Quote Originally Posted by Kim1976 View Post
Does anyone have any tips on getting up hills?
I just started going up hills 2 weeks ago, and have improved slightly. When I first started I could barely make it up some of them, and now, I can make it up 2 without stopping.
My problem is i go, but after I push hard, my legs just start to go and lose all momentum, and have to get off and walk my bike uphill. I have noticed that on the right side of my waist starts to spasm .. is that from breathing too heavily?
I try to take deep breaths and relax.
My husband and I are signed up for the Civil War Century ride in September.. but we are only doing the 1/4.
Half of hill climbing is technique and the other half is psychological. (a high power to weight ratio doesn't hurt either). Assuming you have power to weight on your side, then it is even more psychological.

Tell yourself that you can do it, and then use your gears! I prefer seated climbs, so I get into an easy gear and spin, spin, spin. The key here is to not worry about how fast (or slowly) you are going, and not to let your cadence drop too much. On a long hill you might want to alternate between seated and standing, but I try to avoid that because after standing I have trouble keeping my cadence up in the saddle. On a short hill, some people like to do the whole climb out of the saddle, and I am starting to use this technique more often. This will allow you to turn a slightly bigger gear, and put more of your body weight into the pedal stroke.

No matter what your climbing style (seated or standing) or the length of the climb, you will really want to get into a rhythm on the climb - sing a song to yourself if you have to. This will help greatly with keeping your cadence up and turning off that voice that says the hill is too hard :-)