On Wed, 20 Oct 2004 12:34:56 -0400, "Roger Zoul"
wrote:

Badger_South wrote:
:: On Wed, 20 Oct 2004 10:17:10 -0400, "Roger Zoul"
:: wrote:
::
::: That's so very true! And not blowing up is tricky too, because you
::: might not blow up on this hill, but on one that comes along many
::: miles later. The affects of climbing a lot of hills on a long ride
::: can be cumulative. I would offer that highing in a high gear (low
::: cadence) on a lot of hills will hasten the point of "blowing up".
::: Also, riding hills at *very* high cadence would probably do the
::: same thing.
::
:: My 'goal' is to be able to attack a hill by shifting gears within
:: the body, which I can do on false flats, but not on hills at this
:: time.
::
:: What are the characteristics of blowing up? Guess I'll know it when
:: it happens, lol.

Well, I've blow up twice by my counting. Once when I was doing a metric
century and was foolish enough to try to race some little guy up a longish
hill. I was in granny gear, but pedaling my heart out. My HR maxed on that
climb and stay there for a good while. I was huffing and puffing the entire
time. I made that hill. But the problem was the hill kept coming and even
though I didn't race up the other ones, but legs eventually started cramping
up on me. I had to quit at mile 50 with about 3400 feet of elevation gain.
The second time was just a couple of weeks ago on my first century. I got
to mile 80 with about 4400 ft of elevation gain. I was smarter this time as
I didn't try to beat it up any hills, but they just got the better of me in
the end. And I was drinking gatoraid and eating carbs the entire time. I
hope to do these rides again next year without "blowing up."

Right, I recall these. But your blowing up with the cramps sitch was
probably due to dehydration and/or loss of sodium and potassium wouldn't
you think?

I might end up putting this to the test today, b/c I have scheduled a 2
mile climb on a 3-4% grade, which is longer than any hill I've tried so
far.

-B