Hill training when there aren't any?
 

I live in the flats, it's 20 miles to the hills and these are just hills not mountains. For the last three weeks I've driven to the hills on Sunday and ridden there. It's about 52 miles with 2000' of climbing. I can feel the difference, I'm noticeably stronger. Problem is I just can't do this every week but I don't want to lose the fitness either.

I commute by bike, just 6 miles one way, and do a 50 mile group ride on Saturday's. I don't have any more time for riding but I can do exercises at home at night. Is there anything I can do at home to get/keep that hill climbing fitness?

Thanks!

Do you have overpasses in your area?

I used to live in Winnipeg ... flat as a pancake. The nearest hills were a long way off. But I had 3 overpasses in a row on the highway near where I lived, so I'd cycle back and forth, up and over and around those overpasses once or twice a week. I'd ride them as fast as I could, in fairly challenging gears.

Not ideal, of course, but better than nothing.

I've also heard that if you raise the front of your trainer you train the hill climbing muscles more, but I'm not sure if that's true or not. However, if you are stuck at home, you might consider doing things like commercial intervals for 30+ minutes ... watch your favourite TV show, ride comfortably while the show is on, ride as hard as you can when the commercial is on. And you might try raising the front of the trainer a bit.

You can raise the front wheel and put it in a big gear to simulate the effort. 2x20' intervals to help boost your FTP.

53/12,13,14 standing for a half to a mile at a time works for me. If I want to work harder I add some brake pressure. For sit-n-spin practice I drop to 39 and work the gears while braking lightly.

115 miles last Saturday almost pancake flat and did the above.

There's a wide bridge over a navigable waterway 5 miles from my office. I rode down there at lunch and did 6 trips over the bridge. Got in 300' of climbing, not much but way better than nothing. I stood up a few trips and spun the remaining.

Thanks for all the creative ideas!

Intervals will make you faster and stronger, but wont train you for hill climbing.

If you need to prepare for actual hills, try what I did:

Take a vacation in Santa Barbara, California.
Rent a heavy steel bike.
Do the local cat 2, cat 1 and HC climbs. Repeat.

6100 feet climbing in 38 miles
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