Ride yesterday: clipless victory, and Hill question

[ace]

Hi guys,

Went on a great 25 mile ride yesterday (even though it was pissing down rain for the first hour and half) with a Cinderella Training Group. I was really excited, because we were averaging around 14-15 mph, and I didn't have a problem keeping up. Plus, I had two scary incidents (chain fell off on a hill, and a kid on a bike cut me off and I had to stop very suddenly), and I managed to unclip and not fall over. Now I know that might not sound like a huge victory, but I've only been riding clipless for a couple of months, and have fallen twice from a stopped position, so I was thrilled that I instinctively unclipped instead of panicking and falling!

OK, I know this question has gotten asked, but I can't seem to find the answers by searching the board. Here it is- any tips to improving my hill climbing? I am handicapped, I know, by the fact that I am quite overweight, plus I ride a hybrid. My approach is to just go into Granny Gear and spin my brains out. Does anyone have any specific suggestions? It pisses me off, because I stay near the front of the pack on the flats, but when we hit a hill, I fall to the rear (can you tell I'm a tad competitive?). Anyway, any hints would be welcome.

Cheers,
Amy

[mimitabby]

Amy, you give me hope! I am planning on going clipless this spring too.

The way to get better on hills? Do more hills!

and unfortunately, the progress is VERY VERY slow. but the more you ride,
the faster that will go.
The fact that you are competitive will help you too, because you are DRIVEN to improve!

good luck !

[ace]

Thanks, Mimi. Fortunately/unfortunately, depending on the way I look at it, living in the sf bay area I can't really go for too many rides without encountering hills. I'll keep slogging along.

I'm sort of doing things in the opposite order of you from what I've read in your posts- going clipless on a hybrid, and then switching to a road bike. I want to get the pedal thing down before I have to deal with integrated shifting. Honestly, the clipless thing isn't that bad. I have spd clips, loosened all the way, so they're super easy to clip out of, and at this point, if I DON'T think about it, I have no problem unclipping. It's only when I was super fixated on them that I was falling for some reason. Happened the same way both times, too- I was stopped completely, but leaned toward the clipped-in side to push a button to make the light change. Duh. It doesn't really hurt much to fall from a stopped position anyway, as long as you're wearing your gloves :-)

[mimitabby]

yes, Gloves are VERY important!

I'm probably more of a chicken than you are, hence, taking so much longer with the SPD's..
:D :D

[emily_in_nc]

Amy ~ I didn't get faster on hills until I changed from riding a hybrid and heavy recumbent bike to a much lighter road bike. Rotating weight, namely wheels, makes more of a difference than the weight of components that are simply carried on the bike, and hybrids tend to have very heavy wheels. All that said, even though I am a lightweight, petite gal and switched to a lightweight carbon road bike when I was doing lots of road riding, I was still not that strong on hills. I improved a great deal, but I still considered hills by weakest skill area. Hill climbing is all about power-weight ratio, and even though I had an advantage in the weight area, I didn't have a lot of power, so often got whipped on climbs by heavier, bigger boned, and more muscular gals. So even though you're heavy, that doesn't mean you can't improve greatly on hills if you get STRONG. As Mimi said, practice, practice, practice. There is no magic bullet.

Mimi ~ You just have to give clipless a try! You're a good cyclist and would be much better with clipless. I honestly don't think you're going to have a difficult adjustment since you're already comfortable on a road bike, so it's only one new thing to think about vs. several for some new riders who are trying to learn clipless at the same time as how to ride a road bike. My mountain biking buddy had never, ever used clipless either this summer, but after talking to me about it, she finally decided to go for them. It only took her two rides to get the hang of it, and she did great! And this was on rooty trails with switchbacks. I was SO impressed with how quickly she picked it up. I predict you'd have the same degree of success.

~Emily

[mimitabby]

A

Mimi ~ You just have to give clipless a try! You're a good cyclist and would be much better with clipless. I honestly don't think you're going to have a difficult adjustment since you're already comfortable on a road bike, so it's only one new thing to think about vs. several for some new riders who are trying to learn clipless at the same time as how to ride a road bike. My mountain biking buddy had never, ever used clipless either this summer, but after talking to me about it, she finally decided to go for them. It only took her two rides to get the hang of it, and she did great! And this was on rooty trails with switchbacks. I was SO impressed with how quickly she picked it up. I predict you'd have the same degree of success.

