General Discussion Triathlon Talk » Climbing Hills and getting faster Rss Feed  
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2010-05-16 5:45 PM

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Subject: Climbing Hills and getting faster

So, I know to get better at climbing hills, one needs to climb hills.

I am really bad at climbing.  I get dusted every time on a climb.  So, I'm trying to build in more hills on my routes.

I'm currently trying to ride 2 times a week in the 20 - 30 mile range, including some rolling hills.

What else can I do to improve on my climbing and cycling fitness?  Should I up my bike to 3 times a week or more?  What should my workouts look like to start improving?

The Olympic that I'm looking at doing at the end of July has rolling hills and some climbing.  I'd like to improve a lot before then.



2010-05-16 5:47 PM
in reply to: #2861866

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Subject: RE: Climbing Hills and getting faster
you need to ride a LOT more than that to see much gains.
unless yo uare running a ton, you need a lot more riding, and more rides per week, to see a lot of gain climbing(or riding in general). also, losing weight will help (assuming you have it to lose).
2010-05-16 6:01 PM
in reply to: #2861866

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Subject: RE: Climbing Hills and getting faster
If you are happy with your speed on flat, but not on hills, then you need to improve your power to weight ratio to get better on the hills. If you are also not happy with your speed on flats, you need to improve power overall.

How long are the hills on your route, especially on your race course? Are they hills that take only 2-3 minutes to climb or do they take 10 minutes to climb?

Are you using any sort of measures to guage your intensity while riding? heart rate? RPE? Power? Speed? Building in some easy interval workouts, even on the flats, will help raise your overall power output, which will help on the hills.

Since hills are power to weight ratio, if you can lose some weight while you are at it, that will help too.

40-60 miles a week is not a ton of miles, but there are lots of itneresting ways to get faster if that is the time limit you have for riding.
2010-05-16 6:12 PM
in reply to: #2861897

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Subject: RE: Climbing Hills and getting faster
AdventureBear - 2010-05-16 6:01 PM If you are happy with your speed on flat, but not on hills, then you need to improve your power to weight ratio to get better on the hills. If you are also not happy with your speed on flats, you need to improve power overall. How long are the hills on your route, especially on your race course? Are they hills that take only 2-3 minutes to climb or do they take 10 minutes to climb? Are you using any sort of measures to guage your intensity while riding? heart rate? RPE? Power? Speed? Building in some easy interval workouts, even on the flats, will help raise your overall power output, which will help on the hills. Since hills are power to weight ratio, if you can lose some weight while you are at it, that will help too. 40-60 miles a week is not a ton of miles, but there are lots of itneresting ways to get faster if that is the time limit you have for riding.


Overall, I would like to improve my power.  I could stand to be much faster on flats also, but my hills are horrible.

Yesterday, I probably had some 10 minutes climbs.  I could hold about 8-10mph, while everyone else was leaving me behind, probably in the 13-15mph range.  I believe the OLY will be more like 8-10 minute climbs.

I'm using a HRM while riding.  I haven't done a formal TT, but have an educated guess on a LT.  Immediatly upon climbing the hills, my HR shoots up between the 175-180 range.  My overall fitness could be a limitor here also.  I monitor the speed/cadence also, as I have the Garmin 305.  You can check out my last ride and the HR breakdown in my logs.  I have some pretty powerful legs, so I figure that I should be able to leverage those for cycling.

I'm working on my weight, as I'm at about 193 right now.  I'm looking to get down to 180 this summer.
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General Discussion Triathlon Talk » Climbing Hills and getting faster Rss Feed