Originally Posted by
jppe
It's very simple if you have both cadence and HR monitors. Find a gear you can spin 80 rpm+/- and keep your heart rate no more than 80% of max. You should be able to tackle most climbs and not bother your knees.
On steeper stuff my cadence will drop lower than 80 rpm-and it can certainly create some pain the knees if there are long hard climbs.
+1 I would add that I use instantaneous % grade and speed from my Garmin 705 as a pseudo power meter. The 705 has an altimeter so elevation changes are reasonably accurate. I climb a 6% grade at ~10 mph, 75 to 80 rpm. Of course, if it is windy, this must be biased up or down. I know that I can hold that speed for 1/2 hour. For my weight, 7% is ~9 mph and 5% ~11 mph. As the grade increases, it is not linear e.g. 8% is ~7.5 mph. And of course, these speed/grade combination can vary.
The other metric I know is my 3 to 5 minute climbing power. If I have to climb for a couple of minutes, I can greatly exceed the above numbers and know that I will recover fast.
If I am on an unfamiliar climb, I rely on the above simple metrics to guide my climbing pace.
