Viewing 33 posts - 1 through 33 (of 33 total)
  • training for climbs…..
  • tymbian
    Free Member

    Any advice/training routines that I should try?

    (Prep for the ‘ ardrock, I’ve 8 months) I was absolurely shattered this year. I did a reccy lap on the Saturday and never made the Sunday. ..hardest thing I’v . done by far..

    suburbanreuben
    Free Member

    Is there anything similar near you?
    No?
    Anything that takes 20 mins+ to climb?
    That’ll do!
    Climb it.
    Climb it again.
    Climb it till you’re knacker’d.
    Once a week at least.

    tymbian
    Free Member

    Unfortunately there’s nothing around here (Banbury) like it..

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    suburbanreuben
    Free Member

    Banbury? In Oxon? What’s the biggest hill near Banbury?

    tymbian
    Free Member

    Yep, in Oxon. I’d have to find out.. I get your drift though…climb, climb and climb some more.

    kayak23
    Full Member

    Biggest hill near Banbury is probably Edgehill or Warmington (roads though).

    Edgehill is pretty tough. Ride from the bottom, nip into the woods at the top on the right, ride the steep, slippy hill back down, back to the road, repeat.

    Knackering…

    Selled
    Free Member

    You will need a good base, the bigger the foundations the bigger the house you can build.

    Lots of low intensity training for a few months on the climbs and then start ramping it up in the last few months.

    rOcKeTdOg
    Full Member

    A play around Burton dasset should assist

    jameso
    Full Member

    Do you have a turbo trainer? You don’t need big hills to be a better climber, anything that develops power will help. Hill reps are good but so are threshold sessions on the turbo. Well, good may not be the right word .. effective anyway.

    Kryton57
    Full Member

    What james said. I suffer particularly on long drags, so I’ve just done and entire 12 week sweet spot plan with my resistance set at an equivalent of a 3% climb.

    I’ll let you know if it’s worked….

    mrblobby
    Free Member

    Diet and lose as much weight as you can!

    Beyond that, if you do have a turbo then there’s much you can do to recreate the types of effort needed, be it long drags or short grinds.

    Plenty of road climbs over in the Chilterns which I think is not too far from Banbury, certainly doable in a road bike loop.

    jota180
    Free Member

    Get out on every windy day and train against it.
    I read somewhere that a 5mph headwind is equivalent to a 1% gradient

    dunmail
    Free Member

    You don’t say what weight you are but unless you are a whippet then losing weight will have an immediate impact.

    Hill reps are best done on hills that you can ride in 2 to 3 minutes when pushing it. Go for a warm up ride of 20mins or so which should get you to the foot of your chosen hill. Now blast up the hill as hard as you can, don’t give up the effort until you reach the finish line. Now coast slowly back down the hill and as soon as you get to the bottom turn round and do it again. Repeat for a total of four efforts and then go for a warm down ride.

    To begin with you’ll only be able to do one set of four but after a month or so you should be able to add a second set but leave ten to fifteen minutes between the sets. If you do them correctly you’ll feel like throwing up, it’s that level of intensity you should be looking for.

    You should only do one session per week otherwise you’ll overtrain. Try and find several hills with different gradients as training on just one gradient will get you very good at that and not much else – there’ll be one or two gradients that you just can’t get right

    mooman
    Free Member

    Very often the thought of the climb will destroy you before the actual climb does.
    Get confidence by knowing That you can maintain threshold atleast as long as the climb will potentially take you.
    I used to keep an eye on HR and cadence to make sure I wasn’t grinding legs to exhaustion early.

    mrblobby
    Free Member

    It really is all about your power to weight ratio. Well worth doing the sums and seeing how much extra power you’d need compared to losing a kilo or two.

    sandwicheater
    Full Member

    Give up now and give me your entry. Just an idea, it’s OK to give up. No one blames you.

    iain65
    Free Member

    My friend did some hill repeats on Edgehill earlier in the year, 94 of them if you want a target 🙂

    http://www.strava.com/activities/125017614/laps

    You could always come further over to Illmington hill as there are more ways up it and I personally prefer it to Edgehill.

    sandwicheater
    Full Member

    @iain, your friend is a mentalist.

    iain65
    Free Member

    He’s French 🙂

    RobHilton
    Free Member

    Spin classes, ignoring the instructor and racking up the resistance to get climbing practice works for me. Unless the instructor has massive issues and can’t deal with someone not doing exactly what they think they need (beware of control freaks 🙂 )

    Or single speed. Everywhere. It really works and is marginally more enjoyable than spinning :mrgreen:

    bikebouy
    Free Member

    A French Mentalist? You don’t see many of those anymore do you … 😉

    As for training, I’d say if you’ve no hills per se’ then intervals on the flat. Start/Stop, Sprint and max etc. then huge turn spin outs, single speed would be preferred and on a high gear so you are max’ing cardio and at threshold (lactic) in the legs..

