Originally Posted by
jim p
If I ever get to the point that I can spin up a hill then I will consider going to a bigger gear. I have a 28 front and a 32 back gear and a 5% 1/2 mile long hill that I do hill repeats on. I have been doing this for about 6 months and still don't maintain 80 rpm when I hit the short 15 degree grades on this hill. I have riden up in higher gears but I am not sure what would be best as far as climbing better. I have been doing nothing but these hill repeats for the last 6 months so maybe in another 6 months I will get a lot better.
It must be nice to be strong and fast.
From your post, if you are doing the same ride everyday it's time to switch up the drills. When the body is subjected to the same stresses every day it adapts to the workload and becomes efficient and does not improve. You may want to try the big ring climb, alternate standing/seated intervals, do repeats at HR zone 5, ride up 1/2 way easy then blast up the 2nd 1/2, etc... After a month of so of mixing it up go back to your regular hill ride and see if you can't ride up in a gear or two bigger while keeping your cadence at 80+