Originally Posted by
Obct
I've recently got into road cycling and I'm not particularly strong yet but I absolutely love climbing.
However, I'm very short and thin (5'7" and 130 pounds) and on climbs that average 9%, my cadence is about 60 (at threshold) whilst my usual cadence is about 100-105. After 3km, my legs are completely cooked.
I'm running a 54-39 (or 53?) and 11-28 at the back.
I'm tossing up if I should be getting a compact chainring or semi compact, or if I just need to train harder and stop being a sook.
I'm aiming to do some climbs that have 1km+ of 20% but at least 50% of my training is on flat.
Any suggestions on what I should change to?
Well, a 9% average grade hill is steep.
At your 39-28 low gear, 60 rpm, that's 6.5 mph.
VAM is vertical meters per hour. (Very steep hills tend to bump up the VAM score, since riders are limited how slow they can go.)
your
9%*5280 feet per mile * 6.5 miles in an hour, converted to meters =
940 VAM
That's a very hard effort, and pretty impressive. Can you dial back the power on each pedal stroke a little, and go longer? Lightweight riders supposedly can climb standing up more efficiently than heavy riders.
On the other hand, a long 20% grade can use all the lowest gears you got. I used to climb a local 120 foot high, 16-18% grade at 3 mph, 30 rpm, with a 34-27. I could do that effort for that distance without blowing up.
VAM Effort (According to me)
400 Easy climbing
550 Pacing up the long climb
750 Working hard, shorter climbs
1000 All out
1200 Race climbers
1500 Pro level