LGHT

I've been working on my hills and slowly increasing my overall distance by riding a little further or harder each ride. After reading some info on the GMR post I thought I was riding too slow although I have been pushing hard each time I ride, but now it seems like I may be ridding too fast for my own good. I have a local hill that starts close to home and looking at my last ride up the hill I went almost 600' of incline in about 30 minutes as I tried to maintain 7mph. The hill has a few downward slopes also that is nice, because I get to ride up those on the way back. After getting to the top I took about a 5 minute break and rode back down. The total amount of incline for the entire ride was just under 950' and my goal was to get up and back under an hour. The last ride I made it in 59:00 total.

Is that pace about right for that much incline? If I want to double the amount of incline should I slow down my pace to half that or just try and push at that same speed and just take more breaks as needed?

Fishmonger

Do you have a heart rate monitor? I never worry about speed on hills, especially when I'm just working out--only how hard my heart is working. Just figure out your target heart rate and try to stay there for the right amount of time.

LGHT

Yes, but I haven't been using it lately since it's a watch that isn't tied into my garmin. I could never figure out how to make it beep on certain levels and find it distracting to keep looking at it during a ride so now I just go by how I feel most of the time. If you can give me some numbers to try and stay at or around I can do the same route and try and keep an eye on what the monitor is reading.

bgraham111

I agree with the looking on your wrist. I ended up strapping it to the handle bars. You can stuff something under it to keep it from rotating (or tape it in place). I like to watch my heart rate and keep it in a zone, and then go higher every once in a while. Hope that helps!

Black wallnut 

Why take a break at the top? If you are improving then it is likely that you are not over training. However your sentence about going harder and farther each ride is somewhat troubling in that many have found that to be the recipe for burnout. Not saying that will happen to you. I rode more and still do than many and have not burned out.

jsigone

climbing pace is such a personal thing until you actually try to follow someone else's pace/wheel up the hill. But using a HRM or even ghost times of strava is a helping tool.

If you have two road bikes, you could set one up for climbing, and leave one as is for normal stuff. But you won't get faster setting up an easy bike

LGHT

That's a great tip I never actually thought about it and not sure why. If I ride in the day it won't be an issue, but not sure if I can during a night ride as I already have the garmin and 2 lights mounted so space is limited.

I can review my strava times to see if I'm improving, but how do I use my HR monitor to improve? Do I just try and stay at a certain HR? I used to just go full speed and die then rest and full speed and die and rest. Now I eased back off the throttle to 7-8mph on the flats and try and maintain 5-6mph on the steep parts of the hills where I really huff and puff quit a bit then repeat. The hills I'm riding are nice, because they go steep, flat or decline, then steep and flat so I use the flat / decline parts to basically rest and recover.

Well typically by the time I get to the top I'm pretty spent and usually just gather my wind because I pushed on the way up. However since It's a down hill ride back down I guess I could just turn around and ride slower until the incline starts. Not sure what you mean about burnout? I typically only ride once or twice a week so i'm not really getting a lot of time in which is why when I do I try and ride as hard as possible.

jsigone

There are many ways to use the HRM data, having it linked to a device like a garmin or you phone gives you access to analyze the information vs just reading it on the fly. Which should still be done regardless. But most is trail and error.

Heart rate monitor training for cyclists - BikeRadar

5 Steps For Better Heart Rate Monitor Training


Knowing max HR puts a ceiling on your numbers. And targeted zones. Sadly I can NEVER hit my max heart rate on my own. It either has to be done in a race or on a fast section of my club rides where I'm gritting, cursing, angry just to stay on the wheel in front of me or doing something stupid off the front. How I use these numbers might not be the same as the links above or hoe others use it.

My max last yr would be like 188bpm, 95% of that is 178bpm. This is my target number to hit on my solo rides AND how long can I hold it before I blow up and need to cut the speed drastically to recover. My cruising pace is roughly 80-85% where I can stay at for hours and be fine even w/ some hard digs. I never try to get below 140bpm unless its downhill or on warm up. My body reacts better to my digs when my HR is around 75-90%. Doing a jump from say 130bpm all the way up to 178 is very very taxing on my body and effort i can dish out. In order not to let my HR get that low, I don't really let up at the top of the hill or even going down I might pedal up to 45mph. If it flattens off then I increase my speed to 15-20 whatever mph, but my leg speed doesn't change, just the gearing and mph to hold that tempo. As you gain more fitness, you will spend more time in the 75-85% range for whatever time/miles you want

You can't ride faster without trying to ride faster

Mithrandir

My average hill speed? SLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW.