    I’d also say modify your climbing technique by spinning and letting your cardio do the work, so spin up to around 90-110 if you can for extended periods..
    Worked for me that.

    dunmail
    Free Member

    Something else to consider is strategy. Not sure of the ‘Ardrock course but the biggest climb round there is Fremington Edge which while longish has easier sections where you can recover so rather than blast all the way, put in an effort on the steeper bits then when the gradient eases off you ease up and let yourself recover then you’ve got more to put in to the next effort.

    My comments about hill reps earlier apply both on and off road, just find a hill and get training.

    chakaping
    Free Member

    Turbo trainer does work.

    I was injured off bike for a few months last year and bought a turbo so I could stay sane.

    When I got back on road bike I was quicker than before! And better up hills.

    mooman
    Free Member

    Bought a turbo to stay sane???

    chakaping
    Free Member

    Haven’t used it since my arm was fixed, strangely.

    But then I live near plenty of hills.

    lunge
    Full Member

    Lose weight, I know it sounds simple but you will climb so much better.
    Bar that, just ride more hills. Do hill sets, do them until your legs scream, then do 1 more. Do it in a range of cadences, grind some and spin some. Set some times uses Strava or the like when you’re feeling fresh and look to beat them every time, even when you’re tired and into a head wind.
    And finally, develop an appetite for the pain of both you and others. My wife has just started riding and she absolutely flys up hill. Yes, she has brilliant base fitness (she runs 10k’s in 40 mins) and weighs nothing but a big thing is, when the hill starts to hurt she smiles and kicks again as she likes the feel of the pain in her legs and the grimace in my eyes. It’s bloody horrible quite frankly.

    tymbian
    Free Member

    The weight-loss thing I struggle with since giving up smoking ( smoked for 29 years ). Although I haven’t ballooned I carry a big midriff I’m embarrassed to say. On the plus side I don’t have a desk job so don’t carry a lot of body-fat on arms and legs etc. I’m 5’10 and weigh just shy of 100kgs, I’ve a 47 inch chest (no moobs).
    The whole smoking thing messes with a high cadence as I’m soon out if breath & I can’t seem to get the oxygen quick enough..

    mrblobby
    Free Member

    I hate to say it, but at 100kg climbing is always going to be tough. Wider range cassette and a compact chainset?

    lunge
    Full Member

    100kg at 5’10” is your main problem in that case sadly. Saying that, do as I suggested anyway and you’ll still improve. Also, try some early morning, sub 1 hour, high intensity rides in an empty stomach and an espresso. It’s a great little fat burning technique.

    belugabob
    Free Member

    @dunmail

    Only ever been up Fremington Edge once – with a whole 400 yards warm up from the Dales Bike Centre (thanks Stu) – but I definitely reached the ‘almost throwing up’ point, and almost got a second look at my Steak Pie and a pint

    Still rubbish at climbs, can usually get up most of them, but not at any speed, unless I’m singlespeeding – then I don’t really have a choice.

    davidtaylforth
    Free Member

    Sounds like you just need to ride your bike more.

    Don’t bother doing hill repeats and the like, there’s no point if you aren’t riding alot.

    Consistency is waht you need.

    tomlevell
    Full Member

    How much riding do you do and be honest about the hours riding per week. (not the standing around chatting bit Strava etc are useful for this)

    I was down to averaging 2 1/2 a week due to children, and was really suffering on the hills (and the rest) but the last 2 years got it back up to nearer 5 and in comparison to those previous years I’m flying.
    Not flying enough so looking to push that up to 7 a week next year and currently had 5 weeks at 8 hours and looking to continue that until the ice comes. Hopefully with more 2 hour plus rides when I can fit them in. Early mornings will have to happen and extending group rides on an evening.

    I did the Ard Rock Sportive last year and treated it as a race. Steady spin up the first climb. Rode the second stupidly steep one. Steady effort up the big road to section 3. Suffered up The Stang road. Slow and suffering up the final drags towards 5. The lack of rides over an hour and half showed from the Stang onwards. A decent time including a small detour. My main advice is don’t do it on a Fatbike ;0)

    chakaping
    Free Member

    If you’re serious about getting better at climbing, consider setting yourself a weekly altitude gain target on strava.

    I’ve gone from about 1,000m to 2,000m+ per week in the last year and it’s my main metric for ‘training’.

    Use the same willpower that keeps you off the fags to make sure you got that target each week.

Viewing 33 posts - 1 through 33 (of 33 total)

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