knitguy

I'm not all quite sure where this post should go so feel free to tell me to post this elsewhere (or move the thread). That said, I'm fairly new to cycling - I learned how to bike when I was a kid, attempted to get really into it in a few years ago, and am making a second (and so far more successful) attempt now. My somewhat long term goal is to commute to school everyday (about 6.5 miles each way - school starts at the end of September). While I'm really excited about biking and can feel myself getting addicted fast I am becoming increasingly discouraged by all of the hills.

I on the edge of Lake Oswego, OR (right on the border with Portland) which is a rather hilly area and I can't really go anywhere with out coming across a steep hill. I'm perfectly capable of walking up them (I don't drive) but biking is another question. I'm wondering what sorts of strategies I should use while riding up them and how to become better at riding up hills. I think it would be safe to assume that I should just keep on riding up them but I was wondering if there was anything else that could help. I've heard that cycling shoes (and clipless peddles) may help but I don't know how accurate that information is.

Oh also, I'm riding a 2008 (or '07) Specialized Allez and weigh around 198lbs - probably a little less now. I'm also fairly strong (I do pilates once a week, walk more often than not, and used to rock climb competitively when I was younger), but I need a lot of work as far as cardio goes. Generally when I get a little winded, stopping for a drink of water helps and while I don't mind walking my bike up hills I would prefer not to.

StephenH

Keep your cadence/ pedaling speed up. Have a bike with low enough gears where you can do so. Have a light bike. Ride lots and get in better shape. Get out of the saddle if it helps, or don't if it doesn't. That's the main things as I see it.

Clipless pedals help some, but the improvement is not necessarily dramatic.

BarryJo

Oh well, I'll play.
First off the bike doesn't make a lot of difference. I've been passed on some decent climbs in my area by guys 20 years older than me riding 1970s steel frames.
Proper gearing on your bike does make a difference and you're probably well off to go with compact gearing (a 50/34 crank in the front and maybe a 28/11 in the rear).
Compact bars can also help, I like them because I can move up on the saddle and take the pressure off my hands while riding on the tops.
For me, the thing that helped me the most was hill repeats, find a decent hill that takes 3-10 minutes to climb, go up, come down, repeat 3-5x.
Keep that as a regular part of your training and the hills won't get easier, but they wont bother you as much either.

BarryJo

Oh yeah, use the search function, there are a lot of really good threads on this topic.

zstjohn

how long has it been since you switched over? For me it was one of the single biggest performance improvements i've made on the bike.

knitguy

That's actually really helpful as there are a at least four hills that I can think of with in a mile of me that fit the bill. Oh and yeah - I agree I could have searched more. I should have done my homework here as opposed to google (which actually wasn't giving me much, but my google fu could be off).

gjb483

Ride up and down the paved path that runs parallel to Terwilliger by Tryon State park, that's a perfect hill to practice on. To make a nice loop, once you get to the top by the Lewis and Clark Law School, hop onto Boones Ferry and then Palatine Hill road and descend through the graveyard and then take Riverside back to Lake O. If you want to try something even steeper do this in reverse.

There are a lot of good hills to ride on in Portland, but this was one of my favorites because it is car-free for most of the ride and it was really convenient for me when I lived in Portland. there are some good routes up to council crest and you can find a lot of good stuff in NW portland too. just keep at it.

knitguy

gjb483 - that's perfect, not only is that a beautiful area but it's also right near my house! I'll have to try that Monday or Tuesday.

pchopper

This thread has some great tips:
https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...904&highlight=

I've been visiting my sister in west linn, hills everywhere! And no matter where I go, I always have to climb 500 ft to get back to her house . But yeah, cars are few, and those that do pass by are very considerate, completely different atmosphere than california.

RNAV

As part of hill repeats, I recommend practicing climbing in and out of the saddle in a structured way. For instance, alternate between climbing in the saddle and out of the saddle every 30 seconds (30 seconds in, 30 seconds out). The two different positions utilize your muscles differently, so it actually gives you an opportunity for your legs to recover from one method while you're working on the other.

knitguy

That's also really useful advice - I will definitely try that tomorrow when I practice climbing one of the hills near me.

