Training on/for Alpine climbs
GenevaCamper
Posts: 33
I am in the fortunate position of living in Geneva with a lot of big hills within easy reach. I‘ve just got my first road bike and am keen to improve as I am pretty terrible at long climbs.
I can manage a short burst of reasonable speed but after about 200m of climbing I find I’m crawling along a 6km/h struggling to get the cranks round on the lowest gear (on a triple).
From an improvement point of view am I better to;
- keep going at a decent pace for as long as possible (but have to keep stopping)
- keep going for as long as possible, regardless of how slow
New to this, so any advice appreciated.
I can manage a short burst of reasonable speed but after about 200m of climbing I find I’m crawling along a 6km/h struggling to get the cranks round on the lowest gear (on a triple).
From an improvement point of view am I better to;
- keep going at a decent pace for as long as possible (but have to keep stopping)
- keep going for as long as possible, regardless of how slow
New to this, so any advice appreciated.
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Comments
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On long climbs I would try and do a steady pace on the whole climb, rather than blasting up the first 200m of climbing and knackering yourself for the rest of the climb0
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Even for training? Feels like I could chug away on the bottom ring forever but never get any faster0
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I did say steady, I didn't say easy
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It's worth reading a bit about training for cycling, because this is the crux of your question, e.g. "How do I get stronger/fitter?", not, "How do I go up a hill faster?" . Know that when climbing an alpine pass, you'll be operating at or a little below lactate threshold and that any training that is designed to raise lactate threshold or endurance at this kind of workload (e.g. tempo riding) will make you climb faster.
The simple answer, given you're just starting out, is simply to ride and get the miles in and you'll naturally get stronger and faster. When you ride, focus on keeping going and not blowing up and having to stop. If you want a motivator, create a 30-40km circuit that you can ride and time yourself on it on a fortnightly/monthly basis. If you're riding regularly, you should soon see some improvements! It's also a useful exercise, because you'll probably overcook it trying to beat your time - knowing how your legs feel when you're going too fast is invaluable as it allows you to guage and control your effort, and you'll need to do this on longer climbs.
Good luck and have fun, you're living in a great place!0 -
Generally for Alpine climbs you need steady, they aren't exactly the sort of thing you can attack and power over and trying this at the bottom will only blow you up quickly.
A general rule of thumb which applies is to break a climb into three sections- take the first third easier than your normal pace, ride the middle third at normal pace and only look at upping the pace during the final third. The general idea is start off easy- easier than you feel capable of- and let the pain come to you rather than go looking for it. It will come I can assure you.
A heart rate monitor is a great help for pacing... taking a sample climb where I was moderately trying I have the first third at 130 BPM, the second at 146 BPM and the last third at 161 BPM (peaking at 197 BPM at the summit, which is not far off my max.)
I have been overtaken by people doing a hard pace on the lower slopes of some of these sort of climbs but got them back before the end. Of course I have also been overtaken by people and have not got them back
Regarding gearing if you are climbing for 1,000m or more and you are not a professional, you can't really get too low... get down into your bottom gear and spin away. Presuming a triple bottom gear of 30-27 a cadence of 100 RPM will get you up at 14km/h which is certainly not to be sneezed at. It can be helpful to mix it up a bit and try standing in a higher gear for some sections but most of it I would be spinning in the saddle.0 -
Salut,
also being in the Geneva area and having started serious road biking this year I can sympathise - I'll e-mail you some routes and other hints later.
For me there were two things that aided the transition to "grimpeur".
Living in the foothills of the Jura and forcing myself to cycle up a 15% hill at the end of the day (with a pannier full of wine).
The biggest thing was starting to head out with a club as one can no longer suffer slowly and there is a great incentive to try and keep up. I've had a few spectacular failures but overall it's been a huge help. We'll be heading out this Saturday if you're interested.
The two aspects of attacking steepness when not in optimum condition and then forcing oneself to go faster than otherwise desired seem to have conspired quite nicely.
Ewan0 -
"It's worth reading a bit about training for cycling"
Any recommendations?
Cheers
Dave0 -
If you're looking for a good comprehensive training book, Joe Friel's Cyclists Training Bible hits the spot. Some of the info (particularly regarding base miles, HRM and power training) is slightly out of date (although I note there is a new edition out, so this might be corrected), but that still doesn't alter the fundamental training principles (e.g. structured training, periodisation) the book is trying to get across.
I'm sure if you search the forums you'll find other recommendations.
Have fun!0
