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Training for Hill Climbing
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 2010-03-23 9:00 AM |
Veteran  139  |  Subject: Training for Hill ClimbingHi folks - I'm looking for advice on how to get better (meaning riding faster, and improving recovery) cycling up hills. I can stay with my local cycling group which is a mix of roadies and triathletes during rides on flats and smaller hills but as soon as longer hills appear I get dropped. I'm planning to rectify this with hard work during 1 dedicated hill day per week, Wed evenings. I'm very lucky to be close to a park with great hills to practise on. I'd appreciate any drills/workout information and general advice you can provide. Cheers  S. |
| 2010-03-23 9:02 AM in reply to: #2742361 |
 Davenport, IA | Subject: RE: Training for Hill Climbing Ride a lot of hills. That's what I've been doing. |
| 2010-03-23 9:45 AM in reply to: #2742361 |
Expert 1007 NW NJ | Subject: RE: Training for Hill Climbing Someone on here, sorry can't remember who at the moment, has it posted quite simply in their sig. "The only way to get better at riding hills, is by riding hills" So find some hills, ride em, then ride em again, and again, and again...... |
| 2010-03-23 10:34 AM in reply to: #2742361 |
Coach 9167  Stairway to Seven | Subject: RE: Training for Hill Climbing Climbing hills is all about power to weight ratio. You have to power you and your bike up the hill. Say the hills are 3 minutes long...if your power output to get you up that hill is very close to your threshold, you are going to be spent trying to climb it, and require a lot of recovery afterwards. So there are 2 approaches...1) climb hills. the more the merrier. 2) build your threshold. Building your threhsold power raises your ability to perform all subthreshold efforst with greater ease. |
| 2010-03-23 10:43 AM in reply to: #2742491 |
Expert 1310 Alabama | Subject: RE: Training for Hill Climbing mchubri` - 2010-03-23 9:45 AM Someone on here, sorry can't remember who at the moment, has it posted quite simply in their sig. "The only way to get better at riding hills, is by riding hills" So find some hills, ride em, then ride em again, and again, and again...... THE ONLY WAY TO GET BETTER AT CLIMBING HILLS IS....... CLIMBING HILLS - ChrisM |
| 2010-03-23 10:45 AM in reply to: #2742658 |
Expert 1310 Alabama | Subject: RE: Training for Hill Climbing AdventureBear - 2010-03-23 10:34 AM Climbing hills is all about power to weight ratio. You have to power you and your bike up the hill. Say the hills are 3 minutes long...if your power output to get you up that hill is very close to your threshold, you are going to be spent trying to climb it, and require a lot of recovery afterwards. So there are 2 approaches...1) climb hills. the more the merrier. 2) build your threshold. Building your threhsold power raises your ability to perform all subthreshold efforst with greater ease. What's the method for accomplishing this? |
| 2010-03-23 10:48 AM in reply to: #2742721 |
Master 2327 North Alabama | Subject: RE: Training for Hill Climbing pilotzs - 2010-03-23 10:45 AM AdventureBear - 2010-03-23 10:34 AM Climbing hills is all about power to weight ratio. You have to power you and your bike up the hill. Say the hills are 3 minutes long...if your power output to get you up that hill is very close to your threshold, you are going to be spent trying to climb it, and require a lot of recovery afterwards. So there are 2 approaches...1) climb hills. the more the merrier. 2) build your threshold. Building your threhsold power raises your ability to perform all subthreshold efforst with greater ease. What's the method for accomplishing this? In lament's terms: RIDE HARD. RIDE LOTS. SOME FAST, SOME EASY. RIDE MORE. |
| 2010-03-23 10:51 AM in reply to: #2742658 |
Champion 9407 Montague Gold Mines, Nova Scotia | Subject: RE: Training for Hill Climbing AdventureBear - 2010-03-23 12:34 PM So there are 2 approaches...1) climb hills. the more the merrier. 2) build your threshold. Building your threhsold power raises your ability to perform all subthreshold efforst with greater ease. Of course there is a third option - work on the weight part of the power/weight equation. Shane |
| 2010-03-23 11:09 AM in reply to: #2742721 |
