Originally Posted by
VicDewey
I have an old steel Bianchi Alfana with Campi Avanti components. it is set up with a 30/40/50 Triple crankset and a 13-26, 8 cog set. I live in Colorado and do a fair amount of climbing and can hang and hammer with all my carbon fiber friends, however when we climb, I get dropped like a rock above 4-5% grades. I was looking for some recommendations on changing the rear cog set to aid in climbing. Thanks!
BTW - I know I need a new bike and I planing getting one this winter, but I am looking for a short term fix.
Per Joe Friel:
"Aerobic capacity is literally at the heart of success in endurance sport. Improvements in aerobic capacity have largely to do with how much blood (which contains oxygen) the heart pumps out to the working muscles with every beat. This is called “stroke volume” and has a lot to do with how much aerobic capacity you have. A purpose of training is to improve your stroke volume. There are basically two ways to do this. The first is to focus on the volume of your training. The heart responds to lots of time spent at higher-than-resting intensity (above about 50 percent of VO2 max) by becoming more efficient and effective which ultimately means pumping more blood per beat.
The other way to improve aerobic capacity is by doing high-intensity intervals, especially those done at about the power or pace associated with your VO2 max. At that intensity your heart rate is approaching maximum, so these are very hard efforts. This method will produce a higher stroke volume sooner than by relying only on volume. Most experienced athletes employ both strategies."
http://www.trainingbible.com/joesblo...-capacity.html
So, it's kinda just riding up hills harder. No bike can give you that...