I hfinished the Trans Wales on Saturday and I came a not un-respectful 16th and while I was riding I noticed that my speed up hill needs a lot of improving.

Ok I am 93kg so I could do with losing a bit but not too much not to lose any power, I know that will help.

I have a turbo trainer and getting a road bike next week, so will be out training on them.

Any help welcome?

Hill training?

Easiest way is find a steepish hill, probably about 5-8 minutes long climbing time and start doing reps. Climb up it, then freewheel back down to recover, then repeat 10x.

Otherways is interval training. Practise normal riding then do 30sec – 1 minutes full on bursts/sprints. Aim is to get your heart at a steady rate, then get it pumping as hard as possible then recover. You should see your recovery time improving.

Find a hard hill, smash it up, freewheel down, repeat. If you can taste blood you'll be going hard, being sick is the ultimate goal here though.

😀

Thought that would be the case.

I'm intrested to see if there is any training i can do on the turbo trainer?

Depending on your height get that weight down if you can, even if it's muscle (for example, I'm 20kg lighter than you which is a fair whack to haul up a hill- you're effectively carrying 2 extra bikes- but I've got the upper body strength of a gerbil with AIDs).

Then just do as raddogair says. Up the hill and back down. Aim for 5-8 repeats usually (it should be enough to leave you totally gubbed if you go hard enough). I did read somewhere that the ideal hill has a steeper first bit to grind up, a more level middle to spin then a kick at the end to power over. I may have made that up because it's exactly the hill I use, but it works for me.

Turbo wise, it's an alternative, not a replacement, for hills. I used to do intervals on my turbo but to be honest I've not used it for a year and a half now.

On a trainer I would suggest you want to look at VO2 max sessions.

Road bike will help no end, you ride hills differently.

On a MTB (unless you're an XC racer), the hill mentality seems to be that you just trudge up them in a spinny gear then enjoy the descent.
On a road bike, the mentality is that hills are there to be climbed!

If you're doing off-road hill stuff concentrate on pacing, staying smooth, line choice etc; don't go screaming off up it only to fail to get over the techy bit cos you're exhausted. You want to try and increase the pace as you climb and go OVER the hill, not stop at the top and admire the view while faffing with suspension and body armour and dropping seatpost etc which is why actual hill training is best done alone or with a friend who has similar aims.
On road hill stuff, go hard or go home! 😉 Actually the best way of working hills in is simply to do a hilly ride rather than hill reps, mostly cos hill reps are soul-destroyingly painful and miserable and really only needed if you're doing full on race training.

Doing such rides as a pair will help no end, it gives you some competition (so long as your mate has a similar mindset and is roughly of similar ability)

Whack it in top gear and chase lorries up your local hill. Repeat until it hurts, and then keep going.

about 5-8 minutes long

a steeper first bit to grind up, a more level middle to spin then a kick at the end to power over

My local hill-reps hill fits those requirements perfectly.

Unfortunately I'm in Somerset so this may not help… but it does the trick for me.

SpokesCycles – I am 6'4" so if i can lose 10 to 15kg i will be more than happy.

Cheers all, some great advice there, i am hopefully getting a road bike this weekend.

find a big hill and ride up it as fast as i can untill i am sick. ok got it 🙂

6'4" is mighty tall to get down 15kg to my sort of weight- I'm only 5'10". Don't over stretch yourself, a diet to drop that sort of weight may harm your training more than staying as you are.

And what about the benefits or otherwise of staying in the saddle v standing up and giving it your all…???

I always thought that it was better for your fitness to stay seated and grind it out, but thinking about it a little more just recently, I suppose they are both beneficial just in different ways (slightly different muscles used etc).

Ok I am 93kg so I could do with losing a bit but not too much not to lose any power,

There's no power in fat

Lose that weight. You need to be as skinny as me! 🙂

Some good stuff on sit vs stand here

Ive found riding single speed for a while really helped my climbing once back to the geared bike.

Cheers vdubber67 🙂

this is intresting though

One quick and simple way to come up with your body mass is to divide your weight in pounds (1kg = 2.2lbs) by your height in inches (1cm = 0.4in). So if you weigh 154 pounds (70kg) and you are 72 inches (180cm) tall your “mass” is 2.13 (154 / 72 = 2.13)

me: 205lb (93kg) and 75inches (193cm) 205 / 75 = 2.73

males the best climbers are at less than 2.0. These folks should stand a lot (think of Marco Pantani). Men in the range of 2.0 to 2.3 tend to alternate between standing and sitting a lot (for example, Lance Armstrong). Those men at 2.3 to 2.5 are best advised to sit a lot (like Miguel Indurain). Folks over 2.5 usually avoid hills. Women should use a scale which is about 0.2 lbs/in less (for example, under 1.8 are climbers).

