Originally Posted by
beginnerbiker1
So I just started biking this month and I realized that I suck at going up hills.
What's a good way to get better? Do you bike and also work out legs at the gym? This is also my first time with clipless so I tend to mash downwards with one leg at a time and don't have a good smooth circular pedaling motion yet with going down with one while pulling up with the other...
When should you get your butt off the seat? If I get to a steep hill with little momentum, I expend all my energy getting to the top and just have almost nothing left after I get over. Does it just come slowly over time?
Practise, practise, practise. That means climbing hills.
I too tend to err on the side of mashing the pedals and trying to get up hills using anaerobic brute force. It works for small hills but if I'm not careful I get part way up a hill and run out of power. Alternatively sometimes because my legs tire quickly I think I need a lower gear and change down, when in fact I need a higher gear to make the most of the power I am putting down.
For me it's usually a mental effort to keep reminding myself, "spin, don't mash" and to keep the pedals turning at a steady pace, even if that's a slow pace.