Don't worry about it. Just climb at a speed that feels comfortable. Some days you'll kick ass, some days you won't. As long as you're out of breath, you're getting a workout.

Kindaslow

I am with this guy.

i will only add that my only goal with hills is getting to the top, speed is not my concern!!!

79pmooney

To mount the heart rate and on your handlebar, cut 2" of pipe insulation and wrap it around your handlebar.

Watch your heart rate monitor to learn what heart rate you can sustain and what heart rate you blow up at. Observe your breathing at those heart rates. (And notice that the level of breathing with each heart rate changes as you tire.) The point of all this is to learn what your limits are and the signs of your body that you are approaching them. Then practice doing your hills a little below that limit. (Not every day or every ride. Your body needs recovery and it needs days when you just ride slow.)

Do this and you will see those times come down and your speed come up. But always observe yourself. The bigger the ride, the more important staying within your limits is. (Now, road racing in groups is a different animal. Road racing is all about going as hard as required when the time comes, holding nothing back. And 95% of the time, we don't get to pick when that hard time is; we just have to go. But do this work as I outlined and you will be building a good base you will need should you decide to do that sport of road racing.)

Ben

chasm54

It's absurd to ask how fast you should be going uphill, because it depends on the hill, your weight, how fit you are...

if you want to use a HRM you should figure out your lactate threshold heart rate (LTHR) and then work out your HR zones from there based on some of the resources @jsigone has linked to, or some other place like Joe Friel's blog. Your threshold is effectively the hardest you can work before going anaerobic, so obviously you can't climb for long above that level without being forced to back off. For illustrative purposes, my LTHR is 162 and I can climb for extended periods with my HR in the 150s. Your numbers will, obviously, be different.

Find your LTHR by warming up thoroughly, then switching on the HRM and going as hard as you can sustain for twenty minutes. Your average HR for that 20 minutes will be a decent approximations n of LTHR.

EDIT. Set HR zones like this.

JReade

Uphill speed.. well depends on the hill, and where it is in the ride. There's a 50 mile route here that does 1000 feet of climbing, but it's from miles 20-30 so you blow out on that part and you're limping home for 20 more miles... I have an 80 mile route that has 2000 feet of so, abut that's miles 40-60 or so. Sure those climbing numbers aren't too impressive, but if you're working too hard you can end up winded and with an empty tank with a lot of time left before you get home.

LGHT

Ok thanks all for the help. I did some research last night and found some SST (Sweet Spot Training) info that seems to be exactly what everyone is saying. Sadly my Garmin doesn't support any monitors HRM only syncs with my watch. I may get a monitor that works with my phone and record the ride on strava just to review the HR info after the fact.

Early on I would watch my HR often and found around 150 is what I can sustain for a long period of time and what I felt comfortable at when I rode for more than 1 hour. I breath hard, but I'm not out of breath. During a long ride with a group of other riders that set the pace at 20mph I was able to keep up with them for about 30 minutes before being dropped as we ended up going over a few med sized hills that sapped my energy at that pace. I noticed my HR was a lot higher than 175 so I guess my LTHR is 10 below that?? The odd part is when I crash and die and I'm forced to pull over and rest (happens often on hills) I look down and my HR seems to be 182-185. The highest I've seen it was 187. This is about when I start feeling nauseous and dizzy and learned to just pull over to avoid puking.

Looking at a SST chart it seems to be about right because it says I should be around 158-175.

The next time I ride I'm going to try and see if I can keep my HR around 158 the entire time to see how that feels.

ray.garza

Which Garmin do you have? Maybe you can switch from the wrist to a heart rate strap for your chest.

Black wallnut 

If every time you are on the bike it is a hammerfest it is more likely that it will become a chore and not fun. That would be burnout. Including a few easy rides just for the sake of riding usually keeps it fresh. If you only have time for riding once or twice a week going hard each ride should make you faster. I'm not sure it would prepare you for a GMR effort.

