how do i improve my hills?

[young Ed]

If anyone wants to become strong at hill climbing the the only real options are to lose weight, unless already close to optimum, and to be prepared to suffer. As Robert indelicately put, there is no excuse for not getting better, which only happens if you are not prepared to put the effort on.

I am a beginner and have identified hill climbing as an area I need a lot of improvement on. So I cycle to my longest local hills and do as many hill repeats as I can manage.

i'm okay on hills but not the worlds fastest i could go up and DOWN any of the hills anywhere near here (within about 30 miles) all day! and i can't really lose weight as i am border line almost underweight as it is! what do i do?
Cheers Ed

 

[50000tears]

Ed you just have to be a bit innovative to make things harder. Either try and spin a harder gear (not grind) or what I am starting to do, if the hill is not tough enough in itself, is to sprint sections of it. So pick a spot half way up the climb, a lamppost maybe, and gun it for the next two lampposts. After that settle into normal rythym for rest of hill.

 

[uclown2002]

i'm okay on hills but not the worlds fastest i could go up and DOWN any of the hills anywhere near here (within about 30 miles) all day! and i can't really lose weight as i am border line almost underweight as it is! what do i do?
Cheers Ed

Ty riding your bike more often then and spend less time fettling!

 

[young Ed]

Ed you just have to be a bit innovative to make things harder. Either try and spin a harder gear (not grind) or what I am starting to do, if the hill is not tough enough in itself, is to sprint sections of it. So pick a spot half way up the climb, a lamppost maybe, and gun it for the next two lampposts. After that settle into normal rythym for rest of hill.

top gear CHECK
spinning pretty fast CHECK
bum slightly out of saddle head down aero position sprinting on a flat bar hybrid CHECK

what do i do now?!

Ty riding your bike more often then and spend less time fettling!

but then it won't be as good on that rare occasion that i do ride it! well it isn't even so
Cheers Ed

 

[gavroche]

Very long hills (18+ minutes): improve threshold, reduce weight
Long hills (10+ minute): improve threshold + power at VO2 max, reduce weight
Short hills (3-8 minute): improve power at VO2 max, reduce weight
Very short hills (<1.5 mins): improve anaerobic power, upper body and core strength, reduce weight

All of the above can be done on the flat or uphill.

Ultimately, weight needs to come down or power needs to go up, ideally both weight comes down AND power goes up!

Then if you get serious, buy a hacksaw and start chopping redundant bits of your bike off!



Some people may be better at riding up hills than others, but the degree degree of competence/ability most people could achieve is way beyond what they are likely to achieve if they adopt an attitude like yours. The reality is people like you are not willing to hurt for it, that is why you can't get any better! That is fine if you don't want to hurt for it, but to suggest others can't improve based on some silly theory spawned from your unwillingness to endure pain is rather absurd.

I am sure that Cavendish knows all about pain, and probably more than you and yet, he is useless in the mountains, therefore my theory is not so bad. As for me , I can enjoy my cycling without the hills and pain is not high on my list of priorities.

 

[50000tears]

Sounds like you are already pretty good at the hills then young Ed!

Always room to improve though so just keep working hard. Just wish that I had your youth on my side in my cycling progress....

 

[MikeG]

I have recently joined a cycle club and so am riding regularly with other people for the first time. Frankly, I am astonished at how badly men seem to ride up hills!

Is it a macho thing? Why is it that everyone seems to try to go up in too high a gear, and stands up on the pedals rather than changing down a gear or two? I never, ever, stand up, and spin 50% faster than most of the people I ride with......and the only trouble I have on hills is with all the others in front of me getting in the way. I am absolutely convinced that people try to get up hills using strength, when they should actually get up using endurance. I noticed a lot more riders on last years T d F sitting and spinning, too.

So, that would be my advice to those having trouble with hills: lose weight first and foremost, then learn to sit and twiddle for a long period, rather than standing up.

Mike

 

[Rob3rt]

I am sure that Cavendish knows all about pain, and probably more than you and yet, he is useless in the mountains, therefore my theory is not so bad. As for me , I can enjoy my cycling without the hills and pain is not high on my list of priorities.

Given that no-one on cyclechat is likely to be anywhere near to their physiological limits as a pro rider like Mark Cavendish is, your whole "Well Cav is crap in the mountains" justification for your cobblers is a load of old balls.

However humouring you for a moment:

1) He is a lot better in the hills as it stands than he would be had he followed your proposed philosophy and avoided them and any sort of suffering like the plague
2) His climbing ability has not been maximised. He would be able to improve his ability in the mountains beyond his current ability if he chose to focus on this and lost some weight. However, given that he excels as a sprinter and will never be the best climber, he quite rightly focusses his efforts on this, a discipline which tends to run contrary to sprinting, if he was to concentrate on improving his climbing his sprint would most likely suffer!

In short, even those not particularly suited to hill climbing can improve their ability to climb considerably and.you are talking rubbish!

 

[Sharky]

Short hills, try Honking and attack the hills.
http://forum.ctc.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=34006&start=30

Longer hills just keep a good cadence and pace yourself

 

[PK99]

Ed you just have to be a bit innovative to make things harder. Either try and spin a harder gear (not grind) or what I am starting to do, if the hill is not tough enough in itself, is to sprint sections of it. So pick a spot half way up the climb, a lamppost maybe, and gun it for the next two lampposts. After that settle into normal rythym for rest of hill.

My variation, was to "go for it" from the bottom, then when i ran out of steam, drop down a gear of two and spin up to the top.
Over just a few sessions, the point at which i ran out of steam moved significantly further up the hill. Little direct measures like that are great for motivation.

 

[PK99]

I am sure that Cavendish knows all about pain, and probably more than you and yet, he is useless in the mountains, therefore my theory is not so bad. As for me , I can enjoy my cycling without the hills and pain is not high on my list of priorities.

"useless in the mountains" - anyone here who fancies themselves as a hill climber care to take him on on a mountain climb?

 

[50000tears]

My variation, was to "go for it" from the bottom, then when i ran out of steam, drop down a gear of two and spin up to the top.
Over just a few sessions, the point at which i ran out of steam moved significantly further up the hill. Little direct measures like that are great for motivation.

Exactly. When I did some hill repeats last Sunday I mixed up my efforts, sometimes I hit the lower steeper sections hard, sometimes the top third or just went for an overall effort. I kinda like the types of hills that allow you to experiment a bit on with different methods. At some point I will move on to trying to attack all the way up some longer hills but early days for me, so not there yet!

 

[50000tears]

"useless in the mountains" - anyone here who fancies themselves as a hill climber care to take him on on a mountain climb?

Lol I was going to post this too. I am sure that "useless" as he is Cav would still show a clean pair of heels to almost any club rider in hill climbing.

 

[young Ed]

Sounds like you are already pretty good at the hills then young Ed!

Always room to improve though so just keep working hard. Just wish that I had your youth on my side in my cycling progress....

not tooo bad but could be better!
on hills with out too much a gradient so not very steep hills i can do 15-18mph and on anything reasonable about 8-12mph and anything real steep 6-8mph length=no problem
Cheers Ed

 

[uclown2002]

not tooo bad but could be better!
on hills with out too much a gradient so not very steep hills i can do 15-18mph and on anything reasonable about 8-12mph and anything real steep 6-8mph length=no problem
Cheers Ed

15-18 mph on "not very steep hills"?
Very impressive Ed; your overall average for a ride must be 25mph or so?