This is my first post to these forums, but it is a question that has been with me for a while now!
I live on the doorstep (literally 2 km ride to the base) of an HC Climb in Tasmania. The climb average approx 7.6% over 18 km.
My question is, how often should I incorporate riding the mountain into my training schedule? I am a reasonably light rider (66kg +-) who enjoys climbing the most, however most races around my area are flat with short climbs.
There is one time trial up the mountain per year.
Any thoughts on the best way to incorporate the mountain into my training?
Listen to old guy - because old guys are already right, right? Do it at the start and finish of your rides because if you can hold 320watts for both climbs, you should be able to nail that hill in 1 hour for each climb, zoom down it in 10 minutes and ride around for 2 hours in between - preferably holding 300watts... because that's what Old Guy does.
But for the real world....... if you love climbing, use it for your longer intervals. You don't need to go all the way to the top and if there's a favorite section on the hill that's inspiring to ride when you're suffering, ride upto that point as a warm up and tempo and then use that section for intervals of a given length - 2 minutes to 30+ minutes... or even an hour.
Of course on L2 and L3 rides, climb it whenever and have fun.
[FONT= times new roman]After years of racing (no great success of course…) I’ve come to realise that training on hills is good for almost all forms of racing. [/FONT] [FONT= times new roman]That depends how you use the hill, your gearing chosen etc. [/FONT] [FONT= times new roman]They’re not for recovery rides of course.[/FONT]
This is my first post to these forums, but it is a question that has been with me for a while now!
I live on the doorstep (literally 2 km ride to the base) of an HC Climb in Tasmania. The climb average approx 7.6% over 18 km.
My question is, how often should I incorporate riding the mountain into my training schedule? I am a reasonably light rider (66kg +-) who enjoys climbing the most, however most races around my area are flat with short climbs.
There is one time trial up the mountain per year.
Any thoughts on the best way to incorporate the mountain into my training?
Regards,
Joe
Hi there
I used to live in South Hobart, it sounds like you're around there somewhere too. Great training roads, among the best on the planet, but the major problem is the mad drivers. I lived there for 18 months and only ever trained on the road to Mt Wellington, or to Longley, or into the hills on quiet roads down in the huon valley.
Listen to old guy - because old guys are already right, right? Do it at the start and finish of your rides because if you can hold 320watts for both climbs, you should be able to nail that hill in 1 hour for each climb, zoom down it in 10 minutes and ride around for 2 hours in between - preferably holding 300watts... because that's what Old Guy does.
While 320w would do the climb in an hour (34/20 @ 90rpms), I would take it easier at 160w (34/30 @ 70rpms). Ride up and down for the time I have available. And I have lots of time.
But feel free to use the gearing and power you prefer.
Hey Joe- I also live at the bunch of some pretty big climbs (many options 20-45mins). I've found that if I want to maximize my fitness for all around racing I'm better off not doing those hills that often. There are two reasons for this. One is that my flat power translates to the hills much better than vice-versa. The other is that if I go up the hills I have to waste good training time coming down them, and I find that the best training for me is steady efforts with no let up for as much time as I have during the week (usually 1:30-2hrs at a time). On Sundays I do one long group ride per week up and over the hills (so two long hills) and that's my only hill training for the week (but it's damned hard going for those KOMs on the GR!).
I find that when I train like this I have much better power on the flats than most of the other people who liver near me (most of whom can't resist the hills on almost every ride), without sacrificing much if any climbing power. YMMV
I wrote the following blog earlier this year because someone from Florida was coming up to a climbing event and was concerned that she would not be ready with no hills to train on. I hoped at the time this blog entry was correct advice. I still believe it is. thecyclingaddiction.blogspot.comclimbing training without mountains.htmlOpen ↗
I am kind of bummed this morning as I prepared to join a small group on rolling terrain and a couple of steep two mile climbs. However, I have concentrated on many miles of flat for a number of weeks so I am interested in testing out the legs off the saddle on a few sharp stingers and see how responsive the legs are so I will go with the attitude of testing the legs this morning and try to make up with a good solid 2 x 60 minute effort tomorrow on flat road.
On the other hand most riders use what thay have. The OP seems to have a hill that is long enough that he could do 3x20 at FTP on that hill. He could even do L2 efforts on the hill. I don't see any reason to seek out a 10 mile flat route to do 20 minute intervals.
My post was nothing more than agreement with lanier. I am not posting advice to the OP.
I can only relate to an experience that I had a few years ago where I concentrated all my training towards climbing for a particular event. After the event I struggled to keep up with the faster pace on flatter terrain. I wasn't really expecting this to happen and I thought I would actually be in better condition for the flatter terrain. All of those who did exclusive mountain training with me struggled on the fast flat pace and every single one that did exclusive mountain training were getting dropped.
I am simply agreeing that I have experienced what lanier stated, "One is that my flat power translates to the hills much better than vice-versa."
The other is that if I go up the hills I have to waste good training time coming down them
It's not a waste of time if the descent gives you some massively needed recovery. Just ride up the hills harder 😉 Descending is also the best form of cornering practice.
In the few years that I've had a powermeter, I've found it oddly difficult on initial hill climbing sessions to keep the power where I've wanted it to be on hills that constantly change gradient. If the gradient eases off slightly my legs still give the signal that RPE = fecking hard but my PT says "smaller cog and press harder on the pedals, slacker". After a couple of weeks of hill training I tend to find that it's not as much of an issue but it's still something that I have to keep an eye on.
I also find that it takes a while to get a nice fluid out of the saddle climbing style back. Climbing the hills is the only way to get that.
But in general it's mostly all about power, weight and willingness to suffer. Despite doing a few long very hilly rides, I did very little in the way of hill climbing this year during training.