FlashUNC

Repeats and building up some cardio endurance will help.

What's the gearing you have on the bike?

Second, understand that, on some level, climbing hills or mountains will always suck. The hurt will always be there. The biggest difference will just be how fast you get up the thing.

ericm979

You know the Nike slogan "Just Do It"? That's basically my advice. You get good at riding hills by riding hills.

Since you have just started riding, you don't need to do hill repeats or any other structured training. Unless you want to of course, but if you don't enjoy them then there's no need to get into that yet. You'll improve just by riding around and not avoiding hills.

Your Allez is a lower end race bike and as such probably has racing gearing. You may need to switch the cassette and/or crankset to get lower gearing. There's only about 2000 threads about this, it's a very common thing to do. Ignore the people who say that they don't need low gears; they're not you, doing your rides.

Practicing climbing out of the saddle is good, but you will get that just by doing it. No need to do intervals. It takes a while for standing to become second nature. Doing more will make that happen sooner.

Clipless pedals help because they keep your feet on the pedals without you having to think about it, and they are much more comfortable. But if you're commuting, shoes that are compatible with clipless pedals may be impractical.

storckm

The last poster made a lot of sense. Just ride, meet the hills when they come, keep your cadence high, and get lower gears. I had a bike with a double once, and my knees were hurting a bit. Switching to a triple made a huge difference.

Seattle Forrest

Especially on hills. When you get tired of leaning forward and pushing down with all your might, you lean back a hair, hold the tops, and pull up on the pedals. The muscles that do that are fairly well rested by this point, so they're ready to go, and you're less depleted when you get to the top ( other than your heart and breath ).

Lake Oswego is a pretty hilly place. I knew a girl in Tigard. They say you get better on hills by climbing hills; doing repeats is good advice. After a few weeks of some hill repeats in your training, the rollers will take a lot less out of you.

You can change your cassette for about $35 and get lower gearing if you need to. It'll make all the difference, for a while.

As a last resort, you can cut switchbacks into the road ... but this only works on side streets, with more than enough visibility to see that nobody's coming in any direction. Sort of "weave" back and forth from the right to left edge of the street; if you go almost 90 degrees from the curb, you aren't climbing at all, so you have a moment to catch your breath and let your heart rate drop, then you swing the bike around, climb a few feet, then cross to the other side of the street and do it again. Ideally you don't do this at all, but if you cut at a much steeper angle, you'll get to the top faster, but with more effort. Basically, this is like switching to a lower gear when you run out on the bike - you'll cover more distance to get to the same place, but you'll spread the climbing out. It's good to have in your bag of tricks at the end of a long ride...

petrolhead

True, however I also majorly sucked at climbing hills, but eight months of cardio type work at the gym 4 to 5 days a week, and a decent weight loss through dieting and exercise, made an unbelievable difference. I still don't enjoy hills, but now I'm not scared of them. I just set little goals (next lampost, next tree etc), go off into my 'happy place' and just grind away. BTW, diet/gym came first, cycling followed.

ericm979

I am a fan of weight lifting for really out of shape people because it helped me a lot when I was really out of shape.
But I think that cardio in a gym is less useful than riding is. Not the least because it is incredibly tedious so you don't do much of it. Just riding a lot (and improving your diet) would have helped your riding as much or more than the cardio did, and it would have been much more fun.

I also disagree with the idea of losing weight first and then starting riding. Cycling is a great way to lose weight. And you'll be getting the experience and building the cycling specific muscles while you're losing weight. And it's more fun than just about any other weight loss exercise.

knitguy

See I'm that weird person who really enjoys working out in gyms - my mom is the same way though so maybe I got it from her. I love riding outside as well but when I'm in a gym (although it's been a while) it more "me time" than anything, which is cliche but such is life I suppose. That said I think my main issue is that I need to work on cardio. My legs are generally fine after climbing hills it's more that I'm huffing and puffing afterwords.

