Originally Posted by
vasuvius
"Kid" : Some kind person keeps referring to the 'kid'. I'm 44 and most of the people I ride with are in their 40s and 50s. The only difference is they have been riding for many moons and I'm just a rookie.
"Fit" : Bike fit is something that has been constantly evolving for me as my strength, technique and ability improves. Every few weeks I tinker around with the seat position and am now working on lowering the handlebar in small steps. Some of this tinkering is based on advice from the people I ride with who notice little things and from my body responses to the changes I make. I even maintain a log of changes I make.
Climbing : To get faster on climbs I need to get into higher gears, but my legs get tired and so I drop into a lower gear and start spinning with a high cadence and then I can't get enough speed. Climbing hills that are more that 1/2 mile result in alternation of low gear spin and high gear off the saddle pedaling.
You list good things, supportive group, good attitude, etc.
Kid: You're still at a good age. Based on the riders I've seen start "later in life" it seems like it's in the mid 50s that you really start to lose speed etc. At about the peak of my strength I was soundly beaten by a (very experienced and savvy) 52 year old in a sprint where we hit 50 mph on a slight downhill going into the sprint. I was 43 when I finally got to upgrade to Cat 2; I'd had probably my second best year ever, and only because the rules have changed a bit from, say, 20 years prior, could I get my upgrade.
Fit: Some details on what I did in the rider's post
here. Super quick synopsis: bar-saddle drop increased by 3.2 cm, saddle moved forward 1 cm, stem lengthened 2 cm (so effective reach increased only 1 cm). Rider in question had been racing for 2 seasons and change. He made all those changes, at my suggestion/recommendation, at one time, and committed to it.
Climbing: Your heart rate is tied to your cadence. If you increase your cadence dramatically when already at the limit you can blow yourself up without increasing power output. Instead you should focus on increasing rpm slowly. A good example of this "blowing up" is at the top of hills. You are climbing for a bit "at your limit" and you blow up just as you crest. Perfect timing? Probably not. You could have gone further if you needed to and you probably would have blown up if the hill had crested 50 meters earlier. What causes this? As you crest a hill you speed up because the grade eases. Most riders keep it in the same gear and accelerate, perhaps shifting one or two gears. Your cadence may increase by as much as 10-20 rpm. Instead of doing that you can shift into higher gears to keep your rpm within about a 4-5 rpm range. Instead of increasing your cadence by 20 rpm you'd shift 4 or 5 gears.
There will be a slight penalty - you'll be in a huge gear going 80 rpm, pedaling like you were while you were climbing. This means you can't respond to a significant surge. However if you're not blowing up and you can gradually increase cadence/speed from there then you'll be okay if someone launches an especially hard move in 15 or 20 seconds.
To work on climbing power you need to have a low position. You lean forward when you climb - that should be a position you ride in often; if that's the case you'll be increasing your fitness/strength for the muscles called into play in that position. This is part of that fit thing that I harp about in that other post. You can also do specific riding techniques, like rolling for 10 minutes in a 53x12 at 60 rpm, stuff like that.
Good luck and keep us posted on how things go.