I'm getting worse! Newbie time in saddle and hill advice

[SpokeyDokey]

@Reddragon

80' / mile is quite a lot. I average 65ish across the year. Most I ever do is about 90-100 and I find that very hard going across say a 20-30 mile ride.

Three years ago I hated hills but now I love them (still moan whilst I am going up them though). NB: there are still loads of climbs up here that are way outside my league but bugger it - one day I may be able to get up them!

Some good advice in this thread - stick with it and you will get better.

 

[cyberknight]

Have a look at ...
http://www.jimlangley.net/crank/bikefit.html

 

[HelsBells Cambs]

It really does thanks, sorry to the OP for crashing your post - I do feel more enlightened now!

I'm trying to feel enlightened but my brain just hurts....!

 

[Karlt]

@Reddragon This is a 3D profile of the steepest bit taken from your Strava entry. My thighs burn just looking at it. As previous posters have said, grinding up gradients might be doing the damage. As your confidence grows, getting out of the saddle for short stints might help too.

View attachment 104629

Ouch! Yeah, I'd be avoiding that.

 

[nickyboy]

I live in a very hilly area (80ft/mile would be a treat!) and when I started cycling about 3 years ago with virtually zero fitness I found it very helpful to initially keep doing the same loops. The reason was that I could see any improvement I made. Being quite competitive, if I managed the loop in an hour, the next time I'd try to improve that time and so on. After about 3 months of this I felt like I had fitness to tackle most hills. Doing the loops again and again encouraged me to try hard and my fitness benefitted. Seeing improvement also kept me motivated to work at it

You'll be surprised how much you can improve over time if you're willing to work hard at it.

 

[Reddragon]

Thanks @nickyboy I went out today on a 18k route to my parents and back and was pleasantly surprised at some of the sections that were quicker and an overall half a km per hour faster av speed. I tried a lot more today to pedal up the hills rather than power my way up, if that makes sense? I think I was trying to push up the hill too quick and failing, today I went more steady and managed them all with only one stop
I think I will stick to 3 routes I have and just do those for a bit, they are all different but challenging enough and are about 1 to 1.5 hours for me so great to get in a few times a week

 

[13 rider]

Thanks @nickyboy I went out today on a 18k route to my parents and back and was pleasantly surprised at some of the sections that were quicker and an overall half a km per hour faster av speed. I tried a lot more today to pedal up the hills rather than power my way up, if that makes sense? I think I was trying to push up the hill too quick and failing, today I went more steady and managed them all with only one stop
I think I will stick to 3 routes I have and just do those for a bit, they are all different but challenging enough and are about 1 to 1.5 hours for me so great to get in a few times a week

Well done on the hills you will find in a few weeks you will climb the same hills in a couple of gears higher and therefore quicker as fitness comes . Progress is slow and steady .Keep riding and look back in a couple of months and you will be surprised at your progress

 

[Nigelnaturist]

@Reddragon ^^^ +1 what @13 rider says, and nice, it comes in time, its hard but well worth it,

 

[Subotai72]

Thanks @nickyboy I went out today on a 18k route to my parents and back and was pleasantly surprised at some of the sections that were quicker and an overall half a km per hour faster av speed. I tried a lot more today to pedal up the hills rather than power my way up, if that makes sense? I think I was trying to push up the hill too quick and failing, today I went more steady and managed them all with only one stop
I think I will stick to 3 routes I have and just do those for a bit, they are all different but challenging enough and are about 1 to 1.5 hours for me so great to get in a few times a week

Have you tried heading down towards Caerwys then across to Babell? You could then come down the Lixwm road back into Holywell. Nice gradual climbs on quiet country lanes and the thrill of flying down Brynford hill at the end!

 

[howard2107]

Getting the saddle height is important and it's also important not to be pushing too high a gear. Too high a gear will burn your thighs. Lower gear and faster legs is more efficient - up to a point. No grinding, except where it can't be helped on steep hills.

