Freedom Of The Hills

Freedom of the Hills is the title of the penultimate book on mountaineering. It tells you every thing you need to know about scaling the toughest mountains. Since I live in Minnesota, I don't spend a lot of time climbing mountains, but freedom of the hills can apply to bike riding too. Phil Ligget likes to say; "He's dancing on the pedals" when talking about riders like Contador, Leipheimer, Valverde, etc. If he were describing me, he'd use one of his other favorite sayings; "He's cracked..." Yes, they say train your weaknesses. Mine is climbing. I guess it isn't really freedom of the hills for me but I can climb with the bus and I need to train in the hills to get stronger there. Today, I got in 18 miles as I rode east on Summit to Irvine/Ramsey Hill. The first climb I did was up Irvine. Then, I moved over to the Irvine Alley. After that, I climbed Ramsey Hill. Next, I rode over to the High Bridge, rode up it and continued on to the top of Smith Avenue. From there, I rode down to the bottom of Ohio, made a u-turn and then went straight to the top. I followed the High Bridge back to downtown and then rode up Grand Avenue and back to Summit. I pretty much avoided the rain except for sprinkles on the top of Smith and Ohio.