EURO

ovoleg

Thanks Euro, I'll try to diet this week and give it some good training over the next few months.

ovoleg

Not sure about the terminology, *shrug*

ovoleg

yep, bring it

Anyone pushing and elbowing is a jerk...If you push and shove, good for you, but I am not riding next to you and I will consider you a jerk for pushing me for no reason(except to "win" )
:Edited for language:

ovoleg

Shall do, thnx

ovoleg

lol This seems like a good solution!!

Sign me up

terrymorse 

Okay, I'll try to address what I know from what you've told us.

1. Leg burn on climbs.

Whenever you feel the burn in your quads, that means you've gone anaerobic and lactic acid is building up in your muscles. Since you say that you legs give out before your heart/lungs, the "muscle" part of your aerobic system isn't as developed as your cardio part. I am guessing that you haven't been riding that long, since muscle development is slower than cardio. Cappilaries need to form to get oxygen to your muscles, mitochondria needs to form within the fibers to fuel the chemical process, and fast twitch muscle fibers need to change over to more aerobic versions. This all takes time--many months of riding. If you keep at it, the burn will go away.

Until you've built up your leg capability, you can help prevent muscles from going anaerobic by spinning a lower gear on the climbs. When your legs are called upon to push hard, your body recruits the fast twitch fibers which create the lactic acid. If you increase cadence, you prevent those fast twitch fibers from firing, and you reduce the production of lactic acid.

Another cause of leg burn on a climb is not being warmed up enough. It can take me a good 15 to 20 minutes of climbing before my legs start to feel decent. Prior to a hard climb, you need to already be firing on all cyclinders. For example, I did a climb yesterday where I had been noodling along with friends up to the base. The best I could manage was 3700 ft/hr, and my legs felt labored. Last year, when I did the same climb in the middle of a time trial, I spun up at 4200 ft/hr and my legs felt great.

2. Climbing out of the saddle?

Well, climbing drills out of the saddle probably won't make you faster (no more so than any other type of climbing). But they will make climbing easier. Everyone stands when climbing some of the time, to get over a steep bit or simply to give your body a rest. If you do climbing drills, you'll be more comfortable with standing when it comes time to do it. So do climbing drills, do seated drills, do big gear seated climbing drills. Do it all. But mostly, do it a lot.

To really see improvement in your climbing, use the following helpful form...

Number of vertical feet you climb per week: ______________

Multiply the number above by 2: ______________

Now do that much per week. Yes, it's that simple.

jschen

Funny, but true!

terrymorse 

OT, but that's one of the main reasons why I gave up racing. Too many grumpy people.

And taking up too much time, and too many people taking stupid risks, and I don't heal as quickly as I used to, and my wife didn't like it, etc.

SDRider

Wow, that was a useful post...

It's funny, I was riding down to Torrey Pines a few weeks ago and as we were going through Del Mar I passed this skinny little guy on the flats because he was going at a slower pace than I was. Apparently he didn't like that because all of a sudden he sprints past me and slows down again. I'm thinking what's this guy's deal but just hung back for a while and paced with him. I passed him again a little while later and left him behind but as soon as we hit the hills I knew he'd be passing me again and sure enough he did. I'm not a great climber but I am working on losing a few lbs and I am getting better at it. It's not something that happens overnight that's for sure.

ovoleg

Thanks Terry! Anyone know where I can find online elevation levels for my area or should I basically do the same long hill twice the next week and then keep doubling?

Thanks, good advice

patentcad

Nothing is quite as silly as the never ending weenie attempt to analyze and rationalize climbing mojo.

Like penis and breast enlargement supplements.

Here's the REAL advice: lose weight, ride lots of hills, develop a smooth spin - and by all means don't WORRY so much about this. If you work at it and lose a few lbs. you WILL improve. It takes time.

