Road Cycling - Hill training

In July I will be riding our local MS 150. But unlike most in the country, after about 40M this course takes a left turn and heads up the into the rocky mountians.

I've been doing some training this spring. I get about 75-100 miles in a week. But no hills yet.

Anyone have some tips or suggestions on how to train for this.
(other than find a hill and start up)

I'm sure, much like the training schedule I am using there is some science to this.

I fear that if I don't start looking for hills soon, they'll have to drag me out of the SAG wagon at the top of the hill...

Thanks

70% of my daily route is going up. I spin it, about 90-100rpm... At first it was hard to keep it up. I get to a point where I use the lowest Gear available... There are times that my cadence drops to about 70-80rpm. It is really hard to recover when it is this slow. There were times that I had to turn back.

But this past few months I could go over those hills and maintain my cadence by doing my share of standing, this allows me to use different muscles..

Originally posted by Raedeke
Anyone have some tips or suggestions on how to train for this.
(other than find a hill and start up)

I'm sure, much like the training schedule I am using there is some science to this.

I fear that if I don't start looking for hills soon, they'll have to drag me out of the SAG wagon at the top of the hill...

I have heard that walking up stairs (two or three at a time) helps build the climbing muscles, but I've never actually tested this theory. My own appoach is the rather unscientific "go looking for hills".

Well, you don't say how much climbing is involved.

I have ridden in the rocky mountains and I have done a fair number of passes.

Generally, the maximum sustained grade on paved roads is 7%. You can get a grade like that for quite a ways - rabbit ears pass has 7 miles of 7%.

Now I don't know how much climbing is on your tour. But if you have miles of 7%, you should be sure your gearing allows you to sit and spin on a 7% grade. That is what I do. I use a triple with pretty low gears but as I said I like to spin. I have been on tours and seen people tackle a 7% grade without really low gears Thing is you need gearing that will let you make a long climb comfortably. A climb out there can very easily take 1 hour and often longer depending on the route and how fast it climbs.

As for training, even climbing a series of short hills in succession is pretty good training for extended climbs. Also just general cycling conditioning works too. I live in Florida, and I have no problem going out west and doing the highest paved roads out there as long as I am in condition.

Now I have never figured out how to convert feet climbed into miles of flat riding. But it seems to me that climbing 1000' is about like riding 10 miles. But it can be worse then that because many cyclists attack the hill and get beaten down and then go belly up. The trick is to find a comfortable pace and settle into it and that pace can be quite slow. I recall averaging something like 6 mph up Teton Pass (10%). And averaging 6 mph was rather like cruising 20 mph on the flat (no one in the group passed me and I passed a bunch of people). Yes, it can be frustrating to ride so slowly, but it is better then blowing up.

When I moved from flatland to hilly-land, my cycling legs had a bit of a shock, but soon got used to it. The hills were very short, but steep compared to the well graded mountain passes of big climbs. My commute and shopping trips were on hilly routes, but sometimes I would do some hill-climb intervals just for fun.
I took a holiday in the Alpes and had no trouble with 3hour climbs.
In my experience, there is no substitute for climbing hills, but you can train for big hills using small ones.

Thanks guys -
I'm definately a spinner and 6mph is about what I had expected to strive for on the way up. I have a triple so I'm in good shape on the gears. At current I'm doing between 10 & 40 miles/day six days a week. With a 10% bump on my long ride each week up to about 70 prior to the actual event. I think I'm getting good at the flat stuff. I plan to take a field trip to inspect my "challenge". I'll have a better idea of grade and sustainded distance at that point. I'm trying to get some topo data I can use in a computer program I have that can then determine the profile of the route.

But I think the consensus is "Go find a hill and have at it".
I'll have to check the local clubs to see about route suggestions in my area.

Richard

Originally posted by Raedeke
Anyone have some tips or suggestions on how to train for this.
(other than find a hill and start up)

That's the only sure fire way to do it (and my favorite, but I'm really not much of a voice on that issue). There just isn't anything that can repeat the motion of a bicycle going up a hill, so that's the best way to practice. Although, getting a stationary training bike and setting it to a severe uphill wouldn't be a bad trainer.