ark40

I have recently started riding a road bike, after having played tennis on a regular basis for several years. One of the things I struggle with is going uphill. The group of guys I ride with have been riding for years, but they are accomodating enough to slow down to keep me with the pack. I ride with them on what is considered a slow day, about 16-17 mph average in a semi-hilly terrain for about 22-24 miles. I can usually stay with them on flats, but as soon as we hit an incline I start falling back. My endurance is ok but I feel my leg strength is quite low.
So how does one improve strength in the bike world. So far my usual approach has been to ride with the group on slow days and on fast days (24-26mph avg.) I branch off and do a shorter 10 mile route which has a lot of ups and downs. I am riding about 4-5 times a week and got started about a month ago.

jeffremer

I'm not the best climber either, but I have seen significant improvements in my climbing ability lately. The trick: do more climbing. It's as simple as that, if you want go faster up hills then you've got to spend more time going up hills. You can do things like weight training as well (squats and lunges are good), but I try to spend at least a few hours if now 4 or 5 hours a week in the hills. The one thing I've found that helped my climbing a bit was improved hip flexor and core strength. They might not directly contribute to getting you up the hill faster but it'll make you feel a little stronger when you are hurting the most. Having stronger abs, lower back, and hip flexors will help you keep your form when climbing and you'll lose less energy.

derath

Climb, Climb, Climb.

-D

vantassell

I can second the climb more hills advice. Really, just do really steep climbs (even if you end up in your lowest gear the whole way, just get up it). Also, try climbing out of the saddle a little. I used to always stay seated and stay in form for climbs, but lately i've tried pushing a really high gear (i usually shift up about 3 or so before i stand up). I usually end up with a cadence of about 30-40, go with a slow enough cadence that you can kind of rest your legs (just for an instance) with each rotation. I'm not really a pro climber or anything though, so keep in mind that's just my opinion/approach to climbing

ed073

train more and you'll improve

ark40

so basically what everyone is saying is include more climbs in my regimen. Fortunately in my town, Little Rock (Arkansas) there are plenty of hills to climb. How about I ride once a week with my lunch group, about 2-3 times a week of climbing hills (9-10 miles) and on the weekend a casual ride.

austropithicus

Do you stand or sit when you climb? A good way build up your bottom half is by standing out of the saddle while climbing. Sometimes sitting while climbing can be very hard on one's knees. It's probably best to alternate.

jeffremer

+1 on spending some out of the saddle. Really you should be aiming to keep that butt glued to the saddle, but I find that I get some benefit if I do a few sets of 30 seconds in the saddle and then 30 seconds out of the saddle by jumpstarting and trying to keep at the same cadence (higher the better, even if you need to drop the gear). This seems to help work my calves and my hamstrings more and get the lactate out of my quads.

johnny99

Most people can climb noticeably faster standing vs. sitting. If you're trying to keep up with a 25mph group, you're probably going to be standing most of the time on shorter hills. On longer hills, you need to experiment with standing some of the time. Standing all the way on a long hill is very difficult.

Climbing fast is half technique and half fitness. If you are constantly getting dropped by your friends, you probably lack both.

cyclezen

thats great, keep it up. 4-5 times a week is a good start and worth keepng up. Just figure to see some real difference in your performance about this time next year.
Really
Cycling is a long term proposition. Being off the bike for just a month or two, after consistently riding for years, a rider will notice marked reduction in performance. The idea of someone coming to cycling after being off of it for years or never really into it, means 'loooong term'. Be patient. It'll take quite a few months just to get your muscles to become a bit more efficient, not even considering power. You listen to Paul and Phil talkin about riders in the Pro Peleton who they call 'young' and need more seasoning at 25. Well those same riders have been really hard at it since 14-15 yrs old.
If you're 19-20, you can expect some reasonable improvements in just a few months. Older? Be patient.
there really is nothing like 'climbing' to help your climbing. do more climbing
and don't neglect the flats cause forgoing 'speed' work will just make you a better slow climber and rider.

oilman_15106

You have only been riding for several months. Cycling is a sport where improvments are built up over time and sometimes are hard to notice. Stick with it, climb as many hills as your time will allow and you will improve. Good luck and don't get discouraged. After a 14 year layoff from cycling, it has taken me 2 years to stay with the group. My goal this year is to finish with them on a 60 mile ride.

FrankBattle 

+1 with everyone so far on climbing being the only sure way to get better at climbing. I wonder about this bit about your friends dropping you, perhaps you should get new friends?

