Training for a Big Climb?

The obvious answer is to train on at lot hills also if you are running an 11/21 rear cassette think about going to a 12/27.
Don't know what you have now but it is a good thought. When you train on hills, especially short ones, try and use a bigger gear than you are use to build some power.
Unless your name is Schleck or Contador learn to find your pace and rhythm climb. Steady pace so you can sit and conserve on the big climbs , but don't get stiff riding the same position, you might get cramped up. Stand and pedal to stretch and keep your arms and hands relaxed as much as possible. Pain can be a big of a problem as fatigue.
Keep yourself hydrated during the climb, I suggest using a high concentration of Gatorade or something similar to keep energy levels high. Don't over eat the day of the climb.
I usually lose about 4 lbs of fluid on similar climbs.

Define "pretty light". Is that light for a cyclist or light for the general population?

A quick look at the climb on mapmyride.com and the elevation profile shows that from Jeffersonville upto the Gap along Mountain Rd (which looks to be the harder side), climbs less that 1,800ft in ~8 miles with a couple of extended sections of 7%. Apart from a short steep section at the start, the first 4.5 miles seem to be no steeper than 3% with the last 3.5 miles being mainly in the 6 to 7% range.

1,800ft in 8 miles given an average gradient of just over 4%. A challenge for most but far from a Hors Category climb. The Suc de Montivernoux which the riders go over today in the Tour is a similar length and gradient (13.7 km climb at 4.4 %) and is rated as a 2nd Category climb.

As for required gearing, that depends on weight, power and how fast you like to pedal. If you can tollerate pedalling slow for a while then you could probably get up it with whatever you have on the bike now.

For training, just go out and ride your bike hard for an hour. There's nothing mystical about climbing. Low weight/high power gets you up the hill fast. Riding hills before hand and getting used to climbing out of the saddle will help you to relax - don't just save the out of the saddle riding until you need to when you're in bottom gear at less than 6mph, use that technique every so often even when the pedalling is still fairly easy just to loosen up.

jhuskey said:

I usually lose about 4 lbs of fluid on similar climbs.

Dude - that's about 1/2 a gallon. (water = ~8.3lbs per gallon)...

... but some of that weight loss will come from reducing your glycogen stores and the associated water.

Thanks for the replies. The map profile I viewed said it had a 12.5% gradient at the top so I got scared. I must not have looked at it correctly.

I'm 5'8" and 142lbs so I'm not the lighest cyclist out there but 20lbs less than I was when I started the season. I feel like I would be a pretty good climber so I really want to have a go at it. I have been practicing riding high intesity intervals.

Ha - yesterday I rode 35 miles on my MTB pulling a trailer with my two kids in it (combined weight of about 55lbs) on a relatively hilly route while trying to keep higher gearing. That gave my legs a workout!

5'8" and 142 is pretty thin in my opinion.

Is this the route you are taking: Northeastcycling.com - Hillclimb Races Because if so it looks pretty challenging.

On training: climbing a long mountain is kind of like riding a time trial in that it's basically flat out for the entire way, and there isn't really any drafting. So to figure out how to train you just figure out how long it's going to take and train to maximize your power over that time period. The route in the link would take me about 45 mins, so that means training would be 100% L4 (threshold, i.e., long intervals). To train for this I would do mostly 2x20s and 1x60+ at SST.

There's one exception, however. For steep climbs I stand out of saddle most of the way, and this is hard to train on the flats. So to train my "standing muscles" I would, in addition to the intervals above, find the longest convenient hill, hopefully at least 4-5 minutes in length, and do lots of repeats on it at low L5 pace, standing the whole way. I.e., instead of doing solid L5 intervals, do more of them at slightly lower intensity and keep the rest interval to a minimum (descend and turn around and head right back up).

Have fun!

Nice find!

Here's the deal - I'm actually going to be riding up Rte. 108, not the highlighted route. It spits the gap right between the peak of Mt. Mansfield and Smuggler's Notch and is visible on that map.

However, I'll be there for a week so if I am able to accomplish my originally planned route without too much pain I may come back a day or so later to try going straight up the face of VT's highest peak!

Looks like I have some serious climbing intervals in my near future!

I'm proud to report that I kicked this climb's ass on Saturday! It took me about 25 minutes to get to the top and the way down was seriously the BEST 10 minutes of my entire life! After getting to the bottom I went back up again climbing the other side just so I could descend back down.
 
A bit slower on the way up the second time and a bit more cautious on the way down (I was beat at that point!) but fun nonetheless.
 
I need to move to the mountains. I've decided that I like climbing.... and I like descending even more!

Way to go, Mojo! [IMG]/img/vbsmilies/smilies/cool.gif[/IMG]
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way to go - sounds like you nailed it!

me belief is that it is perfectly possible to train for very hilly rides effectively even if you have no access to hills. low cadence steady state intervals, 1 hour time trials, short hill repeats are all effective ways to prepare for big mountains...

i've written some more on the subject here if you're interested:
http://www.bicyclecenturytraining.com/blog/training-for-climbing-on-the-flat/