Training & Nutrition - Better for hills ? Short, Steep, or Long, not so steep ?

Heya'll....

Workign on my hill climbing as I've figured out that no matter where I ride from my house I have hills in all directions... right down the street from me is a 6% grade that goes up for about 1 mile, then too some rollers after that... in the other direction I have a 10% grade for about 1/2 mile, that is a KILLER !!

So i guess what my question is.. is what is better to train on to get really rockin' on the hills..

1. short and steep (I guess more like an interval kinda thing) 6-10% grade for a mile or less

or

2. long and not soo steep (nice long grrrrriiinnnd) something like 3-5% for 4-5 miles ?


right now I can go up the 6% grade hill at about 9mph for the mile... I really want to get this up as fast as i can, and I know it just takes practice... but after doing this hill last weekend.. and then trying the long, not so steep hills after that.. my original plan for 30 miles turned into about 18, because my legs were just dying... I know it is still Feburary and even though I rode the trainer for base miles this winter, I still need to get back in top-riding shape... so uhh any suggestions ?

Jeff

Both.Do a mixture of long hills, short hill repeats etc.

Just make sure you rest enough.If you are doing a lot of training in the hills, make the day after a nice flat recovery run.Try mixing in faster cadence or bigger gears, sprinting the last 100m of a short climb.

Whatever you do make sure you push harder than normal.

For shorter steeper hills (about mile), I usual try and do about 4-6 repeats with 5 min rest in between.With the shorter hills, I choose a gear or 2 bigger than what is comfortable and push hard until the last 100m then come out of the saddle and sprint up over the top till I 'blow' then back down to recover.I sometimes do 1 or 2 of the repeats, out of saddle.

For longer hills, I try and get into a good rhythm and concentrate on smooth pedalling.Never look at the distance you've got to go, just pick out a marker in the near distance and aim for that.Once you've reached that do the same again so that the hill is broken down into parts.(works for me)

Big gear interals are good on the hills and are great for strength.Just remember to watch the knees with this and do it with caution.Make sure you dont do too much too soon with these .Basically doing arond (3-4) * 8-20min intervals up, not majorly steep climbs but in big gears, 53-13 with low cadence around 60.Really focus on pulling back and up also.You will really feel the legs working with these

Bikerdave answered your questions but on a side note... I read somewhere (long ago) that Dutch cyclists grow up spinning fixed gears on (of course) the flats - and the Netherlands have produced some dang good pros. I've noticed something similar in myself. I'll sometimes go weeks without attacking a serious hill, but, when I do, the increase in performance can be pretty satisfying. That being said, training on hills is more fun.

hmm... hill training is really tough as i think there are tons of different techniques for different things...

in general the best thing is just riding a lot of hills.

i personally love hills! they're just so much fun. on the flat i always have to TRY and motivate myself to push and go faster - when climbing i just do it naturally!

anyway, since moving to Europe and riding a lot of vertical in the Alps (65,000 vertical meters climbed on the bike in 2002) my hill climbing has really really improved (although surprizingly my flat-land riding has not or has actually worsened b/c i so rarely ride flats). anyway, i used to always push big gears, but partly b/c of a knee problem and wanting to protect it, i have switched to more spinning in the hills...

anyhow, i often do >15% sustained climb for more than an hour or so - now, most of this i do on my mountain bike with really low gears so i can notch down and always keep an 80+rpm rate. on a road bike this is probably not possible, but on a lower % steepness you can.

anyway, i would say a combination of doing LONG sustained hills as well as shorter interval like hills is the best. long hills will build overall stength more for endurance and short hills will build short-burst strength - for me as a fast-twitch muscle type the interval sprint comes naturally to me, but i have had to train for the endurance hills (i am only 160lbs at 6'1" so that is a plus too)

on longer hills just ride what you can sustain. on shorter hills ride the first half hard and then push all the way to the top.

i really recommend trying to spin rather than pushing big gears for most of your hill training. yes, you should do a little big-gear pushing for max strenght and sprints, but in general it is less efficient (Lance changed his style from being a gear-masher to a spinner and i think he's done OK)

i personally am shooting for over 70,000 meters vertical this year on the bike! (231,000 ft vertical) - over 25,000m is already in the calendar on tours i will lead. and then including ski touring and mountain climbing i hope to exceed 100,000m of human-powered ascent (i've only got about 3,500m so far this year from ski touring)

see you at the top Jeff!

since you have one or a few(?) fiexed routes that forces you to climb, i would just vary the type of climbing you do over the hills you've already got. you know, one day high spinning (seated), another day seated spin for 1st 1/3, standing mash for 2nd 1/3 (or thereabouts) and seated again for last 1/3 for the longer hills....

or gear up like a fixed gear and get over that hill no matter how slow...standing...seated.... etc.

i'd mix it up to prevent what i see as the real problem in hill training, and that is the mental wear. just attack the hills in different ways each time depending on how you feel.

i don't think that any amt of base miles helps you with hills.

Thanks ya'll for the tips...

I usually do what Bikerdave said as far as picking different points on the hill, and working towards them.. like every 3rd or 4th light pole.. something like that... I guess i'll this weekend... maybe work up the mile hill and do a few laps up and down that... I just wanna get to the point where a hill ike that, that almost kills me now, becomes liek no big deal... it just sucks that it is basically at the beginning of my route.. i have to warm up on the trainer first to get going... well i'll let ya know how it's going after this weekend... thanks again :-)

Jeff