Originally Posted by eelozano
Ok, here is the deal.
I live in Southern Indiana and there are nothing but hills here.
I've been riding and riding and its getting discouraging when after 3 or so large hills (well over 50-100ft elevation) I am dead and have to turn around.
On the straight aways I am able to do fine...it is just the hills that are killing me (to prove this point I take a flatter route that is about 4 times longer and I feel like I can do it again when I'm done.
My question is how can I train off hills to prepare me for them.
I have access to a pretty state of the art fitness center (Indiana University) for free and they have cycling bikes.
I was wondering if you guys could suggest any sort of training plan that could get me feeling better about these hills (I can't ignore the hills...other than the one flat route I found I'm basically stuck with hills.).
The way I takle a hill is to not look at the top of the hill. I find a point about six to ten feet in front of my tire and fixate on that. I find that if I look at the top of the hill, I'll get discouraged easier.
Pick a lighter gear, get in the drops and show that hill whos the boss! Kick it's arse.