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I have two hills close to me and thinking about what to do to improve climbing prowess. One a bit easier that i could do a few runs up as fast as i can. The other is very steep that can try to get as far up as I can on my 1x gravel and then repeat.
Both will spanner my legs, which one is best??
best way to train is with variation
spinning up, or out of the seat pedalling both add something to your climbing ability
i can say this due ot recently doing a weekly comute to work on my gravel bike.. the hills along the way and the efficiencey of the gravel bike encouraged out of the seat climbing.. which has translated over to my MTB
i never used to climb out of the eat, now i break my climbs up spinning/stoos/spin etc which suits my fitness elvel and is refelcted in the climbing times
Pick a gear that will only just about get you to the top.
Repeat 3 times.
Or on old favourite of mine on a sub 5 min hill:
Ride the hill 3 times, once sitting, then out the saddle, then sitting again.
Ride them hard but not full on so you can do 3 hard reps.
Look at the technique of how you climb, and compare that to the pros.
When out of the saddle, if grip isn't much of an issue then shift your weight forward and take most of your weight on your arms (ideally locked) - this way your legs are mainly working at powering the bike, and not lifting much of your weight = more power and staying out of the saddle longer.
Also pick and choose which slopes to ride in/out of the saddle - Steep (for me) = out of the saddle, Gentle = sat down.
For pure climbing you may want your saddle higher.
Mjsmke - That sounds like a good session, will try that tonight. Cheers
Vary it - use both hills on different sessions.
Same hill - different gears ?
Sometimes I will session a hill starting on the lowest (ie easiest) gear then changing up 1/2 gears at a time. Easy at the start and spinning - harder and out of saddle at end. Vary it by doing pyramids and reverse the order (harder working to easy).
Table push-aways.
Both will spanner my legs, which one is best??
Both, work them into a local loop.
"Climbing Prowess" is all well and good but being able to recover after a climb and carry on is more useful than simply muscling your way to the top of a really hard hill like a boss and then collapsing... Unless you're racing a hill climb I suppose.
Or on old favourite of mine on a sub 5 min hill:
Ride the hill 3 times, once sitting, then out the saddle, then sitting again.
This is effective ime. Big ring it then go for a proper climber's spin effort. I'd try for more reps of the hill in total and be happy with being cooked before you get to your target.
Another one if you have the right options locally is 4 or 5x a shallow 4 min hill, 4 or 5x a steeper 4 min hill, then try for 4 or 5x a steep one that needs lowest few gears.
Eating less.
Use both.
Ride in spinny mode.
Ride in big gear mode.
Sprints.
Run up them.
Run sprints up them.
Ride with a faster friend on them.
Find a long way to ride before you climb both hills, all in one go.
(etc)
There's no one best technique, it comes down to the hill and what you're trying to achieve. If you want to be considered a good climber, you need to be good at both techniques, as even on a long climb in the alps, it's nice to give your muscles a break by getting out the saddle for a bit, or give you a bit more power for steeper pitches e.g. on the bends.
As others have said, mix it up on your rides - see how long you can sustain riding out the saddle as it engages different muscle groups and requires some adaptation over time.
My hill rep training for when I was racing was a local hill that was conveniently 1km long and 10% - I used to do 10 reps on my fixed gear bike, 1 sitting, 1 standing - by the final rep I'd be all over the road and my legs would be ripped. I still get that metallic taste in my mouth just thinking about it...
One thing that it took me a while to understand (as I'm thick) is that when you train you ride for LESS time than when you go out for your normal ride. Except you do it at a higher intensity in order to get the adaptation you want but without lots of fatigue that you can get from longer hard rides. Means you can repeat the training more often and get more adaptation.
About an hour including warm up and cool down should be enough.
Happy hill reps.
+1 to short and sharp (training sessions), also only do one, maybe two, session like this a week.
"Climbing prowess" is about power/weight.
Beast yourself up climbs in a varied way. Even better look at training schedules.
Singlespeed will do it 🙂
I used to pootle up hills on a spinny gear but I'm much faster now a singlespeed is my main bike. A turning point was finding I was strong enough to back off, limit my power output and climb slowly at a low cadence rather than attacking and relying on speed, now I can climb most of the big hills around here and not collapse in a heap at the top.
It's also meant I can occasionally get into the top 10 leaderboard on Strava which I could not dream of before, although those attempts do normally result in a session lying on the floor at the top!
Build your ftp, lower your weight = increase your w/kg
All good advice, especially if you can shed a bit of weight. Gravity is not your friend if you are a bit of a unit up the hills.
3-4kg can make a surprising difference. I lost 14kg over three years, and built more power and my mate won't let me pick routes anymore.............😕
double post after bad gateway?
Cheers everyone!
I went out last night and did 3 reps of the steep hill. I can get up it in my lowest gear (which was a relief) so did a "will i make it?" attempt first, followed by one where i gave it everything (it helped i was passed by a skinny roadie who i tried, and failed, to stay with). Both runs seated. Then i went up again mixing both seated and standing. 2nd attempt was 5:30 and the mixed attempt 6:10. So now i have my baselines and can attempt faster in both styles and a harder gear.
Legs still feeling it today.
AND ive been doing table push aways for a month or so now so will keep that up as well.
spinning up, or out of the seat pedalling both add something to your climbing ability
Yes and they both train different mechanisms in your body, both of which can help.
+1 to short and sharp (training sessions), also only do one, maybe two, session like this a week.
Yes. If you go too hard too often (or for too long), you'll get fatigued, and this will require you to eat more and then when you go out next and you're still tired you won't hit the required power and you'll essentially be wasting your time whilst making the fatigue worse.
I would recommend doing a couple of reps of the hill where you can spin (but spin hard!) on one session, then another session where you mash up something short and hard. And if you have the legs you can do a normal short non-stopping ride where you incorporate steep climbs at a normal pace. You could also then do a long easy ride if you have the time for four rides a week. If you only have time for three I'd suggest keeping the long easy ride and the two hill sessions.
Zwift or similar is really really good training for this kind of thing, by the way, even though it's a bit shit compared to real riding on a nice day!
I've a mate who is an outstanding hillclimber. National singlespeed champion (Australia). He swears by riding out of the seat as much as possible... but I recommend you drink some of this
Ohhh cheers reeksy. I imagine the shipping rates from oz may be a bit on the steep side (like my hill).
Decades ago I decided to have a go at racing. My normal ride out involves a two and a half mile hill climb towards the top of the moor. So I just would go up pulling really big gears. It was fine tuning really as I already had a really big base. Anyway I got a first; and then a second to an England team member. Only local races and vets catagory mind. After that I went back to riding for pleasure and quickly dropped down the field.
Coming from serious triathlete training and later running events it was obvious that very few people have a decent base. Folks don't ride enough to build up basic fitness, especially so in people that have desk jobs, which these days is nearly everyone. There's little point trying to add icing when the cake is weak.
Nick Craig once stated that it wasn't how far one rode but how high.