Help on hills needed

[black'n'yellow]

You might have something there, i do find that when i'm really trying my neck arms and sholders go very tight

Forget about all this bullsh1t 'technique' stuff - it won't get you up hills any quicker. Fitness will. Unfortunately, for many people, the notion of improving 'technique' is a lot more attractive than actually working harder or training more.

 

[Fab Foodie]

Forget about all this bullsh1t 'technique' stuff - it won't get you up hills any quicker. Fitness will. Unfortunately, for many people, the notion of improving 'technique' is a lot more attractive than actually working harder or training more.

Nonsense frankly, nay even bollocks. I'll call you wrong.
Whilst there's no substitute for fitness, technique plays a big part. It is very simple to demonstrate when you find somebody struggling half way up a hill, give them a little coaching and decent advice and you find that suddenly as if by magic the hill becomes easier and they go quicker, but their fitness level hasn't changed.
Fitness with poor technique is wasted effort.
It's not rocket science.

 

[black'n'yellow]

Nonsense frankly, nay even bollocks. I'll call you wrong.
Whilst there's no substitute for fitness, technique plays a big part. It is very simple to demonstrate when you find somebody struggling half way up a hill, give them a little coaching and decent advice and you find that suddenly as if by magic the hill becomes easier and they go quicker, but their fitness level hasn't changed.
It's not rocket science, just an open mind.

Sorry, technique is bollocks - but a lot of people grasp at it because they are inherently lazy, and being told you may have poor technique is easier to accept than the possibility that your fitness may be lacking, which may involve some hard effort to put right.

Put two riders at the bottom of a long, steady climb. Which one will get to the top first - the one with the best technique but poor fitness - or the one with poor technique but the best fitness..?? Technique is bullsh1t - it's just pedalling on an incline. As you said yourself - 'there's no substitute for fitness'...

Incidentally, I've been outridden up climbs by technically-inept riders who have better fitness than me. Work that one out.

 

[Andrew_Culture]

I'm the total opposite; I can nail climbing KOMs but struggle to hang onto sprint segements, but I'm kinda happy with that because I can hang onto my KOMs for longer!

The tip about relaxing seems good, but other than that I'd just stick with going up hills and you'll start going up them quicker.

 

[Andrew_Culture]

As a caveat - when I say 'hills' it's worth noting that I live in Suffolk...

 

[Fab Foodie]

No Technique is NOT bollocks, not in cycling nor swimming or any other sport. Consider this experiment:

2 people of equal fitness at the bottom of the hill, one with good technique one with poor technique ... who will you put your money on to win KOM?

 

[black'n'yellow]

No Technique is NOT bollocks, not in cycling nor swimming or any other sport. Consider this experiment:

You're comparing cycling (mainly legs) to swimming (mainly arms)...??

2 people of equal fitness at the bottom of the hill, one with good technique one with poor technique ... who will you put your money on to win KOM?

Assuming they've both mastered the 'technique' of turning the pedals, and assuming their power outputs, w/kg and threshold levels are indeed equal, then it's going to be a dead heat. What else would you expect..?

 

[amaferanga]

No Technique is NOT bollocks, not in cycling nor swimming or any other sport. Consider this experiment:

2 people of equal fitness at the bottom of the hill, one with good technique one with poor technique ... who will you put your money on to win KOM?

What do you mean by technique? If it's basic stuff like picking the right gear and cadence then you're right. Perhaps you need to clarify what you mean by 'good' and 'poor' technique?

 

[Hacienda71]

Forget about all this bullsh1t 'technique' stuff - it won't get you up hills any quicker. Fitness will. Unfortunately, for many people, the notion of improving 'technique' is a lot more attractive than actually working harder or training more.

Really? Although I would accept that the biggest gains are made by better fitness levels I was labouring under a misaprehension that technique was an additional variable that would benefit climbing ability. Maybe you should tell @totallyfixed that when he is training his better half for the National Hill Climb Championships that all this technique he has helped her with is rubbish and she should just mtfu

 

[black'n'yellow]

Really? Although I would accept that the biggest gains are made by better fitness levels I was labouring under a misaprehension that technique was an additional variable that would benefit climbing ability. Maybe you should tell @totallyfixed that when he is training his better half for the National Hill Climb Championships that all this technique he has helped her with is rubbish and she should just mtfu

I don't know who '@totallyfixed' is, sorry - and 'mtfu' is not what I said. As mentioned above - what do you mean by technique?

 

[amaferanga]

I don't know who '@totallyfixed' is, sorry - and 'mtfu' is not what I said. As mentioned above - what do you mean by technique?

This is the key question that no-one seems able or willing to answer!

 

[Deleted member 26715]

Children, Children, stop bittering, just accept that you are both correct, I am both unfit & have terrible technique & struggle to get up hills, I know I need to be fitter, but at the same time I'm sure if my technique was better, i.e. keeping my upper body rigid & not swinging the bike side to side etc. then I wouldn't be wasting what little energy I have.

Alan...

 

[black'n'yellow]

I know I need to be fitter, but at the same time I'm sure if my technique was better, i.e. keeping my upper body rigid & not swinging the bike side to side etc. then I wouldn't be wasting what little energy I have.

the irony is that as your fitness improves, you will find that you stop doing all those things....

 

[Hacienda71]

I am not an expert, Totallyfixed is a member on the forum and trains his wife to compete in the National Hill Climbs. He has posted on here many times about the benefits of the correct technique when climbing hills. eg

"Watch someone who is an expert at anything in life and it will always look effortless and that's the point I am trying to make, technique triumphs over power. My better half dr_pink was first lady up the Shap hill climb, I know she doesn't generate the power that one or two of the other ladies have, yet she beat them, including the hill record holder and a lot of men, how? By having very good technique, she also suffers from asthma and has a very poor peak flow, which makes her 17.2mph average up a 9.1 mile hill climb even more special. [can you tell I am proud?]."​

totallyfixed, 17 May 2012 Report


Maybe you could PM him and he will explain. My attempts at improving my technique have been to relax my upper body so more of my CV fitness is going to the muscles I am using to actually pedal up the hill rather than tensing my upper body. Maybe I am totally wrong and I am wasting my time.

 

[amaferanga]

Does anyone want to comment on the technique of Thomas Voeckler or perhaps Chris Froome? Neither look particularly good when they're climbing. Do you think they should improve their technique and would that make them quicker up the hills?