Originally Posted by
rms13
That's what I'm working on! The funny thing is that I live in an area with a lot of hills and mountains. Since I've gotten into road cycling I have been riding up a lot of grades slowly followed by long 40 mph descents coasting my way down. My average "long" ride was in the 30-40 mile range on weekends and I've quickly found that 10 miles on the trainer is killing me because I have to keep pedaling. Now I feel like all of the road riding I've done in the past was completely inefficient as far as actual training goes
Good observation. If you are going for a joy ride, that's one thing. To get better at climbing, doing outdoor climbs, climbing repeats are awesome. Do some at a slower cadence, others at a higher cadence. That builds strength and the high cadence repeats teach your type II and IIa muscles how to adapt. High cadence is a learned skill. Armstrong worked with Indurain for a long time to learn how to ride an easier gear at 110+ rpms.
Sprint work running-wise also helps tremendously.
Enjoy. Ride with a plan and purpose to learn how to do different things.
My trainer has a power band strictly to simulate climbing. In the same gear and cadence as the easiest one I go about 10mph slower. Two front wheel blocks tips the bike up to engage lower back more and works core.
Have fun