Went out last night on my road bike to train with a roadie friend of mine (I mostly do MTB). (Me 34 Him 54 if that makes any difference)as we are doing a 100mile sportive next weekend.

Now I am not superfit but certainly not unfit. The first climb of 20 mins is about 18%, I struggled to keep up at the top, I couldn't inhale enough air to keep my muscles going. However later in the ride are shorter steep climbs. I can power up those and out sprint my mate easily.

So I guess I need to practice more long climbs to improve my endurance or was it becaus the hill started for me withint 3 mins of the ride and he had a 20 min warm up from his hose (I am kidding myself right 😉 )

A 20 minute 18% climb? Are you sure? There aren't too many of those in the UK!

Focus on keeping the pace the whole way, even if it means going easier than you think you should at the bottom. If you attack the bottom of the climb you'll die halfway up and crawl over the top. If it's a constant gradient then it's even easier to try. Start in an easier gear, but try not to change down at all.

20 mins at 18% – you must be bloody slow. Because at 9mph that would be a ~900m ascent. At 4.5 it would still be 450m…

The age difference would probably go a long way to explaining why you can outsprint him (you lose peak power much quicker than aerobic capacity as you age)

Basically he's much fitter (aerobically) than you but you can sprint better. If you want to improve relative to him then you need to do endurance training.

I'd get a heart rate monitor and ride to that – it;s easy to get into 'the red' on longer hills and fade. Find a rate you can ride the hill without difficulty in and stick to that.

is he running different gearing to you (compact and you're not)?

So I guess I need to practice more long climbs to improve my endurance

yes, and to pace yourself – work on your aerobic capability rather than your anaerobic sprinting/powering over short distance.

ps where is this hill?

20 minutes at 18% – you sure? Winnats is 20% and doesn't take 20 minutes walking..!

Anyway, I mainly ride on the road. A MTBer friend has ridden with me a few times. Every hill we see, he attacks it hard and dies a thousand deaths before he hits the top. I sit there and grind away and arrive at the same time in much better shape.

The result is that even on a short ride (say 60 miles) he's f—ed at the end.

Nice and steady. You have 100 miles to ride, probably over some nice hills. and, besides, you've paid about 10 times the cost of an audax, so longer = more VFM. 😀

I don't think there are any hills that average 18% over their whole length, Hardknott Pass is only 15% IIRC

nothing in scotland anyway – there isnt much of the place i havnt ridden now with all these audaxes 😉

need to get my arse to the lakes

on the same theme – most over rated climb in the uk – bealach na ba ….

**Googles bealach na ba**

Looks nice.

Toughest climb I've done in the UK is the climb upto the radar station on top of Lowther hill. That will be the closest you'll get to 20 mins of 18% over here. And it is the highest road in the UK too.
Its the last bit of this route.

OK OK – sorry I mean variable climb up to 18% – Sorry 😳

It was just a rough estimate to ask the question. I have looked at my garmin and:

took 15 minutes to do a 200m ascent over 5 Km with the steepest park at 18% – sorry not to be accurate. So maybe he's aerobically fitter than me then as he is a dedicated roadie – Hmm more endurance climbing then 🙁

He also has a tripple and I have a compact – but I don't think thats the cause as we were on similar cadance. I do have a HRM so maybe a bit more science maybe needed 😉

We have some serious roadies on here no? 🙂 BTW I did the Dartmoor classic route (105miles) in just over 7 hours the other weekend so I am not a sportive virgin 🙂

Yip. Lots of them.

Stand by what I said, start steady and speed up nearer the top, not the other way around!

Cheers 🙂

Stand by what I said, start steady and speed up nearer the top, not the other way around!

+1

Did the Dartmoor Classic last year – was good, but extraordinarily wet and windy. My friend (an Exeter resident, so use dto those hills) said it was much better weather this year, though the slog back to Princeton was as arduous as ever.

I'm not a serious roadie – way to heavy to be any good going up hill.

So I guess I need to practice more long climbs to improve my endurance

Yes.

Sorry that should have been just over 7 hours ride time 🙂 – oops again 😯