Hilly Route?

 

I don't think of my route as hilly, but I do get about 1300 feet of up and down. My office is about the same elevation as my house, so wind is a bigger factor, particularly along the high parts of the PATH trail which are more exposed.

The winds were favorable both coming in and returning home. I posted good times both inbound and outbound. I'd like to think my hard work this past week (plus a day of rest yesterday) were a big factor, but it was really the wind.

The profile shown above is actually backwards from how I usually ride this route. I'm constantly adjusting gears to keep my cadence constant around 90-100 RPM. I tried using a smaller gear than usual near the bottom of the longer stretches and then gradually spinning up to a higher gear as I approached the top and giving a nice flourish to give me lots of momentum on the next downhill. It worked better than I expected. (Maybe it wasn't just the wind.)

People say Atlanta is hilly, and it's certainly more hilly than Savannah where I grew up, but does your commute have the same 100 foot drops and rises? Is there as much as 300 feet between the lowest and highest points of your commute?

Commute Summary

Round Trip Distance: 17.4
Number of Cyclists seen: 5 inbound, 4 outbound (I counted 4 bikes in the back of cars outbound)
In-bound Route: Lullwater/PATH trail
Out-bound Route: Emory via Clifton
Weather: Rainy/Stormy although I dodged the worst of it and my wheels didn't pick up much moisture.