Biking Hills

It will all boil down to 2 things: (a) get a road bike and (b) ride lots, and lots and lots and repeat.

Nope. Cycling is sport-specific, especially once you get to long distances. 15mph on hills and 20 flats is quite excellent for a mtn bike, BTW. You will see a small speed bump if you choose to go road bike. But that's a really good start - you'd beat a lot of beginner and early intermediate triathletes riding those speeds. 

I can keep up with some competitive cyclists on a bike for distance, and in the mountains where I ride, 6-8mph is a very common speed for me on a Cervelo P2C on 11%. On a 19% grade, I hit 3mph all-out! And I consider myself a pretty decent climber.

Hills will make you an incredible rider.  I practice hills as much as possible.  I've noticed a huge increase in speed and endurance.  You gotta get a little crazy on the hills.  Don't be afraid to get out of the saddle and pump the $hit out of them.  Psyche yourself up and don't give up.

(I love hills)

ditto all really great advice... it's # 3 that I have the most problems with.

find a hill and one evening as your bike workout  just keep riding up and down it..  there is a local hill since here in dallas we don't have a lot.. that many cyclist/groups are out doing hill repeats just about every night of the week...  it will humble you and build you up fast

In my experience, hills will always hurt you. The difference is that as you add bike fitness you'll get up them faster and you'll recover faster so you can do more of them in a given ride.


That will make a huge difference on significant hills. I can tell a big difference between my road bike and my TT bike even though it's only a couple pounds heavier. Plus at 168 lbs, I'm relatively heavy for climbing and I have a hard time not getting dropped by the 140 lb climbing freaks.


One thing I discovered recently (because I'm too lazy to move my computer off my race bike and/or buy another computer) is that for me, when I don't have any speed feedback from my computer, wind and hills don't effect me mentally at all.

If you think about it, you can push the same number of watts in a flat wind or into headwind, and theoretically you should feel the same fatigue. The only things that makes you aware that the wind even exists is your speed and the wind noise. In my case, I look at how slow I'm going on my computer and that makes me try to push a harder effort to speed up to what I remember is usual for that part of the course. Thus, I get more fatigued and dislike the wind.

Lately without a computer, I've just been able to push a constant effort and don't even really notice the wind direction. Plus, I usually ride with music in one ear so I don't notice wind noise much. (Gasp! I know, I'm a loser and not a real bike rider...) The same logic could be applied to hills as long as you have the gears to keep effort constant. But I think it's much harder mentally on hills because your speed drops so obviously, and the pitch change is obvious as well.

I think this aspect is why riding based on power would be an advantage over those of us who use RPE.

Edited by breckview 2009-07-08 10:07 AM

Good points.  With regards to number 1: It's tempting to ride much harder when you get to the bottom of a hill but you will most likely tail off at the end.  It's better to try and keep your power output at an even level.

#3:  So many people do this and it is so easy to drop people at the top by really powering over the crest of the hill

David,
I have been cycling for only about 1 1/2 years now, so take this for what it's worth.  I also rode a 36 pound hybrid for about a year before buying a real road bike in February, 2008, so I know what you are dealing with.  Here are a few comments I can offer:

* Get a road bike when you can.  Hills will get a LOT easier.  On roller type hills, you hit the bottom at a higher speed and slow down less on the way up.  Makes a big difference.

* Around here, we have lots of hills, but the highest climb is about 120'-150' and the worst grade is around 6%-8%.  A lot of the guys that live in mountains would laugh at our hills, but you do have to learn how to climb them.  I am mentioning this because the terrain here is probably similar to the terrain in your area.  With these types of hills, I have found that each hill has to be considered in the context of the course.  In other words, what comes before and after the hill and where the hill is in the course makes a difference in how I climb it.  On the 17 mile local tri course, there are two 'big' hills back to back.  The first one I hammer it pretty hard on the third or fourth cog and even stand up the last 50 yards or so where it steepens up.  Cadence is usually in the high 60s or low 70s and I usually pass several people, but I am on the lighter side at under 150 lbs. when racing.  The other 'big' hill comes about 3-4 minutes later after a nice down hillish segment where I know I can back off a little and still cruise along at 25-35mph.  That's why I can hammer up the first hill, I know I have a short rest coming up.  The second hill is shorter, but steeper and the end of the course is only 10-12 minutes after.  So, I keep my cadence higher for this one (in the 90s) instead of mashing up the hill 'cause I know my legs will feel like logs coming out of transition if I don't.  For reference, when I started cycling, I would grind slowly up both of these hills on the first cog with my HR going deep into Z5.  Now, I can climb them 50% faster and just barely hit Z4.  Hill repeats are very beneficial!

* I have read that larger guys should stay seated and smaller guys are better suited to standing when climbing.  I think I read that in 'Going Long' by Friel.  Don't know if that's true.  I can say that even though I fit into the smaller guy category, I had to practice stand up climbs a lot and they still take a lot out of me. 

* I have heard and read all sorts of strategies about when to exert your effort on a hill.   I have found the short rollers we have around here are best climbed *for me* if I use the speed from the downhill preceding the hill as much as possible on the next one.  In other words, I kind of soft pedal the down hill if I am going over about 25mph and when I hit the bottom of the next hill, I start putting down the power to try and keep my speed up as far up the hill as possible while I am going fast instead of applying power after the hill has slowed me down.  It doesn't seem to take any more effort than letting your speed bleed off and then mashing your way up in a low gear and you climb up much faster.  For anything more than a roller, forget this strategy, but I am mentioning it because I bet you have some of the same terrain.

* Don't worry so much about your speed when climbing.  Use cadence and heart rate to go by.  Let the speed be whatever it is for the best cadence and heart rate combination for you.  Some people like to mash, some like to spin, some hills are steep, some are long and shallow, etc.  You really need to decide how you are going to attack each hill, don't use the same strategy on every single one and think you are always 'doing it right'.

Geez, this got too long!  Anyway, take it all FWIW.

Greg

Wow, thank all of you for your advice I will put it to good use! 

Greg, I tried your technique of pounding the beginning of the hill and it worked great.  I've picked out a road bike so once I get that I'll conquer these hills in no time ;-). (aka work long and hard)

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Edited by SweetK 2009-07-09 8:28 AM

It makes me feel better to see others speed droping so much on the hills. I was never really a biker before and I have never gone on a group ride so I had no reference point on how hard hills can be. I have the Garmin 305 which gives some pretty good data to look at. I have a 15 mile loop by me with several hills. Over a 2.5 mile stretch you climb from 700 ft - 1000+ including a brutal .2 miles at 17% grade. I find that my speed drops to the 5-7mph range during that last stretch. I thought I sucked going so slow but it sounds like that might be pretty normal. I posted another question on standing vs sitting on hills. I find that I have to stand for most of that last .2 . Is that bad? I just can't stay in the saddle on that hill especially after working hard the previous two miles.

Running vs. biking. I am a lifelong runner and I have to say that I honestly feel that my running was not a big advantage on the bike, however I feel the biking has made a great impact on my running.