Getting ready for hilly rides??

[velo]

We're going to be camping here in a couple of months and the area where we are going is quite hilly. I'll want to ride while there, as we'll be there for a week and the rides will be gorgeous, especially with the autumn colors.

Where I live, it's rather flat and where I ride, we have only gentle rolling hills. If I travel an hour away by car, I can get some steep, longer and shorter hills - lots of good hill work. Right now, I can't regularly take the two extra hours each time I ride to travel by car to these hills and even trying to do so once a week is difficult. In the area I ride, there is only one decent shorter hill, that flattens at the top into a more gentle, long uphill . However, it's on an MUP and without going into detail, it's not a good hill to repeat. I usually ride 6 days a week, and I make sure to do this hill each time, even on recovery rides.

When my bike was built, I was racing crits and in obviously much, much better shape. I ride a 39/53 up front and a 13/26 (10 speed) in the back. Fine for me then, even on hills, but not exactly a good set up for me on hills right now. Unless I get better at climbing, I'm not going to be able to ride on our camping trip - I just won't have a low enough gear. I'll be walking more than riding, I'm afraid. I'm losing weight pretty fast with all the riding, but I expect I'll still be at least 15 lbs. overweight when we go, so that's another strike against me.

Is there anything other than actual hill work that will help my climbing? I've been back to riding about 6 - 7 weeks and I'm working mainly on endurance, getting in a fair amount of miles (a little under 1000 so far, avg. about 150/wk) since I started back. I do intervals once a week, one long ride, one short ride that is usually a recovery ride and then a few moderate rides (usually 25 - 30 miles). That's not much of a fitness base. Will this be enough to do some hilly rides in 10 weeks, though? Is there anything else I can do to get ready to ride some hills? I'm pretty sure the answer is "no", but thought people here would have an idea or something that worked for them. TIA!

P.S. Sorry so long... just wanted to explain things thoroughly.

[OakLeaf]

Gym work will help - leg presses and squats. Climbing is all about those thigh and low back muscles.

When I came back to cycling after a long hiatus, it was at a retreat in the northern California mountains. I was leg pressing 15 reps at 225# and hadn't been on a bike in 12 years. Okay, there was one climb I gave up on - but that was after I accidentally climbed to the top of another one when our leader got lost - and if either I'd had a little bit lower gearing, or I wasn't trying to remember how to unclip after 12 years away, I'm pretty sure I would've made it to the top of that one, too. I want to say it was the Oakville grade, for those familiar with the area.

Can you make a loop, so that you can at least do your hill a few times in a session, without having to make a U-turn? Will your RD accept a 28T - might be worth a change in cassette?

[velo]

Thanks, Oakleaf. I was reading up on doing some changes to the cassette. Based on what I'm reading, I would need to hang a longer RD. I am very comfortable with my setup, too, and one of the first things that came back to me was shifting. I'm a little bit reluctant to change anything mechanically at this point because I'm used to the bike again. It seems easier to change me, instead. And in spite of riding about 150 - 160 miles a week, I still have a ways to go before I'm fit and trim again. It may be that losing another 20 pounds between now and then does more for my climbing ability than I expect.

I was afraid strength training was going to be the only other solution. I'm not ready to spend much time in the gym... having too much fun out on the road. It's hard to explain, but turning around and doing the hill again is problematic and looping back to the beginning of the trail to do the hill again is not feasible. Guess I need to either find the time to drive an hour to hills, get in the gym, or forget riding on our camping trip (other than noodling around on the 21 speed hybrid). Unless others have ideas and would chime in?

[Pedal Wench]

I trained for riding in Colorado by doing intervals in Florida - pancake flat, but with headwinds. It's all I could do, and I think I'm better trained than I was when I able to train on hills.

[velo]

Thank you, Pedal Wench. Maybe if I bump up my intervals to twice a week and then a few weeks before, try 3 times/wk, it will be enough. Really, right now, I'm interested in long-term fitness and being able to ride longer distances without killing myself... just a base fitness that will allow me to enjoy many hours in the saddle at a moderate pace. With this area where we're camping being so hilly, though, and absolutely stunning at that time of the year, I just want enough climbing ability to enjoy the rides without sacrificing my other goals. Headwinds we have in spades... intervals into headwinds are definitely do-able. Thanks again!!

[indysteel]

You indicate in your first post that you can't travel an hour to do hillwork weekly, but don't underestimate what even just a few sessions on those hills will do for you. Even if you can't get down there weekly, it'll still be very much worth while to get there when you can. I live in a flat area and, when I was purposely training for out-of-state hilly rides/tours, I was only able to hill work here and there. That here and there helped tremendously though.

[Jiffer]

I didn't read the rest of the replies, but what if you drove the hour distance and incorporated a lot of climbing on your one long weekly ride?

[velo]

I didn't read the rest of the replies, but what if you drove the hour distance and incorporated a lot of climbing on your one long weekly ride?

Most days I have the time to ride no more than about 3 hours (and I ride straight from my driveway... no driving to ride). That means driving 2 hours round-trip to the hills plus prep time nets me about 30 minutes of riding hills. It almost doesn't seem like it's worth it. I've started doing some intervals into the wind, and I'm hoping that will suffice. If I, by chance, have a day I have more time to ride, I'll definitely make the trip down south. I'm hoping to do that at least a few times before we go.

[Leazerbeam]

Just another idea:
I live in a flat area and recently did a tour in Vermont.
We did some steep climbs (specifically Middlebury Gap) and were able to do so because we supplemented our training by using this DVD from Spinervals. You will hate him, but it really did help us.

A couple of times my Garmin indicated a 17% grade so it was no cake walk.

http://www.amazon.com/Spinervals-Com.../dp/B001E3DLE4

[velo]

I know everyone else knew that these sites existed, but I just found out last week. I went out to the website "ride with gps dot com" and spent a few hours trying to find a route that was a little more hilly. Definitely better than the routes I've been riding, I mapped out a ride that I took this morning. It had 1028 ft. of climbing, which I know is not much, but the best I could do from my front door. I found it to be a good challenging ride, but a little short. I ended up crossing back near my house and heading my usual direction to get in a little longer ride. BUT!! I did find some hillier terrain, so I call that a success! Because it's shorter, I'll do it for weekday rides. I like to use weekends to do longer rides.

[Catrin]

I know everyone else knew that these sites existed, but I just found out last week. ....

RidewithGPS.com is a great little site - I prefer their manual mapping tools over those of mapmyride.com. Glad you were able to find a way to mix more hills in your route, have fun!

[Dogmama]

Can you drop into a harder gear and simulate a hill that way? Intervals are also good for increasing aerobic capacity. I'm not keen about the gym & leg presses because the type of muscle used in weight lifting is different than the type used in cycling (type II vs type I) and it does nothing for your aerobic capacity.

Don't get me wrong - I love to lift weights. But research has shown that sport specific exercise is the best way to get in shape for a specific sport. (Duh...they pay people to do this research? Where can I sign up? _