Advice on hills?
 

A little background on me: I commute to work about 10 miles one way. I ride a Marin rode bike, clipped in. I put on, other than the commute, 30 - 50 miles a week. I try to vary my rides in intensity but most courses are similar.

On the days when I hit it hard I come to a few long climbs and find that I am getting completely gassed just prior to the top. I tend to slow down and recover on the down side, but can't escape the feeling of thinking I should be stronger going up.

Any thoughts on hills and attacking them? I know this is a broad question, but thanks for the input.

Keep riding them, you'll get stronger. If your are pretty much blown before you get to the top, I'd suggest climbing in one gear lower than you are currently using. RPMs are more valuable to most people than brute force when climbing, and it's better for your knees anyway.

I have found that most people severely underestimate how difficult hills can be. The usual frame of reference is in a car or something, where the perceived effort going uphill does not vary much from the flats. Whereas when you're on the bike, the perceived effort going uphill is many, many times more than on the flats.

Fact is, hills are hard -- a lot harder than flats. It's normal to be "gassed" near the top and need to back off, especially if you are not doing any specific training to improve your hill climbing ability.

If you want to get better at hills, one thing you can try is intervals, where you go for X seconds as hard as you can, then recover for Y seconds; repeat. Start with X of 30 and Y of 90, then increase X and decrease Y over the course of several weeks/months. You *will* improve. But it takes time and some dedication to a program. Riding the same old course at the same old intensity all the time will maintain, but probably not improve your fitness.

+1. You should have the uncomfortable feeling at the base third of the climb that it's too easy. Spinning easily up the majority of the climb means you'll have power to spare at the top and can 'roll over' the summit more quickly.

I usually jam pretty hard for the first 20 yards of a climb. Then I settle down, shift into an easier gear and spin my way to the top.

Not sure if this is the advisable method of climbing, but it works for me.

I like hills more than flats. Flatlands are too boring. When I approach a hill I drop down my gearing to speed up my legs and then once I hit the "right" pace I up my gearing almost to what I was doing beforehand (unless I was in a very high gear, of course.) This doesn't make the climb easy but for whatever reason it keeps me driven up to the top. I usually gain a couple mph and keep increasing from the first 30 feet+/- till I crest
Up the gearing before the crest and then I kick it downhill cause I'm all pumped from tackling the hill and deserve a reward. I think it's all about attitude.

"Kick it" doesnt mean I relax ..I pedal hard downhill.

I monitor (without gadgets) three things. My RPMs, my lungs and my legs. My goal at the very beginning is to keep the speed up until the legs start (only start) to feel a bit anorobic - then I start shifting down to maintain my RPM (90+), I will cheerfully keep shifting down as far as it takes, I watch my breathing to make sure my lungs are keeping up with the demands of my legs - if not, I shift down again. Then, as I start hitting the crest, and my breathing slows, I start shifting up again.

The goal - my legs are never blown, and my breathing stays pretty constent. I don't rest on the crest at all - but just keep going. I sort of have to since all Costa Rica is around us is one hill after another.

Making sure that I am spinning with clipless pedals is a big help as well, in fact, sometimes, near the top, I will start focusing on pulling up more - at times, it is all I really need.