I don't know if it's physics, psychology or just daft me

[ClichéGuevara]

I've often wondered why, after grunting my way up a steep hill, the last stages near the top often seem to slacken off even though the hills can show no perceptible change in angle.

Looking at some of the data from my heart rate monitor and garmin, it looks on some climbs, like my heart rate drops before I reach the peak of the hill.

Is it possible I just stress myself out when climbing hills so the relief of seeing the top causes the drop, is something else going on with the way my forerunner measures height or have I just made an idiot of myself yet again?

 

[palinurus]

It's probably because the hill gets less steep near the top. There may be no perceptible change in angle, but I find I'm not very good at estimating steepness by eye (except when it comes to that bastard hill out of Harlech I went up once- that looked really fugging steep and it was really fugging steep, however even that levelled out a bit at the top- if it didn't I'd still be climbing it now).

 

[Gary E]

There were bits of my regular rides that I always seemed to find hard for no real reason. They looked perfectly flat. It wasn't until I did my ride in reverse that I realised I could free-wheel all the way along that stretch

But I agree, once you can see the end point of a climb it does seem to become a little easier.

Conversely, when you climb an unfamiliar hill and think you've reached the top only to go round a corner and find it keeps going up it seems to get harder!!

.... and the last few miles of a ride seems like you're reaching your limit - if I set out for a 60 miler I start to ache at the 55 mile point but if I know I'm doing 100 I'm fine at the 55 mile point

and....and....and Isn't cycling weird?

 

[snorri]

It's all in the mind.

 

[colly]

There were bits of my regular rides that I always seemed to find hard for no real reason. They looked perfectly flat. It wasn't until I did my ride in reverse that I realised I could free-wheel all the way along that stretch

Copied from an earlier post I made:

It's definitely a mental thing. If you have an obvious hill then you get yourself ready for it, maybe not consciously, but if it's a climb that is surrounded by landscape that makes it seem less steep than it is then you aren't in the right frame of mind.

Harewood Bank north of Leeds coming from Harrogate is a steady old climb 230 odd feet in about 3/4 of a mile with a maximum gradient of just under 11%. It looms large as you approach it and although it makes you work a bit it's not so bad.
Just after Harewood house still on the A61 the road dips and then climbs through some trees. It looks like nothing much but I always found it a real drag. Much worse than Harewood bank. In fact it climbs 190 feet in .6 of a mile with a maximum of just over 8%.
When I began to treat it like a climb suddenly it didn't seem so bad.

 

[thefollen]

Agree that so much in the exercise world is a mental thing.

Just like, when out running especially, you may have all bodily functions under control without a problem for the main duration- then when you're 200m from the front door the real endurance test begins. Before now I've literally had a mad scramble with the keys, reset the alarm and flown into the toilet in the nick of time before an unfortunate incident occurs. I mean to the second!

The subconcious knows...

With the hill thing, it's that final push that's always the most challenging. Have to be mentally strong to push all out until the end. Sure you've noticed in tennis that often a player will go 40-0 down only to have the opponent come back to 40-30 or deuce before they're eventually put away.

 

[MrB1obby]

The brain is everything.