Best intervals for flat-like terrain for practicing hill-climbing ability?

rowanharley

Looking for some hard intervals to improve my climbing ability. I've no way of measuring my watts or heart rate or even speed at the moment (Lost my speedometer during a race) so it'd have to be using timing. I'm only new to intervals but I'd rather be doing them than cycling 28km/h over 40k with the group

imposter2.0

Just ride at threshold for whatever duration of hill climb you are trying to simulate. Perhaps with some 1min over/under intervals thrown in...

zefs

5 mins x 4 sets on a climb, rest for 5 mins each time going back down. Aim for that burning feeling on the legs, you can also do half the sets on low and the other half high cadence.
It should feel as a hard training in the end and you can increase sets or duration over time.

maryka

You can't, really. In my experience, the inertia/gravity/out-of-the-saddle characteristics of climbing can't really be found on the flat. Not even with a headwind. The turbo is maybe the best way to replicate those things but even then it's not the same.

However you can work on whatever component of fitness represents the hills you want to climb well. So if they are short sharp 1 min efforts, do 1 min repeat. Climbs of 5 to 8 minutes, do repeats of that length with recovery. Alpine climbs, do 20-60 min threshold or just below threshold training. Then when you do hit the climbs you will have that fitness.

sloppyschleckonds

zefs wrote:

5 mins x 4 sets on a climb, rest for 5 mins each time going back down.

If you read the question "Best intervals for flat-like terrain for practicing hill-climbing ability?"

You may want to rethink your advise

darkhairedlord

put it in 54x11 and let the tyres down.
Failing that ride through soft sand.

burnthesheep

I'd say emulating the lower cadence seated grind would be one thing. Long flat road and put it in a stronger gear than you can hold at a normal 90-100 rpm and grind out intervals at 75-80 RPM in that gear.

You can do the same but get out of the saddle.

On long training rides I will do that once or twice out of saddle for a minute to give my bum a rest from being on the saddle so long.

Again, IMHO, turbos and trainers are best for regimented interval training unless you are blessed with alpine climbs or soft flat terrain with no wind. Otherwise, too many variables to interfere in completing the interval.

About the only interval work I do on the open road is really long SS riding. Spend a few hours straight holding lower to upper sweet spot power.

webboo

burnthesheep wrote:

I'd say emulating the lower cadence seated grind would be one thing. Long flat road and put it in a stronger gear than you can hold at a normal 90-100 rpm and grind out intervals at 75-80 RPM in that gear.

You can do the same but get out of the saddle.

On long training rides I will do that once or twice out of saddle for a minute to give my bum a rest from being on the saddle so long.

Again, IMHO, turbos and trainers are best for regimented interval training unless you are blessed with alpine climbs or soft flat terrain with no wind. Otherwise, too many variables to interfere in completing the interval.

About the only interval work I do on the open road is really long SS riding. Spend a few hours straight holding lower to upper sweet spot power.

Less then a year ago you were enquiringly on whether it was possible to ride at 20 mph. Now you are the expert on all things training. How do you think people manage to train before turbos and power metres. People were doing 25 mile TT in 50 minutes and well under 4 hours for a 100 miles 30 years ago.

kingstongraham

Webboo wrote:

burnthesheep wrote:

I'd say emulating the lower cadence seated grind would be one thing. Long flat road and put it in a stronger gear than you can hold at a normal 90-100 rpm and grind out intervals at 75-80 RPM in that gear.

You can do the same but get out of the saddle.

On long training rides I will do that once or twice out of saddle for a minute to give my bum a rest from being on the saddle so long.

Again, IMHO, turbos and trainers are best for regimented interval training unless you are blessed with alpine climbs or soft flat terrain with no wind. Otherwise, too many variables to interfere in completing the interval.

About the only interval work I do on the open road is really long SS riding. Spend a few hours straight holding lower to upper sweet spot power.

Less then a year ago you were enquiringly on whether it was possible to ride at 20 mph. Now you are the expert on all things training. How do you think people manage to train before turbos and power metres. People were doing 25 mile TT in 50 minutes and well under 4 hours for a 100 miles 30 years ago.

Uphill?

burnthesheep

Webboo wrote:

Less then a year ago you were enquiringly on whether it was possible to ride at 20 mph. Now you are the expert on all things training. How do you think people manage to train before turbos and power metres. People were doing 25 mile TT in 50 minutes and well under 4 hours for a 100 miles 30 years ago.

Not related to you, I can't stand how this website multi-quotes all previous quotes. Makes the page so long to read. I need to find a user setting to disable that.

Anyway, good memory! Yup, that's me.

And yup, you're right. People trained until their eyes bugged out and their heart pounded out of their chest since sport began.

You can do it without a meter or HRM or a turbo, you learn your perceived exertion and go ride. I get that. My point was that for me, my local rides don't work well to do repeats or interval work.

Up, down, around the corner, stop, go, car, stop sign, stop light, hill, flat, corner........ You get the idea.

For me, that's what I have to do if I want to train for a climb. Not saying you can't do a great job otherwise, just personal preference.

