Climbing technique for the ageing cyclist

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Comments

  • Bassworm
    Bassworm Posts: 21
    I'm in a vaguely similar situation, though in my case it's brought on by giving up cycling altogether for about 15 years due to illness. I'm 58, and back in the saddle now and my general fitness is improving no end, I'm getting good rides in with decent distances, but I seem to be unable to climb. I used to absolutely relish it, and was reasonably good at it then but now as soon as I hit a hill I find I'm unable to power up it like I used to, even gentle ones. I find myself going to through smaller and smaller cogs and spinning my way up, while going out the back of the group. It's annoying the hell out of me at the moment. Besides just hitting big hills and building up the muscles again, any suggestions for regaining climbing power?
  • jgsi
    jgsi Posts: 5,062
    Have a read of Friels Fast after 50 book... and read in black and white, but I'll spell it out for free what he essentially says
    USE IT OR LOSE IT
    oh if you bimble cycle in life, thats all you'll do

    just train harder, mate
  • Bassworm
    Bassworm Posts: 21
    JGSI wrote:
    Have a read of Friels Fast after 50 book... and read in black and white, but I'll spell it out for free what he essentially says
    USE IT OR LOSE IT
    oh if you bimble cycle in life, thats all you'll do

    just train harder, mate


    Yep, downloading it to my Kindle as we speak, cheers.
  • nigeldoyle
    nigeldoyle Posts: 78
    Bassworm wrote:
    I'm in a vaguely similar situation, though in my case it's brought on by giving up cycling altogether for about 15 years due to illness. I'm 58, and back in the saddle now and my general fitness is improving no end, I'm getting good rides in with decent distances, but I seem to be unable to climb. I used to absolutely relish it, and was reasonably good at it then but now as soon as I hit a hill I find I'm unable to power up it like I used to, even gentle ones. I find myself going to through smaller and smaller cogs and spinning my way up, while going out the back of the group. It's annoying the hell out of me at the moment. Besides just hitting big hills and building up the muscles again, any suggestions for regaining climbing power?

    Are you following a training plan of any sort? I'm 55 and have had excellent results following the Trainerroad plans. They do require most of your rides be done inside on your trainer but when you do an outside ride / event you'll be powering up the hills and overtaking other people, or that's what my experience has been. I'm now beating guys my age who used to beat me in races.
    Strava Profile: http://app.strava.com/athletes/2006066
  • jgsi
    jgsi Posts: 5,062
    nigeldoyle wrote:
    Bassworm wrote:
    I'm in a vaguely similar situation, though in my case it's brought on by giving up cycling altogether for about 15 years due to illness. I'm 58, and back in the saddle now and my general fitness is improving no end, I'm getting good rides in with decent distances, but I seem to be unable to climb. I used to absolutely relish it, and was reasonably good at it then but now as soon as I hit a hill I find I'm unable to power up it like I used to, even gentle ones. I find myself going to through smaller and smaller cogs and spinning my way up, while going out the back of the group. It's annoying the hell out of me at the moment. Besides just hitting big hills and building up the muscles again, any suggestions for regaining climbing power?

    Are you following a training plan of any sort? I'm 55 and have had excellent results following the Trainerroad plans. They do require most of your rides be done inside on your trainer but when you do an outside ride / event you'll be powering up the hills and overtaking other people, or that's what my experience has been. I'm now beating guys my age who used to beat me in races.

    Everyone I race have upped their game season upon season... even a few years back I was always fairly happy with being able to take it and give it... nowadays age cat has become that extra competitive, helped by returnees from the semi pro ranks .. not just me saying the racing has become harder seemingly each year... but it does mean when you finish a particular race, and see the quality of the field, it can be very satisfying... even to in roll in 19th, after giving it your all.

    However, that means using every opportunity to train smarter and use the tech that's available.
  • Bassworm
    Bassworm Posts: 21
    nigeldoyle wrote:

    Are you following a training plan of any sort? I'm 55 and have had excellent results following the Trainerroad plans. They do require most of your rides be done inside on your trainer but when you do an outside ride / event you'll be powering up the hills and overtaking other people, or that's what my experience has been. I'm now beating guys my age who used to beat me in races.

    Not familiar with that but I'm sure Google will enlighten me, thanks for that. I've never got on with turbo trainers but will investigate
    Everyone I race have upped their game season upon season... even a few years back I was always fairly happy with being able to take it and give it... nowadays age cat has become that extra competitive, helped by returnees from the semi pro ranks .. not just me saying the racing has become harder seemingly each year... but it does mean when you finish a particular race, and see the quality of the field, it can be very satisfying... even to in roll in 19th, after giving it your all.

    However, that means using every opportunity to train smarter and use the tech that's available.

