yugo campione

OK, I know all you guys in Colorado and other mountainous areas will laugh at this, but I'm in Ohio...it's pretty flat around here. I went out for hill(and I stress the word "hill") repeats this morning, I did a total of @2,100 climbing feet on a 7% grade hill which is only about 2/10ths of a mile long, I did 6 of those along with about 14-15 other slightly less grade but similar climbs as well. I did a total of 37 miles, of which I had about 45 minutes of very easy fat burning spinning after the hills, all this and I averaged just over 15mph. I know, it's not much, but it's all I got around here and I have nothing to gauge it against. Is this a worth while hill workout, or do I need to figure out another way? Your thoughts? BTW, for reference I was using my new Garmin 305 Edge from Geoman and couldnt' be happier, also, my heartrate during the hillclimbs averaged about 90-92% of my max.

yugo campione

Oh yeah, I almost forgot, I'm 42 years old.

FlashBazbo

I think 2,000 feet in 37 miles is pretty good. I live in very hilly country and that's fairly comparable to my usual workout. Fortunately, I don't have to do repeats to get there. The hills around here are generally between 6% and 11%, with a few 15% thrown in. I would find it pretty frustrating to have to do repeats. I admire your tenacity.

GuitarWizard

7% for 1 mile would be much better....but not bad.

powpow

It's all relative and depends on geography. Here in Berkeley, CA, I consider 100 vertical feet per mile (or higher) a good climbing day. That said, there are basically no flats here and you have no choice but to climb and climb some more.

8Lives

+1 to this - we just did an easy recovery ride on the flatest route we could ride from the house. 18 miles and 1334 feet of climbing, about 75 feet per mile. I looked at last week and the week before - 200 miles and 18,000 feet. There just aren't many flat spots without putting the bike in the car. Which seems pointless since we have all these nice hills.

ericgu

What are you trying to achieve?

roadrider63

Hey yugo. I'm from Ohio also. W. Central and its really flat around here. I've been riding 6wks to a mth and it doesn't take much of a hill for me yet. There is some rolling stuff in Indiana where I take off to sometimes. Where abouts are you from. I'm hoping next year when I'm in better shape and hopefully have a better bike to head down towards the Hocking Hills area to do some riding. I'm sure those hills would be challenging for me.

yugo campione

I am looking to acheive nothing other than general fitness and maybe about 10 more lbs of weight loss, I've lost 15 so far this year. I'm just doing it for fun. Roadrider, i am from Westerville, keep it up, you'll be suprised how quickly the days turn to weeks and the weeks to months then, "all of a sudden" you're in shape. I've been giving some thought to heading down to Hocking Hills as well.

Grasschopper

Eh I did 28 miles this mornign with 2280' of climbing...felt like a good bit of climbing to me.

Dubbayoo

If it gets you tired its a respectable workout.

gcasillo

I've got a 34-mile loop that gives me 2100' of climbing. Initially, I didn't care for the route as I'm a fat flatlandlubber. But it's steadily growing on me. I think I'd be bored stiff with a pancake flat ride now even though I wish I had such a route for easy days.

edbikebabe

Use what you've got.

yugo campione

Anyone feel that sprints or intervals can be used as a replacement for hills rather than a supplement? Or is there no substitute for hammerin' uphill?

FlashBazbo

No substitute, IMO. You use different muscles on an incline than you do on flats -- even into the wind.

SesameCrunch

So true! As long as you're pushing yourself, then it's a good workout. For some, your hill workout is impossible. For others who are in great shape, your hill is a warm up. It all depends on one's conditioning. But as long as you're getting your heart rate up there for some sustained period, it's all good.

If you're looking for specifics of an interval training program, there have been a lot of threads discussing exactly what to do. Just do a search on these forums and you'll get plenty of ideas.

gcl8a

If your goal is to improve your performance in the mountains (ie, on looooong climbs), obviously, hill climbing is best. But your hills are pretty small, so you can't get a good tempo workout on them (eg, ten-twenty minutes at a time). My suggestion is to sit up and turn into the wind. Not perfect, but better than nothing.

If your goal is to get better at climbing short hills so you can hang with the local club, then you've got a decent workout.

If you goal is general fitness and weight loss, it doesn't really matter. Just -- <cough> -- ride.

waterrockets 

Yes, they are great training for climbing, and probably better than climbing itself because of the overall fitness gains. I know a few guys in Houston who climb strong in Austin just from intervals.

You don't get to work on your climbing form though, which has an impact, so that sucks.

On the 2000' question, I think that's plenty of elevation to get a good workout. My six hill repeats come out to about 1800' in 6 miles (including descents), and that about kills me.

colorado dale

There are some reasonably hilly rides coming up in your area to see how your training is going
Sept 1 Cincxinnati Cycle Club's BCBCBCBC https://www.cincinnaticycleclub.org/

and Sept 8-9 Old Ky Home Tour (Louisville y'all) www.okht.org

Rutnick

only if it is in the first 3 miles.

Pinyon

You can get the same aerobic conditioning from longer intervals, riding against a big head-wind, time-trail type riding (as hard as you can for 1 hour solid - like the entire hour), etc., but I agree that there is no real substitute for riding hills. If you don't have that many hills to practice on, I would just increase my ftiness level and speed as much as I could, if I were you. Practice hills when and where you can, and try keeping your cadence in a similar zone as you train at when you ride hills.

pathdoc

Correct me because I must be wrong. How can a loop have 2100ft of climbs? Seems when you've returned to the starting point you climbed 0ft for the day.

gcl8a

2100 up. 2100 down. Net elevation change is zero. But you still climbed 2100.

stapfam

On holiday I did 21kms at average of 7.5% climb. The 12% felt hard and at the 3.5%- I thought I was going downhill. Total climb was about 5,000ft. It was a Mountain in France and although not hard- I would not say it was that easy either.

The training for it was harder in that although I live in a hilly area- No climb is longer than 1 mile so I had to do repeats on a 1 mile long 15% grade. 5 repeats on that and I had enough climbing for the day. Better were the rides over about 25 miles taking in 5 different climbs to around 600ft with differing grades.

If you don't live in a mountainous area- you have to take the climbs as you can get them- But as you live in the flatlands- Watch out for those hills- They get addictive.

Plow13

i just did 6000 ft in 47 miles here in pittsburgh =)