Hill Climb Training - a First time with the Heart Rate Monitor for a Long Time

Today was the last day of my extended (2 week) Christmas 2014 holiday. I wanted to get out for a short ride but the weather forecast the night before suggested frost, so I played it by ear to see what it was like when I woke up. However I had planned ahead and decided that I'd ride over to Rose Hill (or Bilberry Hill as its also known) in the Lickey Hills and do some Hill repeats. The main reason for this was that if it were icy the route over was a bus route so should be reasonably ice free and also its not too far to go. Rose Hill is also a reasonably tough climb (especially in the winter) and although not overly long it's one of those hills that gets steeper as you get closer to the top. Its about 12-13% at the steepest.

I also, completely on a whim decided to wear my Garmin Heart Rate monitor the first time for a long time - I'd given up on it again as it was getting very erratic the last few times I'd worn it much earlier in 2014 - I wrote about some of the issues in this post. Certainly when I first put it on it read 64bpm - I am fit but not that fit.

I had to spend about 5 minutes refitting my front mudguard as I'd removed it to bring my bike back from Dartford where we'd been for a week over the Christmas holiday. It does not fit that well when on the Thule 561 rack - the Crud Roadracer mudguards only take a few minutes to remove so its not an issue. It also took a further few minutes to finally get ready to start and it seemed that this 10-15 minutes helped the strap to read a more sensible value.

It was bitterly cold when I set off but the main roads seemed to be reasonably ice free for the first 5 miles or so. However as I got to the top of Groveley Lane I saw some ice and slush on the road which I managed to avoid but the road was very slippery. I then saw just ahead 3 cyclists waving me down - it appeared that it was so icy that at least one of them had fallen off. I dithered for a minute or so but decided to continue but got off the bike and walked down pavement about 1/4 mile to the railway bridge where the road was OK again. I am not sure why that particular bit of road was so icy though.

From there it was just another mile or so to the bottom of Rose Hill. I dropped onto the 34 inner ring at the roundabout to start spinning up from the very beginning and did the first ascent. It didn't feel too bad at all although I was not trying. The lowest gear I used was the 34-24 (2nd) and rolled up reasonably comfortably. I turned around at the top and mostly free wheeled to the bottom, mindful of potential ice patches. The 2nd and 3rd climbs were also pretty easy, but I was starting to feel it by the 4th. However as I hadn't been lower than the 34-24 gear for all climbs felt I could easily complete a 5th climb. On the last ascent I did use the lowest gear (34-28) but just to be lazy - I could have done it in the 34-24 again but didn't bother.

Once at the bottom for the last time I was originally going to head back the same way I rode over as its quite rolling and as a result its feasible to get over 100ft/mile of ascent. However given the ice on Groveley Lane I rode back via the Bristol Road South to Northfield, then Cotteridge/Kings Norton (past the house in Middleton Hall Road that I lived in for 2 years as a student at Birmingham University), Kings Heath and Yardley Wood.

The new 2015 Strava Segments feature meant that again I picked up lots of 2015 KOM and top 10 placings being one of only a few riders to have ventured out early enough in the year!

Here's the route:

Here's a better picture of the elevation courtesy of Veloviewer:

The actual ride was 94ft/mile which is pretty impressive for this non-hilly urban area of South Birmingham.

Here's some more data from Veloviewer:

Looking at the HR data I am not sure it was working properly for the 1st 1/2 hour. I am fit but not fit enough to keep my HR below 100 - I think once it shows above 130 it was OK. Its also interesting to see where I stopped and walked down Groveley Lane which I have circled in red. Also the max HR at the top of the climb was a consistent 165-169bpm - so I was not working flat out but kept the effort even. I don't trust it to be reliable over a whole ride but it performed better than it had last time - so I might start using it again a bit more often for more challenging rides.

Given that the strap itself costs around £35 I can't justify buying another unless I want to start training a bit more specifically.