95% of us sucked at climbing at one time or another. Trust me on that. For every Marco Pantani there are 101 guys thrasing on climbs like fish on a dock. Just like you feel today. But you can get past that stage if you work on it. Keep at it. And try to learn to love climbing (if possible. That helps.

TheKillerPenguin

lol, the longest climbs around here take 15-20 minutes.

/back to your regularly scheduled topic

bccycleguy

Triples are great in the mountains, and a 30-27 combination will get you up almost anything on a light road bike. But if I didn't live in a mountainous area I would go for a compact double.

You'd be suprised how much better you'll climb if you lose 10lbs. and the fitness gained losing it will pay dividends all year.

patentcad

Right. In Orange/Rockland (we're not far from New Platz) it's the 4 mile long climb from 9W/Hudson River to the top of Bear Mtn. About 1200 vertical foot gain for an average grade of 6% or so.

big john

On keeping up,most of those guys have done doubles, some of them many fast doubles, and all have a lot of experience. Give yourself some time, man. You aren't a little guy, either. I noticed you dropped my old butt on the climbs.

ovoleg

Hey John!
I've been putting some good effort over the past few months to get into better shape so I don't get dropped on the long rides. I went out on one that was around ~60 miles and I got dropped hard when we started going back through Coldwater(I think this was the street, It had a point where I was grinding the granny at 50rpms ~4-6mph). Ever since then, I've been riding lots of hills and trying to improve my fitness level so I don't get dropped as bad. All of the guys there are in good shape so I know that I have some work to do...

Hey, I can at least try...and if I fail--I'll know that I tried

Equinox

There is this short but very steep hill near where I live. It is called Fish Hill Road. I blew up the first time I tried it with my club and I had to walk it up. I was very disappointed. The hill intimidated me. It is so steep that I can feel my front wheel lifting up off the ground. When I leaned forward to put the wheel down, the back wheel lost traction and spun. I really became obsessed with beating Fish Hill. I tried it by myself once and I made it up suprisingly easily. I tried it again and it was harder. I stood up when I got to the really steep part, and I got a little unsteady. Because of the overlap, my shoe hit the front wheel and I went down. Would you agree that on a hill this steep, it is probably best to sit and spin?

bebopkeyz

I MTB a lot and when I'm on the road climbing, I always sit. If it's a real steep hill, I lean forward and slid my ass to the front of the saddle and spin away.

Spinster

For other folks lurking here and just getting into cycling, I want to second this comment about triples. I just started seriously biking in several months ago and did some commuting before that. In December I started in on some modest climbs. By the middle of this month I was doing more intense climbs of about 5 miles at 7% or so.

I'm 6'3'' and just over 180lbs, so I have a load to haul up. It quickly became apparent that I needed my triple. In fact, I noticed that I often catch folks struggling on their doubles who had previously passed me in the flats. Spinning at 8mph may not sound cool, but you'd be surprised how much it makes a difference over a significant distance. I hope folks out there aren't in a rush to ditch their triples. You never know when it'll help you out.

That said, I'm working at moving to the second ring, but will need to increase power and drop weight.

gapowermike

O.K., I'll say it. It's lose not loose.

60cycle

it's been said here before, but i will not hesitate to say it again:



climb. you live in so-cal. there's plenty of leg/lung breaking grades around here to properly punish yourself on.

bigbossman 

I've said it a million times - I've NEVER EVER regretted buying a triple. I don't use it a lot, but when I need it, I have it. And it is a make or break difference....

jschen

^^^And I'll reiterate the point some more. I use my triple on every non-commuting ride. If I don't need a triple, then the hill isn't steep enough. ovoleg, you have a triple. Use it. Experiment with different ways of climbing until you figure out what's right for you. If you eventually don't need a triple, great. If you spin and prefer low gearing, that's great too. Don't paint yourself into a corner by insisting on a large gear and a low cadence. That may or may not be you.

roadfix

Now that I think about it, if I had a triple, I would have been the first one up Palomar on Saturday!..