As an aside, as a younger person, say up to 60, I stood frequently on steep climbs. Now, I rarely stand, like never. I'm blaming it on weak arms and loss of muscle mass. Otherwise, I have no idea.

We had some really punchy bits yesterday, at least for someone from the quasi prairie. I didn't look at the grade, much, but one of the guys said that he was seeing 16%+ here and there throughout the day.

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...735a18e965.jpg

Mine gets me up way early, I feed him and then I go back to bed.

One thing I did not like about my recent tour was how early it got dark. I had never been out on the road for an extended period of time that late in September. On relatively late finish days I had to hurry to avoid cooking in the dark, which did happen a couple of times. Out in the NW during the second half of June is much nicer. If you are pitching your tent and cooking in the dark something probably went wrong.

Man! This made me think of a noted BF member who always use nested quotes. Sometimes 12' of computer monitor's worth. Wonder what became of him.

I can certainly understand that - I felt fine once I got in to the rhythm, but definitely felt it in arms/upper body towards the end of the day.

While mousing over your Strava profile, there are some double digit climbs which would probably mean middle teens on a couple at some points. Tough ride. :thumb:

Day three of the plank challenge. 30 seconds.

On long-ish climbs, I'm probably standing around 75% of the time

Lift weights, get beefy

I rode with him in Boston about 10 years ago when we made a side trip up there. I don't know if he is still active on BF or not.

Posted back in April of this year.

There was no error.

Ha - time-honored climbing advice!

I have noticed a bit of upper body muscle mass loss in the last handful of years. The last couple of years, I've been considering some weight work over the winter... I think that I'm actually going to do it this winter.


Maybe.

Wha? You're not a keen cyclist, then, are you?

I know my small gear is 12 and my big gear is 25, but what the ones between are, I don't know. The last one or two are emergency use only.

I know - it's counter intuitive. I think strength training has done a ton to help my cycling (though there are plenty of people who poo poo it). I do upper body+core 1x weekly with a personal trainer, lower body+core 1x weekly with the same, push-ups / pull ups 2x and core work 3x a week on top of running / cycling - I'm faster and stronger than when I was 10 lbs lighter.

Yeah, more than one way to skin a cat, and I'm sure it depends upon the nature of the climbing that you're doing.

I think that a lot (vast majority?) of people that worry about putting on too much mass via weights just haven't lifted before - it's not something that you "oops" your way in to, unless maybe you're crazy genetically gifted. I think that I could increase upper body strength without adding more than a 3-5 pounds of muscle and still get to a target weight of 170 next spring.

I used all available gear combinations on yesterday's ride.

Hmm. He was a fairly frequent contributor. I hope he is ok.

edit: Last Activity: 09-23-21 11:02 AM, so he is/was presumably active within the past 2 weeks.

Yes. He's obviously wise enough to have wasted no time over the years matching wits with the denizens of Bike-Forums. :lol:

That's the spirit for longevity. :bday:

That's the spirit.

The co-organizer of Saturday's monthly C&V ride, SwimmerMike, was riding with a straight block, 14-19, and of course, the usual 52/42 front. At one point we were heading into a steep pitch and he said, "And I'm already in my bailout gear!" But, you know, when your bailout gear is 42x19, you spend a LOT more time in it.

Starting about a year and a half ago, I made an effort to work on climbing out of the saddle more. I used to run out of gas after about 10 pedal strokes, so I focused on going for longer, and between that and losing 30#, it has helped a lot.

Oof.

I will say that, although I had the 25, I don't think that I used the 34/25 much, if at all. As previously stated, I needed to stand and, once standing, 34/25 was annoyingly low, so I'd go to the 23 or 21.