Hills

I love hill repeats.  I love the technical side of climbing, which I am only just beginning to grasp.  I love getting more focused each time you tackle the hill, until you reach your breaking point and your mind is all over the place (then its time to stop). When I struggle up unfamiliar hills on new routes, I love being able to remind myself that I've trained on hills and therefore can make it up whatever is currently trying to kill me.

We recently moved, and have found a pretty good hill for repeats just 2 miles from our house, perfect warm-up distance.  It's only about half a mile long and a bit too steep than is ideal for repeats, but it'll do.  Last night was our first time attempting hill training in months, so we kept it to just 3 climbs.  Mr. Lady Roadie can drop me like I'm hot on climbs (or at just about any time), which is a bit disheartening but it's part of being a female cyclist.  My legs are aching today -- I also went horseback riding yesterday -- so I can feel good about how hard I worked.

Coming home after the repeats, there's one more long hill we have to tackle.  I was spinning up it, breathing easy but feeling my legs protesting post-repeats, when a man on a fixed-gear hybrid blew past us.  That was humbling.