Climbing

Quoted post said:

Originally posted by kaplunov
I have been trying to improve my climbing this year and I think I have but not as much as I would have hopped. Can anyone suggest a good training program to improve climbing (besides just climbing more)? The climbs around here are 3 to 5.5 miles long with an average 7.5% grade.

My goal is to become a better climber for next season. Also, if anyone could suggest a coach (online) who could help me accomplish this goal would be great. Thanks.

With climbs of that duration, which, i guess could take 15 mins plus to climb, you're going to need to work on increasing your sustainable power output.

Besides riding hills and making sure you have low enough gears to keep cadence at least moderate, you can also train indoors on a trainer or outdoors on a flat road, completing one to four intervals of 15 to 30 mins at just below TT effort, once or twice a week. This will increase your sustainable power if completed regularly.

On shorter hills, e.g., 3 to 8 minutes in duration, you can try completing these at a much higher effort, doing several repeats, and with a fairly long recovery between efforts.

as for a coach, you could try the one that sponsors the forum. i hear he's very good. oh! it's me 😄

Ric

as a motivating factor keep your best times for hardest hill. And try to improve this time.
At first look it seems to me fullish and very familiar idea but it works..
My PB for a killing 8 km %8 hill goes down regularly...

This is what I have been doing and that worked for about a year. I have now reached a point where I am not able to improve any more or at least it takes way too long. For example it took me nearly six month to shred 30 seconds of my last record.

I have also been told by other rides that it is a good idea to climb slow most of the time and only once in a while try to get your record time. This supposedly builds strength. Any thoughts on this?

I do not try to crack my PB for those routes until 2-3 weeks passed. I also used them as a display of my performance gain in the beginning of season.

Dear Kaplunov,

What is your age, height, weight, and general level of fitness? Equipment?

Also, see the "Crank Length" posting of the equipment section, you might find some food for thought.

Signed,
Retrogeek