increasing speed/power on hills

Harrogate Velo50

Hi All

I normally do 100k rides and do the odd sportive, The Fred, Etape du Dales etc (all slowly!) But would like to increase my speed and power up the hills. I can get up them just about, but want to be bit quicker. And on the flat if possible.

I have no "goals" as such other than above, and maybe looking to be better at them by spring/early summer. Should I be doing longer base miles now, and then interval training in the New year, squats?

Not getting any younger, 52, but quite light at just under 9stone and 5 foot 7, and feel I should be better than what I am on the climbs, never got off one yet, and some of people I ride with think I am good on them, but in reality I am no where near what a "good" club rider would be

MichaelW

An aerobic base from long, steady miles/commuting.
Ride intervals on a hill.
Make good use of your low gears to hare up slopes.
Alternate on/off the saddle.

ric/rstsport

i wouldn't do squats to improve your cycling as there way better things to do to improve your cycling (i.e., riding a bike in various ways). (if you want to do weights etc for other reasons then this may or may not be good).

trying to give suggestions on how to increase your performance is extremely difficult with limited info about you. But the mix of your training is dependent upon your goals (as woolly as they are), your current fitness level, the level you want to get to, the time you have available to train, and the current training that you are doing.

it's most likely to contain a mix of long rides, shorter more brisk rides, and some sort of intensity/intervals.

Ric

meanredspider

In simpler terms, just find as many hills as you can and ride up them as often as possible. A little mental trick is to find the nastiest hill you can and ride up it as many times as you can. It's amazing how other hills are far less intimidating afterwards.

Harrogate Velo50

Thanks guys. I must add I forgot to add 12lbs to my weight ha ha.

I do about 100 miles a week, but I'm not "training"as such just "junk miles" as somebody put it. I can get up any climb, Hardknott,Wrynose etc and Ventoux abroad without stopping but I'm slow.

I did try the ride up a hill you don't like thing, and I never want to see that climb again!Mentally I had had enough. Short steep ones I can attack, but anything that's 5mins or so it's a case of survival, and guess my goal is for it not to be just about "survival" on the climb

imposter2.0

Improve your ability to tolerate sustained high intensity efforts on the bike and your climbing will improve exponentially. Ironically, this is better done on the flat, in my experience...

Manc33

I ended up just putting a MTB cassette on but then I never cared about cadance. Then you need a road mech that can handle it. You can only mix and match 6/7/8/9 speed though. A 10sp MTB cassette mech would require a 10sp specific MTB rear mech regardless of whether a road one could handle it, because the cable pull changed. Yep, on a rear mech. :roll:

imposter2.0

Manc33 wrote:

I ended up just putting a MTB cassette on but then I never cared about cadance. Then you need a road mech that can handle it. You can only mix and match 6/7/8/9 speed though. A 10sp MTB cassette mech would require a 10sp specific MTB rear mech regardless of whether a road one could handle it, because the cable pull changed. Yep, on a rear mech. :roll:

Are you posting on the right thread?

wavefront

Imposter wrote:

Improve your ability to tolerate sustained high intensity efforts on the bike and your climbing will improve exponentially. Ironically, this is better done on the flat, in my experience...

I agree - Yes, with hills you'll maybe put more effort in going up them, but most will 'rest/recover' on the downhill parts. Even doing a 2hr constant effort ride on the flat (with no coasting or break in pedalling) can be quite tough. But it certainly builds your tolerance!