The best hill training plan

[Pieterg]

How do you train for hills give me some training tips

[rouxtjie]

How do you train for hills give me some training tips

You ride them teehee

 

For mtb I go to breedts and go up and over...wash...rinse...repeat till I throw-up. Suikerbos also has nice hills

[Pieterg]

Some say you must be seated other say you must stand what's the best

[rouxtjie]

I sit...I can maintain cadence and rythm better.

Edited December 21, 2011 by rouxtjie

[P.A.K.]

Some say you must be seated other say you must stand what's the best

it makes sense to me, to try and stay seated as long as possible to train those muscles. Then when you simply can't do it any more, lift your ass from the seat!

 

That way you mainly train your "seated" muscles, which will be utilized whenever you ride/race

[Wannabe]

Sit, you use less energy that way. Only stand up for really steep sections where your cadence drop too low, or for surges (to get past slower riders, etc)

If you are training with an HRM, try it yourself. On a fairly steep climb with a constant, gradual increase, first stay seated for a section, trying to keep your HR constant. Then stand up, keeping the same pace. You'll see your HR increases (or at least mine does. )

Edited December 21, 2011 by Wannabe

[Zac.A]

Sit, you use less energy that way. Only stand up for really steep sections where your cadence drop too low, or for surges (to get past slower riders, etc)

If you are training with an HRM, try it yourself. On a fairly steep climb with a constant, gradual increase, first stay seated for a section, trying to keep your HR constant. Then stand up, keeping the same pace. You'll see your HR increases (or at least mine does. )

 

+1

[Andymann]

And try not to grip the bars at all - I trained years back with the HSBC boys in the Vaal up Ertjiesbult, and one of the biggest tips I got was to relax your grip on the bars when you hit a climb - if you can't wiggle your fingers while climbing, you're holding the bars too tight...

[Rain]

Relax anything that you aren't using so that you don't waste energy unnecessarily. Like Andymann said, if you can't wiggle your fingers then you're holding on too tight. While climbing rest your hands on the top of the handlebars to open your chest and lungs up. I always imagine that I'm playing a piano so my fingers 'dance' on the tops. As stated before, sit for as long as possible. Even though standing is usually faster, it wastes more energy in a shorter space of time, so it's hard to sustain. Rather sit and try to force yourself to remain seated until you reach the top. If you can, head off to Suikerbos and do those climbs - that's seriously good hill training. Depending on where you live you could also try going to Kyalami race track a few times a week next year and training there on the Mineshaft. But the easiest way to improve your hill climbing is to actually climb the hills.

[gummibear]

http://www.kenkifer.com/bikepages/skills/uphill.htm

[Gunzo]

Read the following article at bicycling.com:

 

Very good

 

Bicycling.com

[Zac.A]

also, try to keep your upper body as still as possible, ie no swaying.

It will make you faster if swaying (so marginally), but will use lots of energy. Not swaying will also put more pressure on the legs to do the work and therefore is better training.

[JulesV]

Do any of you guys do pyramid intervals? I usually find a hill, ride up it, go back down and repeat a few times, not concentrating on time really but now want to start a timed pyramid type interval program.

 

So let's say I need to do 1min @ 90%+, rest 1min, 2mins @ 90%+, rest 1min, 3mins @ 90%+. After the rest period, my HR would obviously have come down and I cant get it up (my HR lol) immediately on the turn of the next minute.

 

Does one start timing your next work period only from when you've reached the required HR? So it will look like this then: work up to 90%, 1min @ 90%+, rest 1min, work up to 90%, 2mins @ 90%+, etc Or does one include that build up period in the 1, 2 or 3 minute work bit?

[SwissVan]

Other than regularly riding long climbs > 5km’s at 55 - 65 % effort at a comfortable cadence (the cadence you would normally comfortably pedal while going uphill), I quite like doing 10 minute intervals using different cadences and a moderate intensity (65 – 75%), for example:

 

2 to 5 (depending on fitness levels) x10 minutes climbing a +/- 5 - 8 % gradient, each 10 minutes broken up in to 5 x 2 minutes at different cadences. Start at a low cadence and work up to a high cadence, increase cadence by +/- 5rpm every 2 minutes i.e. first 2 minutes at 65, 2nd at 70, 3rd at 75 etc…. This routine can be varied from high cadence to low cadence or like a pyramid low to high and back to low or change the minute interval to 1 or 3 minutes, lots of possibilities. Recover between each set for at least 7 minutes by riding back down slowly.

 

Dont do more than 2 hill sessions a week and be carefull with low cadence climbing as it can hurt your knees.

Edited December 21, 2011 by SwissVan

[Zac.A]

We did a similar thing in rowing.

 

4x8min pieces.

 

2min at rate 20 (rate = cadence when rowing)

2min at rate 24

2min at rate 26

1min at rate 28

1min at rate 30.

 

The 1st 2 sets are killer (at rate 20+24) its similar to pedaling the a 53/11 uphill.

You just don't get any momentum to push you through.

Great training though.

[SwissVan]

 

We did a similar thing in rowing.

 

 

 

Jinnah! Where did u find a lake with a hill init?

 

Ahh I guess you rowed into the wind, velly clever batman....

 

Just kidding, ja the varied cadence thing works, Dr Ferrari told me about it.