Training & Nutrition - Training for climbing...with nothing to climb

I'm relatively new to cycling...starting last summer. I bought a Canondalel Synapse and had a professional fit done while on a trainer. I was feeling pretty good about my fitness last year but have not rode much this winter.

I live in W. Central Ohio which is very flat...maybe some small rollers here and there. Anyway, I'm interested in possibly trying the Livestrong Challenge in PA. which I think I read has something like 5 - 8000 ft. of elevation. I lost my Mother to cancer and have had other family members battle it. I also have several friends dealing with various types of cancer at this time.

Any help would be greatly appreciated so I can decide whether to give it a shot this year or wait till next year. Also, doing the shorter rides is not an option in my mind....I'd like to do all 100.

Thanks to everyone.

Is there any way to train for climbing that type of elevation over a 100 miles when you have no hills to climb?

What a great cause! I live in a pretty hilly area, so don't have direct experience with your question. But here's what I'd recommend:

1. Get back to riding as soon as you can. I know cold/wet weather is a drag to ride in. But the more miles you can get in, the better.
2. Focus on quality of rides. Try to get at least one 2-3 hour ride in each week.
3. Hills = long duration of high power output. You can do the equivalent by doing intervals. Warmed up and fully rested, push yourself faster than you normally ride and try to hold it for 10-20 minutes. Recover completely and do that once more. This will condition you to be able to ride outside your comfort zone (.i.e. hill climbs).
4. Make sure to take recovery days!

Headwinds, parking garages, and stationary trainers.

I found one of these free setting on the curb with someone's garbage , looks goofy but it has a big *** cast iron flywheel that creates smoother resistance than any windtrainer I have tried. Crank the resistance way up and spin it at 90 rpm ,you'll feel like your heart is gonna come out your throat.
I have had it for two years and use it nearly everyday in the winter

http://www.scienceshareware.com/DIY/BYO/U-gen/voit-tre-exercise-bike.jpg

hey roadrider63,

Welcome to the hillclimbing world :D! It's great!!!

I completely relate to your situation. I normally live and train in Japan, and do a number of hillclimb time trials throughout the season. I'm now living in northern Indiana till June, and just like west central Ohio, is flat as a pancake :(! As soon as I get back to Japan in June, we'll be in the thick of the hillclimb race season, so I need to be in race climbing shape, even without any hills to train on. To answer your question, YES, you can get into climbing shape even without any hills to train on. For these winter months when our roads are snowy and icy, if you don't have a stationary trainer, I'd suggest going to your local "Y" and try to ride the stationary bike as much as possible. Here are some things I would suggest:
1) If you don't already have a heart rate monitor, get one, and try to train your heart to be able to sustain high heart rates for extended periods. Some heart rate monitors come with simple guides for heart rate training, or you can also search this forum for lots of useful info. With all this snow and ice, I'm usually at the "Y" 4 days a week for about 1.5 hours a shot, training at about 85% max. heart rate; but that's just me.
2) For some, sitting on a stationary trainer for 1.5 hours is pure torture, but what I've found to help is varying my position often. I'll sit and pedal, but then when my butt starts to get sore, increase the tension and stand and climb for a minute or two, then sit back down and release the tension back. This also trains your "standing-climbing" muscles, which are different. Your cadence (rpm) when standing and climbing will probably be about 30 rpm lower than seated spinning. I've also put together 1.5 hours of good, fast-paced music for the ipod, that keeps me "in the power mood." :)
3) At my local "Y", and also at a few I used when traveling, there are some pretty high-tech road bike trainers (CycleOps, Keiser, LeMond) that give you a full road bike position and even have power meters. These are great! You can do standing climbing much better on these than on the more generic upright stationary bikes, and with the power meters, you can target a certain power level (i.e. 160 watts) to try to maintain throughout your workout.
4) To simulate a more "climbing" pedaling technique, sit a bit farther back in your saddle, with your hands on top of the bars.
5) You can't simulate higher elevation training, but at least you can get your heart and legs in good condition.
Hope this helps.
Cheers! - RJ

Thanks everyone. I do intend to do some interval training once I get some good miles under my belt. I'm sure I need to get the knees back in shape before I dive into any hard training. At 45 yrs old...this July....I'm not really interested in racing but I like the idea of training for some kind of goal to push myself. In a nutshell, I'd like to be able to register for rides that contain some climbing and be confident in my ability to handle it. Other than that my basic training goal can be summed up it two words. Further, Faster.