    I'm not returning to racing, I don't think I'll ever regain race fitness, not after 15 years of ME. And to be honest, racing's not that important to me in the way it used to be (Except on the telly!). I'd just like to regain at least some of the fitness I had, and be able to stay with others on climbs and not have to be a complete granny-ringer. I take your point about using all the available training aids/tech.

    Thanks to all for the advice.
  • markhewitt1978
    markhewitt1978 Posts: 7,614
    briantrumpet wrote:
    I do a fair few Alpine climbs with younger and fitter riders than me (I'm 52), and what I seem to find is that I have an inbuilt speed limiter lower down the climbs: the young' uns go off with their youthful enthusiasm, but very often while I'm accelerating towards the 45- or 60-minute mark they are going backwards.... there's simply no way I could keep up with them at the start though.... I'd explode. Even at the end of a long stay there with plenty of cycling, the speed limiter is still there. Not sure if that's an age thing or not... more diesel than turbo GTi...

    As everyone is saying; it's smart pacing on your behalf, everyone goes off too fast at the start of a climb, it's just what we do, where the sensible thing is to have a pace and stick to it right from the bottom to the top. Invariably that will mean for the first third it feels way too easy, but those who have sprinted off will be feeling the pain on the final third and you'll catch them - or if you don't catch them, well you wouldn't have beat them no matter what pace you were doing.

    Of course it only really applies to the likes of long climbs, quite often in the UK it really is a matter of sprint away and recover once you're at the top.
  • markhewitt1978
    markhewitt1978 Posts: 7,614
    briantrumpet wrote:
    I do a fair few Alpine climbs with younger and fitter riders than me (I'm 52), and what I seem to find is that I have an inbuilt speed limiter lower down the climbs: the young' uns go off with their youthful enthusiasm, but very often while I'm accelerating towards the 45- or 60-minute mark they are going backwards.... there's simply no way I could keep up with them at the start though.... I'd explode. Even at the end of a long stay there with plenty of cycling, the speed limiter is still there. Not sure if that's an age thing or not... more diesel than turbo GTi...

    As everyone is saying; it's smart pacing on your behalf, everyone goes off too fast at the start of a climb, it's just what we do, where the sensible thing is to have a pace and stick to it right from the bottom to the top. Invariably that will mean for the first third it feels way too easy, but those who have sprinted off will be feeling the pain on the final third and you'll catch them - or if you don't catch them, well you wouldn't have beat them no matter what pace you were doing.

    Of course it only really applies to the likes of long climbs, quite often in the UK it really is a matter of sprint away and recover once you're at the top.
  • briantrumpet
    briantrumpet Posts: 20,403
    markhewitt1978 wrote:
    As everyone is saying; it's smart pacing on your behalf, everyone goes off too fast at the start of a climb, it's just what we do, where the sensible thing is to have a pace and stick to it right from the bottom to the top. Invariably that will mean for the first third it feels way too easy, but those who have sprinted off will be feeling the pain on the final third and you'll catch them - or if you don't catch them, well you wouldn't have beat them no matter what pace you were doing.

    Of course it only really applies to the likes of long climbs, quite often in the UK it really is a matter of sprint away and recover once you're at the top.
    Of course, it does also help if you know the climb - down my way, there's Col de la Chaudière, which has a nasty kick up to 15% just 3km from the top after 9km of climbing, and it would be a killer if you've gone out too hard early on without realising what's ahead. Somehow I always seem to forget to tell the young 'uns riding with me doing it for the first time...

    But I'd say that even a 5km climb in the UK benefits from the tactic of keeping the first third of the climb well within your limits: whatever hill it is, I like to think that I can be accelerating through the last third of it, not just limping to the top.
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  • markhewitt1978
    markhewitt1978 Posts: 7,614
    briantrumpet wrote:
    Of course, it does also help if you know the climb - down my way, there's Col de la Chaudière, which has a nasty kick up to 15% just 3km from the top after 9km of climbing, and it would be a killer if you've gone out too hard early on without realising what's ahead. Somehow I always seem to forget to tell the young 'uns riding with me doing it for the first time...

    Absolutely. You have know the climb in order to be able to pick your required pacing in the first place.
    But I'd say that even a 5km climb in the UK benefits from the tactic of keeping the first third of the climb well within your limits: whatever hill it is, I like to think that I can be accelerating through the last third of it, not just limping to the top.

    5km? That's a long un for around here. Most of the local punchy climbs are only about 1 mile long. Even once you get into the Pennines you're often only talking about a couple of miles before you're going back down again.
  • stonechat
    stonechat Posts: 4
    I am 64, I wonder if you have lost some leg strength

    I came back to cycling about 2-3 years ago and I can get up 20% gradients for short distances
    It's only this year that my FTP has gone up enough so I find it easier to pace myself up the hills

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