I'm starting to think that a lot of my miles are going to have to be trainer miles due to time constraints these days. :(
Anyone got any good climbing workouts? Preferably nothing I have to pay for--yay for being a poor student!
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I'm starting to think that a lot of my miles are going to have to be trainer miles due to time constraints these days. :(
Anyone got any good climbing workouts? Preferably nothing I have to pay for--yay for being a poor student!
check out gregg cook (get cyced) on i tunes. I pod group motiontraxx.com often carries his stuff, plus they have some nice interval stuff which can be adapted for hill climbing intervals, particularly their treadmill intervals series. I think cook actually has a couple of compitlation albums which you can buy as well- 9.99 or thereabouts. Also a lot of the podrunner. podcasts have intervals, and a lot more have steady state workouts and various paces so you can work out your own climb series by gering up and down on a pre determined rate.
HTH
marni
My CycleOps fluid trainer has a elevated front wheel stand triangle thingy that you can use to elevate the front of the bike. I don't really ride my my trainer though so can't help you too much. I teach Spinning and we ride lots of hills in my classes. Though not the same as the trainer, it's still some strength work. Good Luck!:)
Does the gym/rec center at your school have spin classes? They are great, and much more motivating (to me) than a trainer. Plus, you cannot climb standing up on your trainer because it puts too much torque on your fork.
I don't stand to climb anyway--it works on small inclines when I just need a little extra oomf without having to shift, but it does nothing for me on actual hills!
The spin classes at the rec center are totally dependent on whether they can find an instructor. I agree with you on the trainer being boring, but I'm using it as my TV time. :D I'll check out some of the podcast suggestions.
Ah, well then perhaps you can become an instructor and get a workout AND get paid. Something to think about. I get really inspired to work very hard when there's good music in the spin class. Sometimes I can't help but jump up and dance on those pedals. A winter of spin classes makes a huge difference on the road in the springtime for me.
I used to use my text books under my front wheel when I was in school! Or a phone book. That helped me with elevation for climbing.
Then I would put on good music and do longer intervals to simulate longer climbs.
I fake climbing workouts by increasing the resistance in the gearing a bit and keeping a fast or as fast as I can handle cadence for as long as possible. I guess these are really resistance intervals except that I am more forgiving on the cadence if it's a "hill" climb as opposed to a speed resistance interval.
I rarely if ever stand on my bike in the real world except to scoot across an intersection to stay out of the way of drivers behind me.
marni
When I teach hills in spinning, we start at a level 7 (levels = 1-10 with 10 being hardest) and increase every 30-60 seconds (or when the song dictates) until we get to 10. We do "10" for 15 seconds & then drop back to a 7 for recovery. Then rinse & repeat.:D
The Beatles song Hey Jude is great for this. There are natural changes when you'd increase resistance - plus it is fairly long.
Although I'm sure Tulip is correct about pressure on your fork, I have to say that I have never seen a failure from a fork because of a trainer. I've taught trainer classes for 11 years now and not seen any issues either in class or with other customers that ride from trainers at home. But, I would be careful as to how everything is mounted and keep an eye on things.
AS for hills, as others have mentioned the front wheel blocks have a climbing alternative, same as several phone books. There are also DVD'S out there by Coach Troy and Chris Carmichael that are focused on climbing, along with some new folks as well.
I have an older Cateye trainer that allows me to climb from a 1-10% grade and in some sense gives me figures for power and calories burned, although I don't put a whole lot of faith in either of those measurements. It also allows me to program the computer to either a certain time or distance and it will shut off when you reach that number...we used to do time trails on them in one of the shops I used to work at many years ago.I've had this trainer for quite some time, and always think that I'm going to get another one... but when I think about features etc... I keep asking myself "why?":rolleyes:
At any rate, there are lots of options out there for training, you'll just have to figure out what works best for you.:D
http://chasecyclery.blogspot.com
I tried something like this today. I put together a bunch of songs that I thought might work, and treated them as hills if there were natural spots to increase resistance, and as "spinny" songs if there weren't.
Man, I know I haven't been on the bike for a while, but I didn't know I was that out of shape!:o
Dogmama,
Thanks to you, I've had "Hey Jude" stuck in my head for the last three days...