I couldn't agree more with all you have said, and in earlier days the same was said to me in this forum. Getting the pedalling and leg work right takes a good bit of trial and error, we are all different, practice makes perfect, and i am no where near perfect yet but am getting better, i can tell when i need to gear up/down to stay comfortable, and have no leg problems, in fact no problems at all. I sometimes come down he gears and slow the pedalling down as well, its more important to me to get up the hill rather than getting up it quickly.

 

[Reddragon]

Thanks @Subotai72 I have headed up to Gorsedd, Babell, Brynford and back through Pantasaph which is going to be one of my routes, I was actually thinking today about heading Caerwys way once I am upping the distance a little. Mum and dad's road it shut for a week so the lanes around them will be busy next week so I will be looking to steer clear of there. I am not great on the downhills yet, I think Brynford hill would have me on my brakes all the way down!!

@howard2107 I raised the saddle before yesterdays ride but I think it needs to go up a bit more, I definitely felt more comfortable in what I was doing on the hills so I think I am getting somewhere technique wise.

 

[mjr]

Don't worry about touching the floor. If the saddle is the right height, you won't be able to touch the floor (except perhaps with the tip of one toe). As long as you can come off the saddle and straddle the bike before you stop, you'll be fine.

Whether you can touch the floor or stand over it depends on the bike design, although mostly it's as described. Set the saddle high enough that you get a fairly good expansion of the knee, but not so high that you lock your knee fully straight or rock your hips while pedalling.

...make roughly the same effort whatever the terrain - you just go slower on hills compared to the flat.

And think yourself lucky! Hills are what gets you fit. Imagine living in the fens, and having to travel miles just to find a hill. Like you, if I go anywhere from my house it involves a hill. I try to think of it as a blessing.

Great but try to think of blessings positively, without dissing the homes of others! We have all the never- ending Dutch mountains you could wish for!

Accepting you don't go as fast uphill is one big bit of it. If you're getting PRs, you're going to feel burnt. I'd say turn off the speed display and don't worry about competition apps too. There's also no shame in the 24" gear (aka two foot gear aka walking).

 

[Nigelnaturist]

Accepting you don't go as fast uphill is one big bit of it. If you're getting PRs, you're going to feel burnt. I'd say turn off the speed display and don't worry about competition apps too. There's also no shame in the 24" gear (aka two foot gear aka walking).

Don't ever remember having a set up that low , but I could get close if I wanted 26x27, I tell a lie, I did have a 30x34 for a while when I started 23.4"

 

[Reddragon]

Accepting you don't go as fast uphill is one big bit of it. If you're getting PRs, you're going to feel burnt. I'd say turn off the speed display and don't worry about competition apps too.

While I appreciate the sentiment, if I am not getting PRs, I am not getting any stronger, I don't have the speed or distance on display so I am not racing when I am out, just looking to get round my route. I track my ride and check out the stats when I get home, so i have an idea of how it is going and if i am making any progress. I have no idea how I am doing when I am out on the road, just how I feel, I don't even look at my watch.
Today felt a lot better, a little improvement in average speed, only stopped once on one hill and that was down to me not being in the right gear after standing up in the pedals (get me!) so I had to stop before I fell off

 

[mjr]

While I appreciate the sentiment, if I am not getting PRs, I am not getting any stronger

That's not true for all sorts of reasons: for example, maybe the conditions are worse than when you got the PR - it's getting colder now for the next few months which slows me down and I doubt I'm the only one... and when I need to use the heavier bike with the ice tyres, I can add at least a third to the time it takes.

You've got to enjoy it in order to keep doing it for decades and if you're burning yourself out every ride, you won't enjoy it unless you're a masochist...

If I was in your shoes and really wanted to focus on competition (even just with myself), I'd get the miles in over the autumn and winter, try to keep avoiding falls and then worry about building speed in the spring.