My first hill climb in cycling... wow! What a difference!
I had previously claimed that cycling is getting too easy so I took a train to the one and only hill we have in this city where there is a bike path that leads all the way to the top. I realized that this climb is very popular so I waited until the middle of the day when there would be very few other people involved in it because I live in the metro area of Chicago where almost everyone is a slave to the clock of some sort of business.
I am not able to get any sort of hills in my cycling routine any other way but this one was a real eye-opener. I thought cycling was "too easy" but in this instance I got within the highest points of my fitness.
134 BPM isn't something that a "real" athlete is going to be impressed by but I am a normie so for me this is a fantastic average heart rate. Normally on the flats, I struggle to get even above 110 and this will vary from person to person. Since I am in my 40's my max heart rate is somewhere around 175 and there are a lot of factor that lead into this being the case. I don't know the science behind how they determine this but since they own a billion dollar watch company, among other things, I'll just take their word for it.
On this hill run there are several points where you are really working with very little chance to step to the side if you can't do it. They have a side of the path if you have problems but for the most part you are expected to carry on to the top. Unlike other bike paths in Chicago this one has the up and down side separated with crossovers every 200 meters or so but basically if you feel like you cannot continue you have to get off your bike and walk next to it out of the path..... at least that is the way the rules are.
For me, there was one portion that was VERY difficult but because I am a stubborn SOB, I stood up and pushed my way through until I got to the overlook which is a standard stopping point. It was then and only then that I looked at my Garmin watch and realized that my heart rate was nearly 180. This is NOT a good thing. They have a word for this in medical terms and it is called "cardiac arrest" or at least it would be if you kept that heart rate that high for a prolonged period of time if you are my age. It took me 10 minutes or so at this scenic overlook to get my heart rate back down to a normal point. I really pushed myself in this run, perhaps a bit too much.
By the time I got home or was on the train and had a chance to look at my stats I was a bit disappointed by it all. I did all that work, probably the most difficult work I have done in a while and it was less than 600 calories. From a purely caloric point of view I don't know if this was worth it for me because I was pushing myself as hard as I am physically capable of going and only burned around 10% more than I would in a regular easy ride. So I am going to do a bit of research about this and if there is no benefit to this sort of thing aside from pride I think I will just stick to my normal 1 hour easy rides. In the end I had to ride on a train with a bicycle for half an hour each way anyway.
The only reason why I did this was because when i posted that "regular cycling is too easy" people suggested I do hill climbs. Well to all those people out there that said that I can say "message received"..... that was difficult as hell.