Uphill: Seated or Standing?

Yes, it makes a big difference. Standing uses much more energy than sitting. A rule of thumb I try and use is, if it's fairly short and steep, I'll get out of the saddle. If it's of any length though, I try and stay seated. Sit for as long as possible.

-Matt

Eventually, you are going to want to be good at climbing out of the saddle. Yes, it is very fatiguing at a high cadence (90-100), but I can think of at least three circumstances when you may want to employ it. First, on short hills I find I can often maintain bike speed by getting off the saddle in the gear I'm in on the flat and climbing at a very high output (e.g., 750w) for ~10-15 secs. Second, on long climbs I find that I can rest up a bit by getting off the saddle every 10 minutes or so because it uses different muscles and I can rest my back. Third, I recently had to get off the saddle >200w due to an injury (strained gluteus medius muscles), but I was able to keep riding and even doing intervals for about 2 months while they healed.

The trick is to develop a good off-the-saddle technique. It's all about rhythm, balance and timing. I think it's closer to a dance move than a cycling technique. I try to take full advantage of my body weight on each downstroke and I try to minimize the use of my upper body. I see some guys really using a lot of upper body strength throwing their bikes back and forth. I try to control my bike tilt with my legs and use my upper body very little. But, this takes some practice to learn.

RapDaddyo said:

First, on short hills I find I can often maintain bike speed by getting off the saddle in the gear I'm in on the flat and climbing at a very high output (e.g., 750w) for ~10-15 secs.

You brought up a point I have been meaning to ask about: watts. How is the watt output being measured?

sansabar said:

You brought up a point I have been meaning to ask about: watts. How is the watt output being measured?

Watts is a measurement of the force being applied to the cranks x the cadence. It's analogous to measuring horsepower for an engine. I have a power meter (PowerTap) that tells me exactly how many watts I am producing at all times. Otherwise, you can go to this site and plug in assumptions for a rider and road conditions and derive the watts required to produce a certain speed. analyticcycling.comanalyticcycling.comOpen ↗

I have this weird psychological approach when I climb. I tend to pace myself using lamposts or trees. The other night I was doing a really long climb which required a lower gear and standing position for the initial onslaught. Then, there is a very long, uphill grade that I do in a bigger gear and drop back down into the seat.
After that I fix my sights on a lampost and carry on pushing my way uphill in a big gear seated. Soon as I hit the lampost, I change down one gear and stand up for the steep finish.
It sounds strange but if I know if I can stay seated till I get to the lampost, the standing effort seems to be curtailed to a few, short minutes.
My mind plays games as I try and fight the pain of the effort.