I also agree that you in regards to weight loss - right now I don't have access to my school's gym because they're doing maintenance before the school year starts and, while I don't really have a lot of weight that I absolutely need to loose I don't see much point in sitting around doing nothing when I could be outside riding.

knitguy

Thanks for the advice as far as changing the cassette and/or crankset. I'll search through the threads and also ask my LBS about it. Clipless pedals and shoes that are compatible with them might not be a bad idea for me having read some of these replies and also speaking to one of the people at my LBS this morning during their beginner ride. I probably won't get any until September, but I don't think it'll be too impractical as I'll essentially be commuting to a street car which lets me off about 10 min away (it goes through a really high traffic area) right across the street from the gym so there won't be a whole lot of walking involved.

petrolhead

Fair enough, sorry, I should have been clearer in my response - 'cycling followed' wasn't an intentional plan, when i first started exercising I didn't consider biking.

Over teh years I've tried dieting with little success, I then found that dieting and exercise worked well. I joined a gym that's 3 miles from home so aft eight months of regular gym work when I started feeling fitter (I was extremely unfit) I suddenly thought "hey, why not drag out my old bike I hadn't used for three years and cycle to the gym". I really enjoyed it, like you say, much more than cardio. So now I ride as much as possible, do a 50 mile ride in the weekend. Except for a warmup the gym I do no cardio, because bking is much more enjoyable. I now only do weights.
To get back to the OP's question, yes, in my opinion more cycling would be a help to improve climbing, but weight loss and gym work to build core and leg strength would also help. A combination of diet, gym and more time in the saddle would be ideal, it has been for me. JMHO.

Daytrip

All good advice. While hill climbing has never gotten "easy" for me, it has gotten easier and less intimidating. The only small piece of advice I'd add is to try to think of/concentrate on something else while climbing, especially long climbs. Try to get your mind into a different place if you can, and you won't notice the pain so much. Climbing out of the saddle is a good way to keep the blood flowing around your sitbones, so you'll have less butt pain.

uncrx2003

I just did a 40 mi ride today up to the blue ridge parkway. Over 4000 ft of climb. On one climb, the average grade was 9% over 6 miles. Man, I'm freaking dead right now. I wish I have a triple crank today but the compact double sure helped quite a bit. Just started bike since late May. This is by far the most challenging ride so far. The temp and the view was spectacular at the top.

rufus

Simple noob advice.

If your legs are burning, you're in too big a gear. Shift down and spin

If you're out of breath, you're in too easy a gear, and spinning too fast. Gear up a bit and use your legs more.

The key is to find that happy medium, where you aren't killing you're legs, but you also aren't going into anaerobic debt. Don't spin as fast as you can, and don't slog up in a big gear. Pick a gear you can turn over easily enough, and then a tempo where you're not panting uncontrollably. Also, as a buddy of mine once told me, you can always catch youre breath again, but once you cook your legs, you're done. So spin.

VT Biker

I am going to go against the grain here.

First of all – get clipless pedals. Trust me, the ability to use other muscle groups on the climb is critical. When I climb, I use more of my glute, calve and hamstring muscles than my quads. My quads come into play when out of the saddle more. But this just is not as possible with platform pedals. If you at least of pedals with baskets and straps, then make sure they are tight enough.

Secondly, and this where I go against the current fad. While injury risk needs to be evaluated, when training for hills, I always try to ride a bigger gear than is comfortable. It builds up your leg muscles, so when riding with others, you can drop down a gear, and actually spin faster, longer than had you merely always ridden in the lower gear.
Also – climbing is always difficult. But the trick is getting your body used to the effort, used to breathing hard, and used to the burn. Plus – as you ride more, your muscles will learn to adapt (but only if you push yourself during training). I have seen too many people, immediately drop to the granny gear or to the lowest gear possible, and they never get faster, but they still suffer up the hill.

Daytrip

I used to have a rule that I would never use the lowest gear on my regular rides--until I switched my cassette to an 11-23 (from a 12-25). Now, I pretty much default to the lowest gear on any serious climb, but I'm trying to work up to the old "never use the lowest" gear rule again. I think your advice has merit, VT Biker. I also climb out of the saddle when practical, mainly because I think it helps with saddle comfort, especially on longer rides. As has been mentioned in other recent threads, the long, steady climbs are good in that they allow you to find your groove and live in it. There's a 'comfortable' balance between cardio and leg muscle exertion, and it's easier to find on a long climb, as rufus suggests.