Yes, it was great
Reprinted for the 3rd time I think!
Climbing:
There are several tips that I have discovered which should help you with your climbing technique. When you hit the bottom of a hill that is going to last longer than 30 seconds;
1) Relax the upper body, don’t grip the handlebars, just wrap your hands around them. Move your hands to the middle bars and bend the elbows slightly, if you need to you can move the hands out to open up the chest.
2) Don’t get worked up by the hill, just relax, chill, mentally picture yourself on the decent afterwards. If you are concerned by the amount of tarmac at your eye level then don’t look forwards, look just in front of your front wheel (but not in a group).
3) Use all of your lungs, make sure that you concentrate on exhaling and you will breathe in naturally.
4) Shift into a gear which allows a cadence about 5-10 rpm lower than usual.
5) Pedal proper circles, your cadence should be sufficiently high that you can do it quite easily. If you pedal mash, you will keep on decelerating and then have to accelerate with each down stroke, which will waste lots of energy. A smooth pedalling action should see you gliding (only slightly less gracefully) up a hill.
6) Never stand up*(see note)
7) Once you hit the top don’t slow down the tempo until you are at cruising speed past the top, otherwise you will slow down to a crawl and have to accelerate again.
8.) On the decent after a long climb, make sure that you keep on turning the legs round, you don’t need resistance, but it does help clear the legs of lactic acid.
*The only notable exceptions to this rule are i) stretching, ii) breaking away and iii) stopping falling off.
i) In this country, you shouldn’t need to stand to stretch on climbs at all, this is only really intended for climbs that are 2 or more miles long. Alpine ascents are a good example of when to do this.
ii) You can accelerate when you stand up, but bear the following in mind; As soon as you stand up, your HR (heart rate) will increase by about 5 bpm (beats per minute). You will also start using your upper body. Therefore some of the energy that you would have used to turn the pedals goes into levering on the handlebars. When you sit back down you will also need to recover which will drop your speed considerably. Short gaps can be bridged on the drops, but larger gaps require use of the hoods.
iii) This is reserved for really steep climbs or moderate climbs with luggage. With a triple you should be able to manage anything (I will excuse people who go up Church Hill in Wales – 33%, not a typo and yes it can be done!), with a double, gradients of above 15% are worthy causes. I have been up a 20%er sitting down though, so it can be done.
If you do decide to stand though, make sure that you shift up a gear or two so that your cadence is about 20 rpm lower than normal cadence.
Further to point 6. strengthening arms and core can improve your ability to climb out the saddle, and hold the bike steadier to apply power to the pedals most efficiently. Some cyclists do upper body weights (like bench pressing) and core exercises (like pilates - One of the great things about Pilates is improved flexibility and core strength without increasing muscle mass) to allow them to do this better, although this has to be balanced with the weight of extra muscle mass gained to the upper body.
If you are doing a particularly long hill, you can shift position to accentuate different muscle groups. Moving forwards in the saddle and pointing the toes down uses the calf muscles more, moving back in the saddle and cycling with the heel pointing slightly down (or a level foot) will use the quads more. Mentally you can also pick a point to reach that is achievable, get there and pick another point. Don't focus on the whole hill, just bits at a time. Makes it a lot easier psychologically.
The way to improve climbing ability is either
- lose weight
- increase power
- increase ability to ride at threshold (perceived effort, "hard")
Losing weight can best be achieved from the body first, and then the bike next.
Increasing power can be achieved on the bike with strength exercises (big gear work) or gym work (e.g. leg presses, squats, leg curls)
Increasing your ability to ride at threshold can be achieved by climbing of course, or simply riding time trials. In such a controlled setting, TTs over 10 or 25 miles, you can become more aware of your limits before "blowing". This awareness of your aerobic limits can then be applied to your climbing. This is also good for people living in areas without long hills.
With thanks to everyone that helped from C+ (especially Silky Pedals who wrote a large chunk!)