FWIW, a used fluid trainer is what? $100 for a pretty nice one? I got mine used for that with the block, mat, trainer, skewer, and a brand new sweat catcher. So $100 gets you training. Another $100 for used equipment could probably get you an acceptable computer and HRM. I saw he posted up times for segments. So using a phone or computer already. So a HRM would be just another $25 plus the turbo.

$125 is very much worth it in the modern era to train if you have your eye on slaying that hill but aren't blessed to live near lots of hills or mountains.

Again, you don't have to. That's cool. But to me, $125 would be worth every penny if you really want to train in the year 2017 versus the year 1970.

cycleclinic

funny how someone above suggested grinding the interval out at 75-80 rpm. I would consider that to be a bit spinny, that is my cadence in a road race.

if you have a bike that can take guards and panniers fit them. Loads the pannier up then any hill becomes longer and you become slow. Ride into the wind on such a bike up a incline even 2% and you know about it. This is what I do. The commuter is my training bike. It is every effective.

imposter2.0

thecycleclinic wrote:

if you have a bike that can take guards and panniers fit them. Loads the pannier up then any hill becomes longer and you become slow. Ride into the wind on such a bike up a incline even 2% and you know about it. This is what I do. The commuter is my training bike. It is every effective.

Also known as 'resistance training' - it doesn't really have a usefulness in this context, IMO. The objective is simply to hit a certain effort level and maintain it for a certain amount of time. If you can do that using power/HR/RPE (and there's no reason why that would not be possible) then you don't need to ride with panniers full of bricks, or similar.

OnTheRopes

Ride into a strong headwind in a big gear.

imposter2.0

OnTheRopes wrote:

Ride into a strong headwind in a big gear.

See above..

darkhairedlord

Buy a rack and bolt a turbo trainer to it.

N0bodyOfTheGoat

By complete fluke, just seen this comedy clip!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p05kf0sd

cld531c

NitrousOxide wrote:

By complete fluke, just seen this comedy clip!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p05kf0sd

Looks similar to my 'dog in trailer' training!

kingstongraham

Imposter wrote:

thecycleclinic wrote:

if you have a bike that can take guards and panniers fit them. Loads the pannier up then any hill becomes longer and you become slow. Ride into the wind on such a bike up a incline even 2% and you know about it. This is what I do. The commuter is my training bike. It is every effective.

Also known as 'resistance training' - it doesn't really have a usefulness in this context, IMO. The objective is simply to hit a certain effort level and maintain it for a certain amount of time. If you can do that using power/HR/RPE (and there's no reason why that would not be possible) then you don't need to ride with panniers full of bricks, or similar.

It would slow you down, and mean you get longer at the right power between junctions.

imposter2.0

KingstonGraham wrote:

Imposter wrote:

thecycleclinic wrote:

if you have a bike that can take guards and panniers fit them. Loads the pannier up then any hill becomes longer and you become slow. Ride into the wind on such a bike up a incline even 2% and you know about it. This is what I do. The commuter is my training bike. It is every effective.

Also known as 'resistance training' - it doesn't really have a usefulness in this context, IMO. The objective is simply to hit a certain effort level and maintain it for a certain amount of time. If you can do that using power/HR/RPE (and there's no reason why that would not be possible) then you don't need to ride with panniers full of bricks, or similar.

It would slow you down, and mean you get longer at the right power between junctions.

On the flat - it wouldn't slow you down, although you might take slightly longer to accelerate..

kingstongraham

Imposter wrote:

KingstonGraham wrote:

Imposter wrote:

thecycleclinic wrote:

if you have a bike that can take guards and panniers fit them. Loads the pannier up then any hill becomes longer and you become slow. Ride into the wind on such a bike up a incline even 2% and you know about it. This is what I do. The commuter is my training bike. It is every effective.

Also known as 'resistance training' - it doesn't really have a usefulness in this context, IMO. The objective is simply to hit a certain effort level and maintain it for a certain amount of time. If you can do that using power/HR/RPE (and there's no reason why that would not be possible) then you don't need to ride with panniers full of bricks, or similar.

It would slow you down, and mean you get longer at the right power between junctions.

On the flat - it wouldn't slow you down, although you might take slightly longer to accelerate..

True. The suggestion from thecycleclinic was into the wind up a 2% incline.

Maybe a parachute to slow you down on the flat would do the same.

reacher

Imposter wrote:

Just ride at threshold for whatever duration of hill climb you are trying to simulate. Perhaps with some 1min over/under intervals thrown in...

surprisingly enough, simple as this sounds its extremely effective, i'm only saying this as i was convinced that climbing was all about leg strength previously, until i switched to this type of training

zefs

What I noticed with threshold training is that it will let you stay on higher heart rate for longer, but it won't improve ftp after you reach a certain point. That's when hill reps intervals come in place to improve leg strength (that's what I am experiencing).

darkhairedlord

Ride hard as you can for 10s, soft pedal for 10s, repeat repeat repeat....... you don't need a hill, just mental fortitude. Now go MTFU.