rvijay07 said:
When it comes to cycling uphill or walking with a bicycle uphill I seem to do very poorly. Cycling uphill is just a Non No for me.
I am overweight by approx. 35 lbs. Haven't cycled in the last 12 years, never have cycled uphill before and also have a poor upper body physique. Male in late 30s.
Please Advice.
I am also a male in my late thirties and overweight.
After seriously cycling for six-eight years, my experience is that no matter how strong you are on flat routes or how strong your upper body is, on serious hills you cannot compete with people which are 20 kg lighter.
Even when I cycled tours of 240 km on flat terrain ,worked regularly out at the gym, and outraced my friends on flat terrain, it didn't help me cycling up hills during holidays with those same friends, some of them which train only once in two weeks.
During an episode when I was 12 kg lighter, I came usually among the first three on the top instead of the last three (out of eight people who cycle regularly on long weekends in the mountains)
Also I went on a cycling holiday with a heavy loaded bike (25 kg panniers, including food and water) and made several climbs in the Alps of 1000-1500 meters with much less effort.
So my experience is that the only thing which helps is losing weight. If anybody has found another way to compensate, I would also like to know.