Training & Nutrition - Hill Climbing

Can anyone recommend some type of training program for a novice to increase climbing ability? I am doing a two-day ride next summer and right now I'm kinda intimidated by some of the hills I will be facing.

I assume you have already did the "search the thread" and have gone thru all that was said about hill climbing.

Can anyone recommend some type of training program for a novice to increase climbing ability? I am doing a two-day ride next summer and right now I'm kinda intimidated by some of the hills I will be facing.

The easy (and hard) answer is: ride more hills. Go out of your way to find hills, particularly those that are close in profile (grade, length) to what you're going to be riding. Start now...

I assume you have already did the "search the thread" and have gone thru all that was said about hill climbing.
+1 There are tons of old threads with very good advice for hill climbing. Barring that: ride hills lots.

Sorry, I should have made myself clear. I'm looking for some ideas for indoor training for the winter. I did look at a lot of threads on hill climbing, some very good info, but nothing I could find focusing on indoor training.

Sorry, I should have made myself clear. I'm looking for some ideas for indoor training for the winter. I did look at a lot of threads on hill climbing, some very good info, but nothing I could find focusing on indoor training.
If you have a trainer, warm up for 15 minutes working up to a hard effort to wake up your legs.

Shift to a gear that puts your cadence around 65-70 rpm at a hard effort (85-95% LT). Hold this effort for 5 minutes. Rest 5 minutes. Repeat. Cool down for 15 minutes with an easy spin in your smallest gear.

Add minutes to each interval unil you're doing 2 15 minute hill intervals.

Sorry, I should have made myself clear. I'm looking for some ideas for indoor training for the winter. I did look at a lot of threads on hill climbing, some very good info, but nothing I could find focusing on indoor training.

Ah, OK. Some say you can help simulate the posture, etc. by elevating the front of your trainer about 4-6" or so. Crank up the resistance and you've got yourself a hill! Well, sort of. Good enough to train on, anyway. Intervals are good but if the hill climbs in your upcoming ride are longer, I would recommend sesssions where you ride at least the distance/duration of the longer climbs a few times.

Why not ride hills during the winter ? Old bike with studded tires and forest roads with some elevation. I do afternoon rides now (with lights) that has 400-500 meters elevation, very good workouts.
XC skiing is also great training for hillclimbing,

I also do standing intervals on the trainer as well. Of course you will have to find the gear that lets you stand in at about 60 rpm and a heart rate of about 85 to 90%. I do this for one minute on; two minutes recovery X 2, and then two minutes on; and three minutes recovery X 2. Recover for five to ten minutes and then repeat. This really works for lactic acid build up tolerance.

ah....these are the kind of ideas I was looking for! Thanks to all....
Think I will start with the intervals and work up to some longer "distances."

BTW, is there a simple method to determine the grade of a hill??

plodder....I just don't do winter. Lived in New England all my life, and all I can do is huddle in the corner with a comforter and hope for spring!!

You might want to get a copy of ACE Training for Cyclists (http://www.roadbikerider.com/ace_page.htm) by Arnie Baker. He covers training for a hillclimb event (The Death Ride/Tour of the California Alps...15,000' in 129 miles), including indoor trainer techniques.

For most purposes, rise over run is sufficiently accurate (although not mathematically) to calculate the grade. In other words, 528 ft. on climbing over 1 mile equals a 10% grade.

For added motivation and ideas, try either CTS or Spinervals.

You can find a couple of really good audio examples here: http://www.trainright.com/info.asp?action=display&uid=2815. Stage 11 is climbing repeats, stage 15 is OverUnders. I used both of these this weekend. Stage 15 is a killer.

Spinervals 7.0 and 24.0 are also very good.

Look486

Sorry, I should have made myself clear. I'm looking for some ideas for indoor training for the winter. I did look at a lot of threads on hill climbing, some very good info, but nothing I could find focusing on indoor training.

You might look at the cyclo-core and cyclo-zen series.

I have a Nashbar watt master trainer and for hill simulation, I put a phone book under the front wheel leveler, throw the trainer to level five resistance, shift to about 53/18 and go at it.

I was going to pop in with some sage advice, but it looks like all the good advice has already been stated.

For trainer sessions (which I hate), I alternate between fast cadence (110-115) spinning, low cadence seated and low cadence standing. The low cadence stuff should hurt, I'm usually at 90% heart rate at the end of the low-cadence drill. About 4-5 minutes for each segment.

• warm up spin
• low cadence seated
• spin
• low cadence standing
• spin

Repeat until I can't stand it any more. Picking music with the right tempo and right duration helps. Oh, and I also raise my front wheel about 5 inches.