LGHT

I got an older model 605 that doesn't support monitors. I figured it was less than $100 and I already had a HRM watch so why bother spending more. I guess I didn't realize at the time I should have spent more and just got a 705 that allowed connections.

ray.garza

Hmm, ok. Do you have an iPhone? If you do you can get a ANT+ dongle for it and pair it up with you watch (assuming it is ANT+ compatible). If it uses Bluetooth even better. ... basically use your phone as the bike computer.

Wilfred Laurier

Did you make it up without stopping? Then you had the right speed. If you had to take multiple breaks, I would think you were going too fast.

LGHT

Good point. Sadly I can only sneak in an hour during the week after work. The only other time I can ride is once on either Sat-Sun for the time being. The odd part is I don't feel like I had fun or a good ride if I don't hammer it. I know it sounds weird and it may be because I'm still fairly new, but I actually enjoy riding hard and fast and being out of breath. Gives me a since of accomplishment I guess. I do slow down quit a bit on the longer weekend rides, but I still try and push myself especially for the last 10 miles when I want to "empty the tank" so to speak.

Considering my limitations I'm not sure how better to prepare for GMR. I do plan on doing repeats on the hill outside my door that gives me 600' of rolling incline over 5 miles going up. If I log the downhill trip I end up with about 950' of incline per trip up and back. I figure if I can do that at least twice with only 1 5 min break after going up and down that should help.

bigredkevbot

If you want a better work out, opt for going longer than faster. Hills can be solid, HI training workouts, but I always prefer being able to ride for a few hours, then power through a 1700 ft of climbing in a shorter period of time. Focus on going harder or longer. If you're working to beat a personal record, good for you. However, a more focused training program of either going hard or longer may prove to be a better workout and more enjoyable cyclign expereince.

LGHT

Actually I just got a work assigned iphone 6. I have logged the last few rides by just hitting record and putting it in my seat bag, but I don't ride with it mounted on my handle bars. I thought about it, but we have a "If you break it you buy it" damage policy and we paid full retail so I don't want to risk damaging it and having to buy a new one for $800!!! I thought about getting the wahoo RFLKT, but that's $100 and I would still need to by the HR strage for another $60. I can go an ebay and just get a garmin and a strap for the same amount and wouldn't have to worry about trying to get the phone to sync with the HRM & the RFLKT which a lot of people seem to have had problems with if the phone is in a seat bag.

ray.garza

I understand your hesitation on using the company issued iphone but take a look at the Quadlock Case for the iphone. That's what I use on my bike with no issues. Check them out at quadlockcase.com.

As far as the RFLKT, I've tried that before many, many times all with frustration. I gave up on it and got a Magellen 505 unit. That was last year, wahoo may have fixed the issues by now. It worked great while it worked but often it didn't. Check my blog on it (rgvcycling.com).

Just some ideas to ponder on.

jsigone

the hard part is trying to train for a 2hr climb without having a 2hr climb near by. Hill repeats are an option and will beat you up as well as play mind games on you. I'd suggest IF you try them, just stick it in the granny gear for any up hill portions of your local long climb and just get used to climbing that pace. Repeat as many times as you can in that granny gear or until you run outta ride time scheduled. Get used to climbing for 2-3 hours Add another gear change every 2 weeks. Use the downhill as your rest, try not to stop or rest along the climb. If you feel you have to, than slow down and listen to your body. If you can't slow down enough, than change your cassette.

1000ft per hour is a solid starting pace for the GMR stats except there will be no downhill coasting along the way

LGHT

Thanks for the tips. I read over and over about the problems with the RFLKT so not even willing to consider that as an option even if they fixed it. As for the case I looked into it and basically your paying $70 for the cool mount. I called them and asked if I went down with the phone mounted and the phone was damaged would they cover the damage. They said no way the case is not designed to "protect" the phone against drops or falls which sort of defeats the entire purpose. I read a few reviews where they said the case offers zero protection against the screen so if you go down and the phone gets damaged it's on you.

I rather just put that $$$ toward a older garmin and sell mine.