Am I A Wuss For Hating Hills and Wind When Cycling? (speed, gears)

[Opin_Yunated]

I don't care for wind due to steering. We get some pretty brutal wind where I live off the lake. Hills I don't mind, since they build the leg muscles.

Best advice I have is... don't stop pedaling. As soon as you stop, you're finished. Keep your mind strong and your cadence constant (not too fast or slow).. even if it means downshifting into a baby gear.

[mr bolo]

another reason you might be having trouble is your body type / weight , the bigger & heavier, taller you are the tougher the hills & winds

bigger riders have more wind drag, have more weight to push, more gravity to deal with

I use to ride regularly on 3o miles rides and I was never good on hills either, the hills burn all the energy out of my legs, hills really slow me down, even though I considered myself in pretty good shape, I was also doing 5 mile runs several times a week.

so it could just be your not built for hill riding?

[lottamoxie]

Just carrying around excess weight makes for more difficult riding, not to mention even mild hills. I am experiencing this myself. I'm already out of shape just from not doing anything for years but couch surfing, and then there is the extra poundage on top of that. Not a good combo. :-O

[mr bolo]

If you have a well built upper body thats going to add extra weight to pull when you cycle up hills

if you ever watch The TOUR DE FRANCE , you will notice the riders that do the best on the hills have very little extra upper body weight, and they arent too big they have long slender torsos and slender arms, every bit of extra weight will make hills more difficult.

[latunafish]

yeah, it is all about gravity and inertia.

[JaxRhapsody]

I don't like the wind either, and here- if it's blowin, it's in your face. You could be riding down the street, drop something, when you turn around the wind will be in your face as you proceede to get it, amd still be there when you continue on. That's our bipolar weather. So to me the op kida sounds a bit lazy. Hell once on a rainy day, it would start to pour whenever me and a buddy were outside, and stop once we got in a building. Hills are merely tollerablr, and like most cyclist, see them as what they are- a challenge. Tbey are, which is why they are annoying. I've ridden the same hills for years, some bikes climb certain hills better than others. I still get a little winded at the top of some, but most times they are unavoidable, so I don't think about it.

[Fleet]

I don't like either, but I still bike in those conditions.

[Mack Knife]

In a word...yes.

[Lafleur]

I like hills because I see them as a challenge, but even a slightly windy day makes me feel like I'm working at a rate that's 20x my normal rate.

[MountainBiking]

No. You're not a wuss for hating hills and wind when you ride.

I despise riding in windy conditions and where I live we get hammered by it (Santa Ana winds). When it blows I know my Strava data will not look good because the winds slow me down- especially head winds- therefore I'll use windy days to my advantage by training hard. The resistance caused by wind will make me a stronger rider. Cross winds can knock you off the bike. You need to be careful. If it's way too windy I'll just set up my bike on my trainer in the garage, setup my iTunes and my blue tooth speakers and get at it.

Hills on the other hand I love. I'm a climber and there's nothing better than reaching the summit after a grueling kick-in-the-arse climb. Maybe I'm a masochist. I look only about 6 to 10 feet in front of me and try never to look where the summit is.

-Cheers.