How Easy Is A 35mi / 2,000+ Elevation Ride?

[biobrandedarmorzet]

So, how intense is a 35 mile ride with 2,400 feet of elevation? I know I can do 35 miles of flat terrain now, but I'm not doing much more than 8-10 miles or 10-14 mile rides once a week, with some 2-5's with my kid a couple times a week. I currently ride somewhere between 90-130 miles per month.

I'm guessing it would help to know how sparsed or close together the elevation is?

Is this a lofty or too easy a goal, if I have 5 months to get ready? What would I have to do to tackle this?

 

[Totalarmordestine]

you will use a LOT more fuel and dip into your anerobic zone quite a bit. It will be hard at your training level. Of course your gearing will have a big influence on how hard you have to work. Also keep in mind that the rate of climb may vary quite a bit and cause you to burn a lot of muscle glycogen on some of the pitches.

 

[tarverten]

That ride represents a week's worth of riding in one shot. I would say it will be extremely challenging right now. But with 5 months to prepare, you have time. Probably the first thing to do is increase your weekly saddle time.

 

[mpre53]

5 months is a world of time to get ready. But you have to up your mileage, and work hills into your training.

 

[blastguardgear]

It's doable.

Do you know what amount of climb you are doing on your rides right now?

Do you have any big hills within driving distance?

 

[thepieeatingjay]

At first, any hill is going to suck. You just won't like it. Even 1 or 2% starts to feel terrible after a few unbroken miles. Then you work up to 4%... 5%... 7%... and those grades really make you appreciate the little numbers. I did about 2,000ft this morning as part of a metric century, but 75% of the climbing came in the first 75 minutes of the ride, including a 2.5 mile section that never dropped below 5% grade. It was... rough. So I wouldn't advise that. I started trying to fit in 700-1000ft into a routine ride, spacing the climbs out throughout the ride. Early on, starting yourself with a 5-6 mile section of just climbing goes beyond frustrating to just plain disheartening. I highly recommend pre-plotting your routes with an online tool like mapmyride.com or plotaroute.com, so you can set a level of intensity you're comfortable with before you even leave the house. After awhile, you'll find yourself just adding more and more climbing sections.

 

[shadowsupernature]

I think you can do it now as long as you have plenty of time and can take breaks. It's not a race so you don't have to ride continuously. Bring some power bars and extra water.

It's just a matter of going at a pace you can keep up for 35 miles. So what if it takes you 5 hours? What better way to spend your afternoon?

 

[maydog]

Is this some type of event, a race?

What kind of bicycle do you plan to ride?

Is this a continuous gradual climb or several smaller steeper hills?

2,400 feet is a healthy day's worth of riding. Its doable if paced correctly. Most concerning is your present training volume / time in the saddle. This upcoming ride will last much longer than your current rides over flat terrain. You need to be comfortable with long slow slogs uphill and being on the bike for hours.

 

[ABNPFDR]

I classify anything over 8000 feet of climbing over the course of 100 miles to be "hard". Between 4000 and 8000 feet of climbing to be "moderate" and anything under 4000 feet of climbing to be "easy"

If we use a ratio - over 35 miles, more than 2800 would be hard and less than 1400 feet would be easy. So at 2000 feet the ride is squarely in the moderate zone.

It's not a perfect classification system. If a cyclist is capable of that 8000+ vertical century, then that 2800 feet over 35 miles won't seem like much but it's still been a decent guide for me to figure out the effort level of a ride.