I am 56 and have been cycling steady for 2 years. Completed 3600 miles last year including 10 Centuries. I averaged 14.6 mph overall last year. I am trying to improve my hill climbing, most riders my age pass me on hills. First, I am working on reducing my weight which is currently 190lbs.
I utilize a hill near my house that ascends 900 ft in 2.4 miles (8%) for training. After several months I am now able to do the climb non stop at approx. 5mph.
I am currently climbing the hill 3 times during the week on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings after work. From my house to the base of the hill is 1.5 miles making the round trip around 8 miles. Friday is a rest day. On the weekend I usually do a moderate to hard steady 50 to 70 mile ride which includes several tough climbs on Saturday, then an easy 20 mile ride on Sunday. Rest day on Monday. My question is this. Should I do the 2.4m hill climb non stop at close to lactate threshold (approximately 30 minutes for me) or should I break it up into several intervals at max heart rate ? or what ?
I also do upper body weight training at the gym on Monday and Thursday and stationary recumbent trainer each morning for 30 minutes Monday thru Friday.
Any other comments or suggestions on my weekly training program would be appreciated.
Your weekday evening rides sound good as they are for dealing with LT styled intervals, although doing it twice(2 climbs each evening) on tuesday and thursday would benefit you more than climbing the hill once on tuesday, wednesday and thursday. Use the tough climbs on your saturday rides to work on VO2 max, although this wont be quite as effective/adaptive as doing VO2max intervals with 1:1 interval:recovery on a turbo, it will still benefit the system.
Celebrate when you hit 25 minutes on the evening climb time🙂 . Celebrate with more intensity when you get it down to 20 minutes😄 .
Sounds like you're doing great to me by climbing this long grade three times a week for 30 minutes at LT, and getting your long ride in on the weekends. No wonder you're seeing improvements.
Perhaps once a week, you could go harder for an interval on the hill to work your VO2 max capability more intensively. Don't go all out, but around a 90-95% controlled effort....maybe a speed of 6 mph or so rather than 5. You could start with one 2-minute interval, or perhaps just use road signs to tell you when to step it up and when to back down. As this level of work gets easier, you could expand the number of intervals on the hill.
Would only do this intensity once a week, and be careful of overtraining. Too much intensity can stop your progress; it's a lot worst than too little. At our age, recovery is everything, but I'll bet you've found that out already!
Sounds like you're doing great to me by climbing this long grade three times a week for 30 minutes at LT, and getting your long ride in on the weekends. No wonder you're seeing improvements.
Perhaps once a week, you could go harder for an interval on the hill to work your VO2 max capability more intensively. Don't go all out, but around a 90-95% controlled effort....maybe a speed of 6 mph or so rather than 5. You could start with one 2-minute interval, or perhaps just use road signs to tell you when to step it up and when to back down. As this level of work gets easier, you could expand the number of intervals on the hill.
Would only do this intensity once a week, and be careful of overtraining. Too much intensity can stop your progress; it's a lot worst than too little. At our age, recovery is everything, but I'll bet you've found that out already!
Most impressed with your efforts. Have you got a training partner that is better at hill climbs. If so try to ride at their pace up the hill and when you fall 50 m (50yrds) behind sing out, both of you turn around and ride down and and do the climb again repeat 5 times if possible or more. This will take the interval training to the next level.
