Which route should I do? A question about elevation

(Sarah Sim) #1

A bit of history to help you to answer my question. I have done a ride for about 3 years, but not last year (in fact I did no cycling at all). Although I did not get out on the road, I continued with spin classes of an hour twice a week and yoga once a week. I have been moving towards keto since 2012 with going gluten free. I officially started keto on 1st March 2019, but have definitely been low carb since September 2018 when I did Whole 30.

I normally start my training for this ride in February. The training is inside on a spin bike and then in April I get outside. This year I started training at the beginning of February with some gym core work and leg presses. I have been out on the road twice in April and slight inclines are hard. I noticed my heart rate got up to 165, when riding in the group. If I was riding by myself, I wouldn’t push it so hard.

Here is the question:
In previous years I have done the whole ride, but there is a short route. I have looked at the routes elevation and it appears to me that the short route has easier elevation, but I have been told it is 50/50. I was considering doing the short route twice instead of the whole ride.

Please could someone explain the elevation, because it looks to me that the second part of the route is harder/ more inclines?
Short route https://connect.garmin.com/modern/course/23378176
Whole route https://connect.garmin.com/modern/course/11512042

Thank you in advance.

(Sarah Sim) #2

Here is the route on Strava https://www.strava.com/routes/4437485?hl=en-GB

(Dawn Michelle) #3

I’ve found that both Garmin and Strava route visualzations are not great. When I want to analyze a route or compare routes, I use RideWithGPS. Their user interface is way better. Here is an example of a ride I’ve done a few times: https://ridewithgps.com/trips/1622530

(Sarah Sim) #4

Thank you. Here is the ride on ridewithgps https://ridewithgps.com/routes/10805618
So does the second half look harder than the first?

(Dawn Michelle) #5

Both halves seem to have some difficult climbs. The second half stays at a higher elevation, so it might be a little easier. For me the issue would be distance, how far do I feel like riding that day.

(Sarah Sim) #6

Ah! I see, I was just looking at the higher elevation in the second half, but it doesn’t come right down from that elevation until the end.