In my cycling hey day, there was no mountain road that I wouldn't try to climb. I rode over passes in Colorado, gaps in Vermont, and many routes in the Catskill mountains. While Colorado's climbs are long (15+ miles in many cases with no break) the grades are slight - perhaps 6%. In the northeast the climbs are shorter but incredibly steep - 10-15+ % grades are not uncommon.

But still that was a while ago and I have gotten older, fatter and lazier since then. (And of course spend a lot more time in front of my computer than in those days).

I live right near one of the most challenging climbs in Vermont, the App Gap (aka Appalachian Gap). The summit is 7 miles from my house. Eleven years ago I rode up the other side and still had to take a break near the top.

Whenever I ride in that direction, when I get to Route 17, I always take a right - away from the Gap climb. Last night, I did that once again, but on the way home I figured what the heck, I'll just see how far I can go.

No, I did not make it to the top. The grades get up to 18% and are relentless. I went about 1/2 way and was surprised that I even got that far but  after a 1/2 mile of struggling, when I looked around the curve and saw where I was, I knew that there was another 1/4 mile before it leveled off a bit, so I bailed.

Getting even that far was great for me, but it wasn't from some unknown source of strength because I have only ridden a total of 50 miles this season. It's more from sheer will and also thanks to my past experience of how to climb and how to pace myself. So maybe I'll start working on it. While I'd rather go for a ride where I get a steady workout rather than killing myself and then doing a long scary windy descent, there's nothing like the challenge that says "you cannot do this". The most important thing for me was to realize that it was stupid for me to wait to even try it because I will NEVER feel ready.