Hitting a wall on hills.

[smurfalicious]

I just dug this out of my Training Peaks log, it hurts, it sucks, it's miserable, it will make you hate life and doubt your will to live but it works:

Long (6+ minutes), steady climbs. 4-6% grades. Climb mostly in saddle at 60-70 rpm. Heart rate 1-5a zones. Don't go above your 5a zone.

Oooooh does pushing those big gears at low cadence HURT but man it's made my big old sprinter butt better. It HURTS, did I mention that? Like get to the top of the hill and call your momma in a tears HURTS!!!!

Living in Colorado I have a 90 minute ride that gets me 3 of these lovely reps. The last one I really want to die, but man afterwards I feel so awesome about myself. I don't recommend this ride if you're really new, but it's a good one to toss in.

This sucker is a devil too, but also worth doing:

Hill anaerobic endurance + Treshhold. On a 4-6% hill do 4-5 x 3 minutes to the heart rate 5b zone (3-minute recoveries). Stay seated on each. 60-70 rpm. Then ride 20 minutes in the heart rate 4-5a zones on a mostly flat course. Aero position.

That one is geared a little more toward tri work, but if you just do the hill part it's worth it. My coach says the recoveries can be frantic little gear spinning, weaving and all that (with a mind on traffic, natch), just get your HR down.

Hope this helps, promise not to hate me if you do them and they suck.