Hill climbing/training advice, please!

[Bklynmom]

I have done repeats on the Prospect Park hill using center drive. My low is about 9 MPH on the hill (started out with a low of 7!), high around 11. This is in a middle gear, with some tension, not a light spin.

What I have been doing in PP is to crank up the gear the minute I hit the bottom of the downhill, and try and maintain 16 MPH. I hit 18 on the flat parts, and 13 on the slight up hills in that stretch. I try to go at medium tension with some leg burn for 10 minutes, which includes the hill plus. I do 2 x 10 min. reps, with 5 min in between.

This is my own modification of Lactic acid Threshold building from my bike book.

I did this twice this week, then went back to my hill in Piermont Sunday and made it all the way up! I actually found it easer to go around 5.5 MPH up the Piermont hill than the 3 MPH I tried the first time. The chain did pop off twice because I was in too high a gear.

I do think that it is a very different psychological and gear experience with a long steep climb, and you don't get that in the Park.

I did have to get off and walk the bike on a short but very steep hill - I think that was a gearing issue, and also the fact that my legs weren't warmed up. Very steep short climbs are definitely something I need to work on.

[rij73]

Sounds awesome! I'm still at about the 7mph mark, but I think I'm not trying hard enough. Congrats on handling the hill this weekend!