Cycling was a late addition to my wide array of interests, even the athletic ones. I have been a swimmer all my life and a runner for much of my adulthood. When I decided to become a triathlete, I had to start biking regularly. My progress was gradual, first close to home, then to work. Adding mileage wasn’t much of a problem, mostly thanks to all the running I have been doing. But even small inclines had me like:
There are some rolling hills around where I live, but I thought that in order for me to seriously improve, I should ride on REAL hills. So I came up with another one of my ‘brilliant’ ideas: in a little bit over an hour, I can be in Shenandoah National Park and ride the Skyline Drive. I didn’t really look at the profile ahead. All I knew was that I needed to ride on some serious hills and oh, boy, did I get my wish granted! For your reference, here is what it looks like:
I always start at the Front Royal side. The other side looks more ‘reasonable’ in terms of climbing, but it’s another 100 miles to drive there. So yeah, there is no warm up period – you start uphill and it only gets worse from there.
My first experience of riding the Skyline Drive was rather painful – I made it 20 miles out and was totally convinced I was going to die. The uphill was brutal. On the bright side, though, it was much cooler than back home and the views were spectacular. My personal favorite: I didn’t have to worry as much about cars, since it’s a ‘straight’ (ok, winding, but no real intersections) road. I usually ride on the W&OD Trail and Custis Trail, with a couple of miles through downtown DC on a regular basis. Not having to stop for traffic was awesome! I actually quite quickly stopped to take a picture of how pretty it was out there (ok, so maybe picture was a bit of an excuse to rest for a moment):
I also learned a very hard lesson during my first experience with this route: make sure you use the bathroom before you get there. The first rest stop is 5 miles from the entrance and it’s all a steep uphill, making it a very long ride. It was painful on a full bladder. In case you say ‘how about just jumping in the woods?’ Well, I thought of that. Sadly, when there is a vertical wall on one side of the road and a cliff on the other, that’s not really an option, at least for a woman, is it? And let’s not forget the wildlife, like this guy:
Full disclosure: this picture is not from my first ride. It’s just a proof that not all wildlife in there is butterflies. But there are plenty of butterflies, too:
I will be honest: I did take pictures at every overlook during my first ride. I mean: it was so beautiful (and let me take a quick rest 😉 ):
It took me 2 hours to get to do those 20 miles out. I know it’s a snail pace, you don’t have to tell me.
The way home, on the other hand, was just amazing!!! There was a 5 mile ‘lap’ (Garmin…), where my average speed was 26.8mph. Of course hills still feel a bit like:
Since then, I rode the Skyline Drive a few more times and I think I am getting better. At the end of the day, I get to enjoy the sun and beautiful scenery. What a workout! So keep your fingers crossed that in the long run, it works and I start riding better on hills!