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Climbing per Hour

I just happened to pass my 400 hour and 500,000ft milestones for this year in one ride yesterday and it got me thinking. This makes it around 1250ft / hour, is this particularly high and how does it compare to everyone else?
I do live in an area with hills a plenty so would be interested to see how it compares to say, some of the London cyclists and anyone else too.

If you're new please join in and if you have questions pop them below and the forum regulars will answer as best we can.

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17 comments

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Poptart242 | 8 years ago
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91 rides
2272 miles
138 hours
142893ft

So my average ride is 25 miles, which lasting 90 minutes, climbing 1570ft at an average speed of 16.5mph. Average gradient is 0.8%, and climbing per hour is 1035ft.

I'm off to make a spreadsheet.  26  26  26  26  26  26  26  26  26  26

*Edit* and in checking this I've realised that I've overtaken last year's mileage this morning on the commute. Lovely  103

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PhillBrown | 8 years ago
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So far this year, 165hrs 48 mins and 33,030m of climbing so that works out to 108,366ft... I make that roughly 653ft/hour which isn't too bad considering it's nearly all in the New Forest!  26

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chokofingrz | 8 years ago
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YTD: 54,346m in 239 hours = 227m/h in Bristolshire and Scotland. Unimpressive. Too much touring and slow long distance riding.

The easy way to find these numbers by the way is to view someone else's profile on Strava and look for the side-by-side comparison box.

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dave atkinson | 8 years ago
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272hrs and 258,106ft gives 948ft/hr - fairly hilly round here but some of the longer rides i've done have been pretty flat

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Marauder | 8 years ago
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155935ft in 130 hours gives me 1199.5ft/hr.
Riding around the hills of Durham will do that for you I guess.

I just need that little extra push for the .5ft/hr  4

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700c | 8 years ago
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12 month rolling average is 1069ft for me -achieved in (gently rolling) warwickshire/ oxfordshire / northamptonshire countryside. Pretty much all on my own  2

This is an interesting measure because it allows some meaningful comparison and controls for terrain etc. Mine is achieved by going fairly quickly but not seeking out big mountains!

Interestingly, to achieve your 1250 ft/hr in Ride London- Surrey 100, you'd need to do it in 3.5 hrs @28.5mph! To achieve 1250 ft/hr in next weekend's hilly Costwolds sportive I'm entering, I'll need to do 100 hilly miles in 5 hrs dead! - never going to happen sadly!

So I would say your 1250 ft/hr is very good going - regardless of whether you're in mountainous terrain or not. Well done!

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stefanitely | 8 years ago
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1278 ft per hour

198,139 feet climbed in 155 hours this year.

Riding on flat doesn't feel hard enough!

Edit: 389 metres per hour - we should work in metric figures

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Martyn_K | 8 years ago
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2015 so far.

309,541ft of climbing (Strava software corrected) during 402 hours riding = 770ft per hour. That elevation total is within 7060 miles, so we can also work out that the average speed is 17.4mph.

I do love a statistic.

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wycombewheeler | 8 years ago
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this year - 300hours / 78,971m, so about 260m/hr or 860ft/hr if you prefer.

Think I'm hampered by my commute which is flat (when I don't have time for a detour

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2 Wheeled Idiot | 8 years ago
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im at about 1114ft/hour but my club generally hunts out flat or mildly rolling terrain. however when I train alone I hit the hills, often doing more than 1000m in one ride of about 30 miles.

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Carton | 8 years ago
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I'm at 130 hours at 1,200 ft/hour, so you've just got me beat as far as vertical pace.

It's been a little to much for me, to be honest. I've been trying to do more flat miles but the best lanes out of this city go through a few hills  20

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Daveyraveygravey | 8 years ago
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If I've worked it out right, I'm at 950 feet per hour. I like climbing but live in the South Downs so not sure if that is as high as I would have expected. Legs of Steel in a couple of weeks...
My figures no doubt helped by climbing the Blockhaus last month; 6800 feet in 4 hours. And 90 minutes to get back down!

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sergius | 8 years ago
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Just worked mine out, 95% of my riding is in the Surrey hills around Dorking, so pretty much a London rider.

150,066ft in 130h, so 1154 ft/hour.

Edit, I'm a fairly slim chap who enjoys climbing so I make a point of hitting lots of hills, my normal training loop is 100km with just over 1550m of climbing. The main issue (or saving grace depending on your PoV) is the relatively flat 15 miles to get to Dorking from South London.

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vonhelmet | 8 years ago
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111k feet in 173 hours, so about 650 feet per hour.

So yeah, OP's numbers seem high!

I see this measured a bit differently, as "grade", which is average feet gained per mile, so it doesn't account for how fast you go. Mine is 42 this year.

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Guernsey Donkey | 8 years ago
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122.3hours and 30,548m or 100,197ft gives me 250m/h or 819ft/h

Whatever the number is it's more than hilly enough for me!

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CXR94Di2 | 8 years ago
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That seems a hell of a alot, chapeau to you. I have to check my logs to see if I came anywhere near that, doubt it though

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Batchy replied to CXR94Di2 | 8 years ago
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CXR94Di2 wrote:

That seems a hell of a alot, chapeau to you. I have to check my logs to see if I came anywhere near that, doubt it though

And I'll have to check my legs to see why I come into this !

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