The mighty Joe Friel appears to back up what I said….reduce your mass! 🙂

Men in the range of 2.0 to 2.3 tend to alternate between standing and sitting a lot (for example, Lance Armstrong)

Like lance huh…cool. I come out at 2.2

on longer hills it can be a mental thing as well. I love climbing i have to say, but what i tend to aim at on long hills is going as hard as i can at the top of the hill, but by pacing myself so that the effort i put in increases incrementally as i go up. also i watch contador climb and think that the two things that define his climbing is the sense that he is dancing on the pedals at a perfect cadence for his (perfect) physique, it's poetry in motion, though i know that sounds like i am gay for him. the other thing is that he sits down and stands up and is completely in control of it, not slumping back into the saddle after an effort- so mix it up. the heaviest riders in the tour are in the mid 80s kg, the tallest are your height. ryan trebon, though not a tour cyclist,(usa national cx and xc champ in 2006) is 6 foot 5 inches and is just under 80kg. I think that less than 80kg and still retaining a fitness that isn't going to kill the rest of your life would be very hard to achieve. i reckon 16th is pretty damn good!

change your power to weight ratio mate. You need to loose weight, no brainier. It will be the quickest speed increase up hill. Secondly hit the gym and get some extra strength in your legs. Gym is good because you can target the areas you need to improve and it produces quicker results than simply doing more miles. Do some core stability exercises as well.

males the best climbers are at less than 2.0. These folks should stand a lot (think of Marco Pantani). Men in the range of 2.0 to 2.3 tend to alternate between standing and sitting a lot (for example, Lance Armstrong). Those men at 2.3 to 2.5 are best advised to sit a lot (like Miguel Indurain). Folks over 2.5 usually avoid hills. Women should use a scale which is about 0.2 lbs/in less (for example, under 1.8 are climbers).

I come out at 2.9. What am I?

EDIT: I know the obvious answer. No need to say it.

3.5 for me, no wonder hilly trails have been hika bikes for me since last november..

I reeeeeeeely need to shift these extra daddispads from me midriff

2.4, I'm a seated powerhouse. Grrr, etc!

2.3 8) I have no problems going up hill 🙂

you need to drop the weight but keep the power up. Weight loss dont equal loss of power, quite the reverse. Get pushing 100kg reps in the gym. At 75kg I push 90 – 100kg in reps. Makes for great power. Add a good dose of cycling ofc. I also think the cadence for mtb is different from road. So while road is fine there is no substitute for say laps of Cmwcarn etc.

The Lance Armstrong 7 Week training book will help you a lot.
Losing wt will too. I rode lots of Cols this summer and last and after half an hr it was calves rather than anything that hurt, I'm talking about Colombiere etc.

Training before that event you entered at a similar level would obviously help too.

Nick

16stonepig, i think your user name answers the question… 😉

2.1, do I win something!? I do alternate between seating and standing too, so I fit the bill.

Agree that you need to lose weight, simple as that.

Also agree firmly with Crazy-Legs that hill reps are tortuously dull and that a hilly ride is far more pleasant. I tend to just pack lots of hills into a ride. If you really want to do hill reps then I recommend finding a longish hill and riding up for 3 minutes, down for 1 minute, up for 3, down for 1 etc, saves you getting too much recovery on the descent and means you get more done.

you can't be that bad if you came 16th 😕

This is a pretty good site for turbo training workouts.

http://www.turbotraining.co.uk/turbo_trainer_sessions.php

when I was younger (and before anyone starts, a lot thinner and fitter and better looking and with a full set of teeth and full head of hair) I used to ride a 15 mile road circuit that had 7 short but steep climbs that helped loads with my climbing. Ride as hard as possible up and over each climb recover on the decent ride at moderate pace to next climb etc.

stAn-Bad Brains MBC – I agree about the http://www.turbotraining.co.uk it is a great site.

After I started the post I have been doing the 5×5 one and it seemes quite intence and i think it is going to work wonders for me. It says I have to keep the watts over 400w for the 5 min Interval (manage 2 intervals but it's tough).