Originally Posted by bernmart
I've been riding "seriously" for a little more than 6 months after a layoff of many, many years. I ride 4-5 times a week, including an "easy" club ride every Sunday morning with a great club group. I've avoided most of their more serious rides because of serious hill climbs. I really, really suck on hills. In the last couple of months, though, I've noticed quite a bit of improvement, both in my endurance and leg strength, so I thought I'd give this am's serious ride a try.
A sobering experience. Even on the flats, the group's pace was so much faster than mine that I was puffing to keep up. By the time we got to the first hill of more than 1/4 mile length, I knew that I'd be stopping to catch my breath so often--assuming I didn't completely bonk--that it'd hold the group back, or I'd get dropped.
So I bailed. Back home I'm trying to retain some pride in the real progress I've made, and come up with some plans for pace and hill training that'll widen the range of my cycling. Any advice or reality therapy is welcome!
Bernie
Bernie,
Climbing is close to time-trialing...high heart-rate for an extended time. How much do you want to improve? If you really want to climb like a goat it's going to involve some exertion on your part, doing interval training and hill repeats along with your usual riding is a good idea. There are a few tricks you can use on a climb, I personally get to the front on the start of the hill instead of the back also relax your upper body as much as possible. Mind over matter to a certain extent
