when I had a 2 1/4 diesel SIII Land Rover 109 (LWB) and HH was on my route home - not because it WOULDN'T climb it but because it climbed so slow)