First Real Climbs are Looming!

fto-si

In 9 weeks I am off to the Brecon Beacons for a week, I live and cycle in Suffolk so I have never experienced anything like Gospell Pass before.

I am building up as many base miles as I can at the moment and working out the hilliest routes I can. In addition to that I am doing intervals on the turbo in the hope of building some power.

What can I do to prepare myself?

softlad

in a word - nothing. When you get there, just ride them and enjoy them, but realistically, there is nothing more you can do in 2 months that will turn you into a mountain goat...

pbracing

Try going out in this wind today and keeping your average speed up. I'm sure riding in the (strong) wind must increase your power for climbing. :?:
As someone on another post said, it's resistance training.

dennisn

softlad wrote:

in a word - nothing. When you get there, just ride them and enjoy them, but realistically, there is nothing more you can do in 2 months that will turn you into a mountain goat...

+1 I live and ride in, what has to be, the flattest part of the world. Still, each year a few of us head to the Colorado Rockies for a week of climbing on some of the highest roads
in, possibly, the world. No specific climbing training yet somehow we manage. You'll do
fine(with the proper gearing) although like everyone, sometime during that week, you will probably question the wisdom of doing it(I know I do). Just remember that it's a week of climbing and pace yourself. Get into a rhythm that YOU can maintain and to hell with
keeping up or trying to drop whomever.

Dennis Noward

shockedsoshocked

Ride hard on the flat and you'll manage the climbing. .

MyCycling.com

fto-si wrote:

In 9 weeks I am off to the Brecon Beacons for a week, I live and cycle in Suffolk so I have never experienced anything like Gospell Pass before.

I am building up as many base miles as I can at the moment and working out the hilliest routes I can. In addition to that I am doing intervals on the turbo in the hope of building some power.

What can I do to prepare myself?

Of course the best way to climb well is to go climbing.

However, there is still plenty you can do, even with the short amount of notice.

The most obvious thing is to go and ride the hilliest parts of your area as much as you can. Try and ride in the saddle over everything and load the gears a little more. Focus on your technique as to climb big mountains requires that you find your rhythm in the saddle that often is a bit different style to riding on the flats. So you need to get your body used to the slight differences there.

Some work on the trainer would definitely help to with some long threshold sessions. One that works well is a 10-10-10-5 session. This is 10 minutes at E2 ( just so it's a bit difficult to talk), 10 minutes at threshold and then 5 minutes at above threshold. Then warm down.

Good luck.