Champion 9407 Montague Gold Mines, Nova Scotia | Subject: RE: Training for Hill Climbing pilotzs - 2010-03-23 12:45 PM What's the method for accomplishing this? In general you would want to ride lots however, easy riding isn't going to have a great impact on your threshold unless you don't have a great deal of cycling fitness. To focus on raising your threshold you want to include some short efforts above threshold and some long steady effort at your threshold. For some ideas about how this would look, check out Jorge's winter cycling training challenge as it includes lots of workouts designed to raise threshold power. |
| 2010-03-23 11:19 AM in reply to: #2742361 |
Veteran 139 | Subject: RE: Training for Hill Climbing Thanks very much to to all for the advice - obviously riding lots of hills is the way forward. So from the advice thus far I've some questions: 1) Climb hills. The more the merrier. Is 1 dedicated hill ride a week enough? My weekly long ride (about 3 hours 9W from NYC to Nyack) does have some decent hills. Any ideas on hill repeats and how to do them properly and get the most gains? 2) Build your threshold. Building your threshold power raises your ability to perform all subthreshold efforst with greater ease. Any drills/tips/ideas out there for building threshold power? 3) Work on the weight part of the power/weight equation. |
| 2010-03-23 11:45 AM in reply to: #2742815 |
Champion 9407 Montague Gold Mines, Nova Scotia | Subject: RE: Training for Hill Climbing sjwwebster - 2010-03-23 1:19 PM 1) Climb hills. The more the merrier. Is 1 dedicated hill ride a week enough? My weekly long ride (about 3 hours 9W from NYC to Nyack) does have some decent hills. Any ideas on hill repeats and how to do them properly and Ride up the hill - focus on being steady through the entire hill and maintaining power and getting back up to speed over the top. It doesn't really matter whether you do hill repeats or ride a course with lots of rolling hills; as long as you spend lots of time climbing you will get better riding hills. 2) Build your threshold. Building your threshold power raises your ability to perform all subthreshold efforst with greater ease. Any drills/tips/ideas out there for building threshold power? No drills just lots of solid riding. See my previous post regarding threshold power and visit Jorge's winter cycling challenge. 3) Work on the weight part of the power/weight equation. Thanks for this advice. I hadn't actually given this enough thought. I'm expecting this will happen organically with continuous training. At 5'7 and 165 lb I'm about 12 lb over my usual peak season race weight of 152/153 lb so a reduction in approx 10 lb will factor in on hill climbing. Yes, this should happen during the season as your weight drops to training weight. Shane |
| 2010-03-23 11:47 AM in reply to: #2742491 |
Sensei Sin City | Subject: RE: Training for Hill Climbing mchubri` - 2010-03-23 7:45 AM Someone on here, sorry can't remember who at the moment, has it posted quite simply in their sig. "The only way to get better at riding hills, is by riding hills" So find some hills, ride em, then ride em again, and again, and again...... Chris M |
| 2010-03-23 11:50 AM in reply to: #2742361 |
| Master 2460 | Subject: RE: Training for Hill Climbing One thing to keep in mind for hammerfest group rides, especially with roadies - Riders in these groups tend to save their highest power output for the climbs. Doubling, or even tripling power output on the climbs is not unusual for roadie groups. You might not be so "bad" at climbing, but rather, the roadies tend to save their hardest efforts for the hillclimb portions where drafting isn't as significant. I know on our group rides, paces on the flats feel leisurely, even easy, but the moment a hill comes up, it's a complete hammerfest with everyone desperately trying to hang on the gravy train. So I wouldn't read it as you being particularly bad at hills. |
| 2010-03-23 2:14 PM in reply to: #2742361 |
Veteran 139 | Subject: RE: Training for Hill Climbing Thanks to all for the great advice, much appreciated - time to hit some hills and put the work in. Cheers, S |
| 2010-03-23 3:16 PM in reply to: #2742714 |
Expert 1007 NW NJ | Subject: RE: Training for Hill Climbing pilotzs - 2010-03-23 11:43 AM mchubri` - 2010-03-23 9:45 AM Someone on here, sorry can't remember who at the moment, has it posted quite simply in their sig. "The only way to get better at riding hills, is by riding hills" So find some hills, ride em, then ride em again, and again, and again...... THE ONLY WAY TO GET BETTER AT CLIMBING HILLS IS....... CLIMBING HILLS - ChrisM Gracias! |
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