It's difficult to avoid climbs when you are cycling, particularly during a race. Look at some of the best professional climbers and you will see the pain on their faces as they ascend a long hill. One of the best way to get faster is to learn to manage the pain by practicing difficult climbs and to develop a strong aerobic engine and the legs to back it up. Climbing faster is about practice, but it is also about skill.
Step 1
Keep your legs as fresh as you can. You want to learn to conserve power and energy for the hills. Spin as much as you can on the flats and conserve energy by riding in the group. If the climb becomes a wall, don't attack it in a hard gear, leaving you wiped out for the climbs ahead. Increase your gear as you hit the base of the climb so that you can use your momentum to increase your climbing speed.
Step 2
Manage your power-to-weight ratio. Professional riders are lean and their power numbers are high. If two riders are ascending a hill on similar bikes, the lighter rider will use less energy to get to the top than the heavier rider, who must fight the forces of gravity. Any extra pounds will slow you down on climbs, so focus on shedding extra body fat while building and maintaining lean muscle.
Step 3
Add intervals to your training. Intervals will not only help you lose weight, but they will also make you stronger. Interval training divides intense work into manageable pieces with recovery built in, allowing you to do put forth more hard effort in less time. To get stronger on hills, perform hill repeats or sprint up short hills. To help build strength in your legs, pedal uphill using a harder gear and lower cadence. This is the equivalent of doing leg presses on the bike.
Step 4
Move around on your saddle. You use several different muscle groups during a climb, including your quadriceps, hamstrings and glutes as well as the calves and hips. Where you sit on the saddle will activate different muscle groups. The key is to vary which group you use so that the others can recover. When you climb, work on shifting to the back of your saddle and dropping your heels slightly; this uses the glutes and hips in a very powerful way that you can sustain for the longest amount of time. Move up on the nose of your saddle for short bursts of energy or stand up out of the saddle for the most power.
Step 5
Simulate race situations. Many hard attacks come on hills during a road race. Be prepared by practicing for them ahead of time. Even if you're not training to race, these will help increase your speed. Practice a power surge, which simulates covering an attack. Use a heart rate monitor, and just when you are below your lactate threshold, or about 85 percent of your maximum heart rate, increase your cadence by 10 revolutions per minute for 5 to 10 seconds on a hill. Cruise and recover, then perform the surge again. This will help your body learn to clear lactic acid faster and develop speed as you recover from the efforts.
Things You'll Need
- Heart rate monitor
- Bike computer with cadence
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