Help! Hills.

ollie51
ollie51 Posts: 517
edited January 2011 in Health, fitness & training
Right, During the season I'm going to be racing in Wales where there are plenty of hills; so I'm going to do lots of hill reps. Ooops I forget I live in Essex.

Right is there an effective way of improving you hill climbing ability in a non hilly area? The nearest thing to a hill is a grassy assent with a gradient of about 8-17%(it varies) starts steep-ish gets easier than harder where you gain 30 vertical metres.

I presume just repeating this multiple times should have some effect. Or is there some other way?

Comments

  • njee20
    njee20 Posts: 9,613
    Turbo trainer? Or try riding overgeared on the flat.
  • ollie51
    ollie51 Posts: 517
    Don't have a turbo; I'm 15 so getting one is out of the question (I'm broke after building a new bike); I do often do pushing bigger gears on flats for that same reason. Do you do any hill training; if so what does it involve? Perhaps if I were to do the same but at a higher intensity or just do more reps I could perhaps achieve the same effect.
  • MountainMonster
    MountainMonster Posts: 7,423
    You don't want higher reps of the same speed for hill training. You won't be going flat out during hill climbing, but rather much slower cadence and more power put in, so to speak. Higher gears are about the only thing you can do to try to train in a non hilly environment.

    My hill training consists of riding lots of mountains. That's about the only way to get better.
    My London Road
  • starkee
    starkee Posts: 143
    Where abouts in essex are you ?

    I ride in Essex, ok its not Wales but we still seem to find hills/inclines on routes that make you work the lower gears and get the heart pounding. I would imagine there would be something local to you that would serve the same purpose ?
  • ollie51
    ollie51 Posts: 517
    starkee wrote:
    Where abouts in essex are you ?

    I ride in Essex, ok its not Wales but we still seem to find hills/inclines on routes that make you work the lower gears and get the heart pounding. I would imagine there would be something local to you that would serve the same purpose ?

    Colchester... Highwoods is my local 'pedestrianised place' where I do the vast majority of my riding, as it's nice and close and easy to get home if I break my bike or me... (yes that's an anecdote) the hill described in my first post is there; I go for Big Ring(39t) and 7/6/5th gear dependant on reps, how tired I am, fitness etc...

    I also do the odd road ride around the surrounding villages. As well as taking a trip to friday woods/Danbury once a week with my club. There are a couple of decent hills there but they get ridden once as we're riding for fun.

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