As I have recorded here before, I am a poor climber. Even in the lowest gear of my triple-crank road bike, I find nearby hills like Edgewood and Arastradero challenging to climb, and have to use my leg strength (such as it is), rather than cadence, to ascend the hill.

I have been trying not to use this space to discuss my annoyance with other people, but I would hereby like to register annoyance with every cyclist who thinks it’s cute to tell me that I should 1) use a higher cadence because it’s bad to go anaerobic, or 2) go climb La Honda/Kings Mountain/whatever road they think I should be able to climb.

I am pretty bad at climbing. I cannot shoot up Edgewood at 12mph like the guys who passed us on the Tour de Menlo, about whom my riding partner eloquently expressed our collective thoughts: “Do they even know this is uphill?”

Please, all you people who can do that: for the love of Pete, just shut up, and don’t tell me what I should climb and how I should climb it.