~Emily

Emily, I will. When the weather gets to above 40 and stays there. People
say to try it out on grass. Well, all the grass is mud right now and it's just too cold.. This spring, i promise.

[emily_in_nc]

Emily, I will. When the weather gets to above 40 and stays there. People say to try it out on grass. Well, all the grass is mud right now and it's just too cold.. This spring, i promise.

Okay, I'll hold you to that! The other good way to try clipless is on a trainer, just to get used to the motion of clipping in and out repeatedly. If you have a trainer, you could put one of your older bikes on it with clipless pedals and give that a try ahead of time...just a thought. You'll do great!

Emily

[ace]

No magic bullet...darn.

I think the only thing that's going to help me in the long run is losing a bunch of weight. I actual am probably about as strong as I'm going to get...I have really strong legs and glutes- hey, I have to be, to get 240 pounds of woman and a 25 lb bike up the hills!

I am really, really curious to see what difference a road bike will make, though.

[RoadRaven]

Hi guys,
My approach is to just go into Granny Gear and spin my brains out. Does anyone have any specific suggestions? It pisses me off, because I stay near the front of the pack on the flats, but when we hit a hill, I fall to the rear (can you tell I'm a tad competitive?). Anyway, any hints would be welcome.
Cheers,
Amy

Hey there Amy the Ace!!!
Getting in the "granny gear" is exactly what I would recommend.
Spinning up those hills saves your knees.
Obviously, the lighter someone is the quicker they climb - simply because they do not have to carry the weight up the hill with them (like wearing a back-pack when out tramping, or going for a bush walk with no pack - its way easier to walk up a hill without the back pack.

The way to get better on hills is as the girls say - keep doing hills.
I have built into my weekly schedule one day of hill repetitions.
I have a short bit of hill (3-400 metres) near my house and I started by just doing a few reps a few weeks ago.
I want to be able to 15 by the end of February...

But wait, there's more... it is not enough to be able to climb the hill several times, you must make yourself work at it.
No standing, and get into the biggest gear you can stay on top of while seated.
Turn around at the top and spin your legs as you go down to disperse the lactic acid and then turn at the bottom and head on up again.

It'll make you stronger... I can never keep count so I say:
This ones for... and name first each of my children, and then begin on their cousins.


Remember to grin - we all luuurve hills!!!! :p

[RoadRaven]

I am really, really curious to see what difference a road bike will make, though.

The biggest difference a road bike makes is the weight and road/tyre resistence

I have a compact crank set on my EMC2 as I didn't want "granny gears" and that gives me all the benefits of the low gears without having three chain rings.

[li10up]

I am by no means a hill expert. I still get left behind but I am better than I was a year ago. I used to down shift and spin but by doing that I never saw any improvment. So I started trying to go up the hill in one gear higher for as long as I could. As someone said, you don't want to damage your knees. But you need to tax your muscles if you want them to get stronger.

My strength has gone up, now if I could just get the weight part down of the strength-to-weight ratio then I might have a chance...

[Geonz]

I got a **lot** better on hills by working on my pedaling technique, and all I did was focus on going "round and round, not up and down" and trying to sort of be perpendicular to the pedal all the way around, following the circle. SHould be easier to do in clipless than with my toe clips (if you don't already do it). I found that on hills it made me work harder but I went significantly faster and felt it in my muscles more.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Ace,
This past thread with tips on hill climbing helped me a lot:
http://forums.teamestrogen.com/showthread.php?t=4880&highlight=power+hills+hips
I have used the "hip power" trick a great deal and it's helped me get up hills that I thought were going to beat me.

Also these threads:
http://forums.teamestrogen.com/showthread.php?t=3078&highlight=hill+climbing+tips

http://forums.teamestrogen.com/showthread.php?t=4092&highlight=hill+climbing+tips

[Bad JuJu]

High-five yourself for your clipless success! I'm a few months into clipless use also, and loving it. I didn't know how much I was loving it until I took a ride on my touring bike with toeclips this past weekend--such a pain reaching down to tighten then loosen those blasted straps!

Like li10up, I still get left in the dust on hills but getting a little better all the time, mostly by doing what she does--trying to go just one gear harder as long as I can without hurting my knees. A lighter bike has helped, but a lighter "engine" (me, that is) would help more.:o