I always wanted to cycle uphill

June was a very disciplined month, with around 1,300 miles on the bike. It was geared to long-distance time trial training, lots of fast miles on a TT bike – The disciplined training even meant avoiding steep hills (the shame…) and knocking out hundreds of miles at 20mph+ It’s all very well, but now, the national 100 is over – there is a certain freedom; it marks the end of the long-distance time trial season, and leaves me slightly bereft of imminent targets. The next big thing on the horizon is really the last weekend in October 2015…

With nothing to target or taper for, it’s time to get the new Emonda out of the bike shed and head into the Chilterns for some gloriously unstructured hill climb training, up as many steep hills as possible – trying to make up for all that TT nonsense of looking for long, straight, flat roads.  I shall have to buy this mug or get it for a birthday present (hint, hint …)

cycling uphill mug

From 100 climbs shop.

I do have a few events coming up. I have even entered the National 25 mile TT for the first time since 2005. (It is local course near Marlow, and organised by Gordon Wright. There is a dedicated website at: National 25)

luddenden-map

But, as the saying goes, it’s all uphill from here – and time to look assiduously for those pesky double arrow signs on the OS maps.

With a lack of specific training target, I appreciate the importance of typography. Without any structured training regime, what inspires me is the difficulty of the terrain. I wish I could fly out to the Alps or Pyrenees again. I may have to travel at least to Yorkshire or Lake District to dig out the hardest hills. That will keep the legs ticking over – hopefully making use of all those base TT training miles.

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2 thoughts on “I always wanted to cycle uphill”

  1. In the Lakes last week (after visiting Great Dun Fell, tx 2 your post) I discovered a gem of a hill climb that has been ridden a grand total of 34 times on Strava. It is the ‘C’ road to Tarn Hows from Coniston, the climb is named “Up Tarn Hows the steep way” on Strava.

    The climb is 1.5km at an avg of 9% (max 20.5%) and is like climbing up through a rain forest.

    I guess this is not on any sportive route hence its obscurity. Like the Struggle it would be a great addition to the Fred.

    It only merits single arrow signs on the OS maps (14%-20%) rather than double (above 20%).

    I use Jonathan O’Keeffe’s Strava Multiple Ride Mapper to identify roads I have not ridden. It is a Strava aggregator overplayed onto google maps. Thus you can see where the google car has been before you.

    Warning this is addictive !

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