FIVE ONE SIX

find a hilly route, say about 20-25 miles long, and ride it 3 or 4 times a week. on the route, pick certian hills, and make it a priority to stay above a certian speed while going up those hills. as you progress, increase that speed, until you're going up those same hills at noticably faster pace than you were before. before you know it, you will hitting speeds you never thought you were capable of...

as far as technique goes, what works for me may not work for you, but that doesn't mean that you shouldn't watch what other people do and learn from it...

waterrockets 

Start doing a sprint workout every week. 100% explosive sprints. Try to go as fast as you can, then go faster. They're about 15s. Full recovery between them. This will build leg strength, which is capacity on the climbs.

Intervals will help a lot too. 1-minute intervals, covering as much real estate as possible -- go so hard your hair hurts, with a full recovery (3-4 minutes of easy spinning). On a different day, do some 3-5 minute intervals, with not so much recovery between them. Hill repeats are great for this if you have a suitable hill. This will build your fuel delivery system for your sprint-trained legs.

Next, learn how to ride hills. I'm assuming we're talking about hills, not mountains.

Go into the bottom conservatively. You want to carry your speed if possible, but don't go hard just to have speed at the bottom. When you start the hill, look up and pick out 2 landmarks about 1/3 up and 2/3 up (fire hydrant, tree shadow, tar-crack repair, storm drain, etc.). Ride at what feels like a slightly easy pace to the first landmark.

When you get to the 1st landmark, pick it up to an effort that you feel you could ride for a while, but still kind of easy. As you go through this stage you'll gradually feel more and more challenged without actually increasing effort. That's why it's important to go conservative at the bottom.

When you hit the 2nd landmark, pick up to a pace that you can hold to the top, but make it tough. When you get to the top, keep this effort up until you get back to a cruising speed. It's demoralizing to recover at 8 mph on a flat or descent. Much better to keep the effort up and get back to your 17mph average, then recover there.

This technique will help you get up the hills quickly and conserve your energy for the rest of the ride. If you're in a race or a fast group you want to stay with, it's a different story... you have to put out on the hills to hang with them. It depends on what kind of group you're riding with.

Bob Ross

I've had two different cyclists suggest the following hill repeat regimen. I haven't actually tried it myself -- I somehow seem to be an almost freakishly gifted climber, so I rarely train for hills specifically -- but I'll pass it on.

- With the chain on the small chainring, ride up the hill in your largest cog at a comfortable cadence
- Turn around & descend
- Ride up again in your 2nd-largest cog, trying to maintain the same cadence as before
- Turn around & descend
- Ride up again in your 3rd-largest cog, trying to maintain the same cadence as before
- etc. etc. Continue until you've climbed the hill in your smallest (or 2nd-smallest; no point having a bad chainline) cog, and only then do your recovery.

After a 5 minute recovery
- repeat as above, only in reverse order (start in the smallest cog, and downshift for each successive climb)

Or
- repeat as above, only in the large chainring

Or

Do both

Super Guanche

Lot of climbing! How long are the hills they're doing this drill on?

8Lives

+1000 on more climbing. After a 17 year layoff, I am back on the bike. I live in Berkeley, on Grizzly Peak Blvd, so every route is climbing. My typical ride is now 25-30 miles with 2,000 to 3,000 feet of total climbing. I can't believe how fast it has helped my legs come back. After two months I am up to about 100 miles a week. I rode down on the flats for a recovery ride Sunday - man, it is a lot easier to rack up miles when you are just spinning along in the big chainring!

That said, when I used to race I was a climber - so my mindset says "I love hills, bring them on!". Having a positive attitude really helps.

Aaron

Phantoj

Besides improving your hill-climb power, losing weight is highly effective. If you drop from 200 to 180 lbs... well, you'll be 10% quicker up any given hill.

Phantoj

This would be one place where I'd be wishing for a 5-speed freewheel...

LowCel 

I'd be willing to bet they aren't doing these drills on the same hills I ride. If they are I really hope they are riding in the Tour this year.

Super Guanche

Same here. Even just doing the exercise in the small ring and I'd be doing 144km on the hill I do repeats on.

Bob Ross

Not too long. The two cyclists who told me about this drill both trained on Harlem Hill in Central Park (NYC) which I know can't be more than half a mile.

Then again, hill repeats are hill repeats, so yeah, there's gonna be a lot of climbing!

.ks

Sorry to be the one to bring it up, but what about weight? (rider, not the rig).

You (ark40) didn't mention stats, but carrying extra baggage may not be too noticeable on the flats but will slow you down on inclines.

mike9903

See my thread on Texas climbing, that is how you train for "hills"

https://www.bikeforums.net/road-cycling/274666-texas-climbing-pictures.html

Tomorrow I am going out to so some more climbing, I have heard talks of 60 miles with 8,000-9,000 feet of climbing!!!

e78990

You want the real deal?

Get a Mountain bike and climb. You ll kill ANY roadie.