Guess its time to get out and ride...but not with highs in the low teens....not sure I would enjoy that but guess I have to try some day to find out.

See ya.

Start doing spin classes at a local fitness club. I started cycling last summer, but I've noticed the greatest leg strength gains for me by doing spin classes since Nov. Northeast Wisconsin is terribly flat too. Weight train by doing squats, leg curls, leg extensions and calf raises. Also, crosstrain when you can't ride outdoors during the winter.

RoadRider, welcome to the fold. I, too, returned to cycling in my early-mid-40s (about to turn 44), and found the training challenges different than I expected.


FWIW, my physical therapist suggested that the wall slides he has me do are strengthening my climbing ability, too. I've mostly been on rollers for the last few months, but the times I've been out on the hills, I have to agree with him.

Go here:

http://www.durangoorthopedics.com/skiknee.html

...and click on "wall slides", or just scroll down. My PT had me start at three sets of five reps x 15 sec. each, but you can adjust up or down from there depending on fitness. He had me work up to holding each rep for *30* seconds (I'm almost there now). It kills for the first few weeks, but BOY, did my quads bulk up.

You can buy a $4.00 four-square (playground) ball, about 8.5" diameter, and place it between your tailbone and the wall, to make the slides more natural (and keep from leaving marks on the wall).

Pumping iron might also help, but in a different way. Try 'em -- they're hard, helpful, healthy for your knees, and no commuting to or paying for the gym!

As with all exercise, some provisos:

- Make sure to develop complementary strength (try leg curls in the gym, for ex.) to balance out the strengthening

- Increase your stretching. I couldn't fig. out why my back went out twice in one month until I did these first two points.

- Any major questions, pain, etc., consult a doctor or PT.

(Don't forget to build your aerobic capacity while your building strength -- or just after you do a few weeks' strength training. That'll be at least as important on those hills.)

Good luck!

In a post in this forum, Will Dehne has an interesting program: doing 30% of your riding time out of the saddle in a gear that will give you your seated cruise speed, but at 50 cadence. I would think that would make a huge difference, once you get strong enough to do it! Doing that on the flat while keeping a tight chain will work most of your leg muscles. So say every 7 minutes, get up and pump for 3.

i live in Florida. But have this bad habit of signing up for events that require lots of climbing. (Brasstown Bald Buster Century, L'etape de Tour, Everest Challenge (29,000 vertical), Cheat Mountain Challenge, Six Gap, for some examples.)

You can train for riding mountains on the flats. It just takes some willingness to push yourself.

Climbing is all about power to weight ratio. You've got to be able to put out a decent amount of power for a sustained period.

That means a lot of riding at your lactate threshold. So to prepare yourself to climb a mountain for an hour at lactate threshold, you need to be able to ride on the flats at lactate threshold for an hour.

Best way to do this is a lot of steadystate intervals (10-20 minutes at LTHR or FTP if you're traing with a power meter.)

Doing repeats up short climbs, like birdges, helps some, butmostly trains you for short intense eforts,and shouldn't be the core of your program.

No matter how much you train on the flats, when you actually climb you'll use slightly differnet muscles that will get fatigued. To combat this, do some core stregthening work (i.e. crunchs , back extensions.) Also you can ride atrainer with the front wheel proped up a couple of inches to mimic the climbing position.

Add a couple of trips to a hilly area to do some triaining ad measure progress and you'll be good to go.

That means a lot of riding at your lactate threshold. So to prepare yourself to climb a mountain for an hour at lactate threshold, you need to be able to ride on the flats at lactate threshold for an hour.

