Looking to improve climbing skills?

[Bklynmom]

I am a newer and less experienced cyclist, and I too have been strugling with hills.

The gearing described here has helped me - but don't drop down so far that you don't generate enough power. I have also gained power from riding up hills standing up, and in a heavier gear.

The one advantage of the weight /mass ratio, is loosing weight will probably make you faster on hills, if you have weigh you can afford to loose. (I have about 20 lbs that could go).

I am also wondering if the right weight workout in the gym will help you gain power in your legs? Would love to hear from anyone with expertise.

Maybe running, even on a tread mill, would help hill climbing -- anyone with experience with that?

I do think that an indoor program that you will actually do, is probably better than planning to bike outdoors, then whimping out (like I do!). This depends entirely on your weather tolerances.

Has anyone tried these indoor biking set ups where you bring your bike and they simulate a ride? There is one near my house I was thinking of trying.

[VeloVT]

I am also wondering if the right weight workout in the gym will help you gain power in your legs?

Deadlifts and squats are great. Lunges prob.not bad either (but I just don't like them for some reason). You want to target BOTH quads and hams/glutes. If you like machines (I don't really), quad extensions would be helpful, as would hamstring curls (the one where you lie on your stomach). I suppose you could do leg presses too but they target the same muscles as squats and squats are more fun/less tedious.

Hill running (and sprinting) are also good for building power in the ham/glute region. Just remember that it's not specific, so running on hills won't translate into direct one-for-one improvement in biking hills. And you don't want to neglect your quads which are still important riding hills. But it will definitely help both with power and with aerobic conditioning, which is also an important component of riding hills (in my opinion at least -- if you don't have to gasp as hard you can probably ride faster !).

[flirtees]

Thanks everyone,

I appreciate the tips greatly!

Sincerely,
Tanya

[Starfish]

You might Google Arnie Baker and check out the online books of his you can buy. I bought one last year when I was training for a climbing century, and he has some things to say about simulating climbing indoors on the trainer, and how he thinks it stacks up against outdoor workouts. I think the one I bought was called ACE: Altitude Climbing Endurance...maybe not exactly what you want/need, but I know he has some smaller online "booklets" too.

I also know that even the few spinning classes I did last spring helped me build strength that I could feel on the bike. I plan to start them up again soon.