2nd attempt at the hill climb

After a bit of a break I decided to give the one and only hill climb that we have in this city another try. This involves me getting on a train with a bicycle in a very populated area so the only way I can get this done is by going in the heat of the afternoon, which isn't ideal but there is no way I would be able to get on one of the trains otherwise. I don't even know if it is legal for us to bring bicycles on the train but I don't think anyone cares in the afternoon so even though I know I am going to sweat buckets and get seriously overheated, this is really the only time of day that I can go there.

This time the results were a bit similar to the time before but I was a bit more conscious of my heart rate along the way.

To those of you that live in properly mountainous areas that a 51 meter gain in elevation isn't much at all and it isn't all at once either. Most of this and all the trail leading up to it is basically flat and at sea level. We are right next to one of the largest lakes in the States after all. I remembered how I was seriously pushing it as far as my heart rate was concerned so this time I stood up more and focused on maintaining a speed that is enough to keep me upright instead of attempting to compete with the other boys and girls that are there on 21 speed bikes.

Outside of this one hill I don't really see the purpose in having a bike with that many gears here. To me and with bicycles I have ridden in the past it just seems like this is unnecessary gear to have malfunction or outright break. In my situation the only thing I need to worry about is the chain breaking completely and I have a tool in my little gear bag to sort that out should it happen.

175 BPM is about as high as someone my age should ever venture as far as heart rate is concerned and I remember that portion of the trail very well because I was "in the zone" but knew that my heart was beating really fast. This is during the steepest part of the climb and it is really tough and really the only time out of anywhere that I go where I wish I had more gears than just one. If the 726 calories is even remotely close to accurate I would say that this trip is a good one because outside of the 9 minutes or so of actual difficult climb that is necessary to complete this course, it is relatively flat and easy going. I think one day I will try my hand at riding up there and only taking the train back because that could add another hour to the journey for me and all of that will be completely flat. The only downside to this is that there is no bike path between where I live and where this climb is, so I'll have to contend with crazy urban traffic in order to make that happen.

As I get a bit better at this I'll see what I can do. I only have about another 2 months of this before the streets start to end up covered in snow and sleet so time is of the essence.

That 40km/hr part towards the end was seriously fun but it is really dangerous since you depend on trail courtesy that not everyone actually has. There are signs informing people that they are not to stop on the sides during descent but as you might expect, there are plenty of people that do exactly that anyway!