Best way to do this is a lot of steadystate intervals (10-20 minutes at LTHR or FTP if you're traing with a power meter.)

do some core stregthening work (i.e. crunchs , back extensions.) Also you can ride atrainer with the front wheel proped up a couple of inches to mimic the climbing position.

Add a couple of trips to a hilly area to do some triaining ad measure progress and you'll be good to go.

Yup. I live in a hilly area, but it rains A LOT, limiting my in-saddle time during winter. Also a lot of my riding ends up being in the flats, as most of our mountainous loops take over 3 hrs, which I usually don't have time for after getting out of school @ 5. I'm training for the Tour of the Unknown Coast century here in Humboldt that boasts over 9,000 ft. of climbing, and here's what I do when not in the hills:

1. Learn to love squats...its almost possible.
2. Stomps
3. Intervals
4. Core circuit; freeweight circuit (on alternating days)
5. Commute on my fixie, which is geared pretty high (gotta give 'er hell up hills!)
6. Yoga - keeps my back in check...HUGE for long climbs!

What is the typical duration of the climbs that you are expecting to encounter?

What Robert Gesink (Ned) Rabobank did on Sierra Road in the third stage of TOC proves you do not need hills to train for hills. That guy live in the flats of the Netherlands and can climb. He trains using the Bob Seger method "against the wind."

Strap one of these parachutes to your back?

http://www.dragracingonline.com/special/images/parachute.jpg

Thanks everyone. I do intend to do some interval training once I get some good miles under my belt. I'm sure I need to get the knees back in shape before I dive into any hard training. At 45 yrs old...this July....I'm not really interested in racing but I like the idea of training for some kind of goal to push myself. In a nutshell, I'd like to be able to register for rides that contain some climbing and be confident in my ability to handle it. Other than that my basic training goal can be summed up it two words. Further, Faster.

Guess its time to get out and ride...but not with highs in the low teens....not sure I would enjoy that but guess I have to try some day to find out.

See ya.

I know it's hard to believe, but you will not get cold while cycling. The real challenge in cold weather is to stay cool enough. Remember, the human machine is highly inefficient, and a lot of the watts you're cranking are in the form of heat. That's waste in the summer but warmth in the winter!

phantoj...I'm not sure what the duration would be. It's the Livestrong Challenge in PA. Any duration would be more than I am used to. Any hills I can find around here probably don't have much more than an overpass but some may be a bit longer.

I might try to head down to S, SE Ohio this spring just to ride some of those hills and see how I do.

I rode today for the first time in a while and can tell that all that I gained last summer is basicly gone. Heart/lungs didn't feel too bad but my legs had very little juice. 13.3 miles in right at about an hour. Hopefully my legs will come back quicker than what it took last summer.

I will be riding more now that is for sure. It was 31 today and feet got a bit chilly towards the end but the rest of me was more than toasty. My back was soaked even with the "wicking" base layer and second layer and a wind breaker over that.

Sure felt good to be out again despite the legs.

Thanks again everyone.

Need a hill in a flat area...look for a highway or railroad overpass. Bridges over rivers also provide a lengthy "hill". These won't be long or overly steep but repeats will build stamina and strength.

Not a real answer, since I seek hills. For a "good" workout, (short ride) I use ankle weights. Recently I read about wearing a weight jacket, which is sometimes preferable, and should be much heavier than ankle or wrist weights for a "good" workout. Me, I will stay with AW to make my workout shorter.

I live in a hilly area and get in plenty of climbing.

When a fit rider who doesn't have hills to climb comes to the area, he's typically weak on the hills for a few days. But after that, he's much stronger.

I've noticed the same thing about myself in the early season, when wet weather keeps me out of the mountains. As soon as I start climbing again, it's much harder than it should be. My legs and lower back muscles feel weak. But after a few good climbing days, it gets back to being easier.

I don't have a theory of why this is true. I'm just happy to know that if you're fit from riding on the flat, it takes very little time to develop your climbing legs.