evan938

Kudo's to you. After this weekend, I have even deeper respect for some of these routes I see people doing with long and/or steep climbs listed.

I live in a fairly flat area (central Ohio), and theres some small hills about an hour out of the city, but its rare that we make it out there. even then, the biggest hill i've hit is a hair under 200' of climbing over 1/2mi. LOL. i'm no fast rider, i dont race, but i can ride with the A groups after one year of serious cycling and getting out a few times a week...so i thought i'd be ok for yesterdays ride...

well, once yesterday came, i went out with a group for some hill training at a ski "resort" area about an hour away. We did a 48mi ride with ~3100' of climbing. still not a lot by a lot of peoples standards, but wow...did i ever get my ass kicked. my biggest day prior to this was about 60mi with 4k', so this was about on par with that, but this ride had hills that were a lot steeper, and a lot longer than my previous biggest day. one averaged a little over 10% with a stinger of i think around 15.6% right at the end. OUCH.

On the other hand though, it made me realize how much i love challenging myself, and even though i told my buddies yesterday it'd be a while before i made the journey back that way to ride again, I'm already telling myself i want to get back out to do it again...though next time i'll swap my 11-25 for an 11-27 for that little bit of extra help.

https://ridewithgps.com/trips/1208469

svtmike

Gears will save your muscles from fatigue longer, but losing weight is generally where it's at for significant improvements in climbing.

evan938

i know that'll be a huge help to me, though it seems no matter what i do, i cant crack the 180# barrier.

my other issue is being asthmatic and running out of air LONG before i run out of legs. working with a specialist on that one currently

Dan333SP

You certainly kicked your own ass on that ride! Average HR of nearly 170 (close to many people's threshold) for 3 hours riding, and you were above 190 for long stretches on the climbs. Evidently pushing yourself is not a problem!

evan938

yeah, that's the part im working on the docs with now. from everything im finding, my asthma is not allowing me to consume as much oxygen as a normal person, so my heart beats faster to make up for it. doc gave me a new inhaler to use before rides, one that is not supposed to spike my HR like my old one can do, and yesterday was the first time trying it. my HR was still high, but i found that it didn't hurt as bad when i was up at 195-197 as it usually would.

i definitely want to get it down though. seeing other guys i ride with average in the 140s baffles me. im so used to seeing mine so high, it always amazes me when i see everyone elses 20-30 lower

svtmike

Heart rate is very individual. My max is in the low 190s, which is pretty high for my age (48) and higher than just about everyone I ride with. I'm in the 120s and 130s when I'm just noodling around.

evan938

i took my brother (who doesn't ride but made a bet with me and has a 50mi ride on 5/11 to prepare for) out for a ride after that ride yesterday. he wasn't feeling well and we cut it short, but for 14 miles at 12mph, i still averaged 144. there were a couple tiny hills i tried to hit hard for ****s and giggles (and one to get a new PR on a segment, which i did), but the rest was just going as fast as he could manage, which honestly isn't much. lol - https://app.strava.com/activities/46548066

Dan333SP

You're a rabbit, then. Some people have naturally high HRs (a teammate of mine averages 180+ for a 45 min race), and your genetics coupled with the asthma leads to results like that. I did 76 miles yesterday, averaged a hair over 20mph, and my HR never exceeded 175 and averaged around 150. I've generally got a lower HR than the people around me, and it's not because I'm necessarily more fit, that's just the way it is.

7bmwm3gtr

High Heart rate isn't always a bad thing.


https://www.joefrielsblog.com/2011/03...questions.html


Everyone's HR is different, for instance my friend has a really slow beating heart, his max is around 170 and his threshold in the 150s, and he's 20 y/o just like me. I don't even know my max. On training rides I can reach 200-205 but during a race I've seen 211. Yet, my threshold is at 183. During a race I hover around the 190s during surges but the 180s are common when cruising despite not truly being at LT. I also have a history of asthma.


With that said, he and I are both equal in terms of how fit we are, I've been riding longer than he has but he did cross country in his first 2 years of High School. On good days, I can drop him on climbs. On his good days, he can drop me. Another friend of mine also told me he has a high HR too, maxing over 210 and racing in the 190s, and he's currently a CAT3.


If you're running out of air before legs, it seems you need to train your aerobic system more. Steady intervals up to threshold should help, so should riding at tempo for more than hour. A common misconception is that the best climbers are the skinny guys or those who train on hills/live near hills. This is more true at the highest level of competition, but in amateur competition or even club/group rides, that's not always the case.


I live in a very hilly place and am 5'7 129 pounds. I'm decent at climbing but I do get dropped in races with long climbs by bigger guys who live in flat places (Like Long Beach, CA or Davis, CA). I usually close gaps at the rolling hills.


If you want to get better at climbing without always training on hills, work on aerobic capacity; threshold rides or TT efforts with bigger gearing than usual or into a headwind.

ricohman

I love climbing. The longer the better. I've often passed far faster riders because of the climbs.
I've long wondered why I can outride others on a climb, yet they are faster in a TT or as a single rider. Just the way it is I guess.

Lew.

I don't call myself a climber, but find climbs easy with others. My HR is pretty damn high compared to anyone I've ever compared data with (friends, club mates etc.), I'm a teen and I regularly see my HRM measure 220-230BPM (highest I've seen is 236). Then again, friends my age have maxes around 200, a 10% difference within a years age.
And congrats on the challenges you're putting yourself through!

BoSoxYacht

You may want to wear tighter jerseys. When I wear a shirt that is flapping in the wind, the HR monitor shows around 240, but I know it's a false reading.

I'm 45, and have been stress tested with an accurate 197 max. Solo riding on flatland without wind, at 20mph my HR is around 130.

laserfj

Maybe you should go vegan.

Lew.

I wear a medium of my local clubs jersey, they're too tight, but a large is too baggy around the arms/shoulders... So I make do with mediums. So I doubt it's that, although I don't put it out of question as there must be a reason for it. Next time on the turbo I will count my own pulse for a minute... Thanks for the answer to the readings! If I read lower readings myself.

vesteroid

Same age Same hr riding...not in the 120 s messing around the Ouse but over 100 in a second if I walk around fast

svtmike

I meant noodling around on the bike. Walking around I'll be 90-100, with RHR in the low 50s to low 60s depending on how fit I am.

lazerzxr

Another thing to try is to turn the HRM strap upside down and wear it on your back, jerseys always pull tight over your back so that will eliminate any static you may be picking up from a flapping shirt. Works great with some of my jerseys

BoSoxYacht

A flapping shirt can make HR monitors give false readings.

ovoleg

Its not even that hilly here and I focus on riding hills...while people avoid them. I don't get these people, they make no sense to me

MetalPedaler

I don't know how you asthmatics do it! I hurt my ribs or my lung [don't know which...but it was something in there!] back in the summer- and man, for a few weeks, the hills around here were killing me! Not being able to breathe at full capacity is a real handicap when you're doing something anaerobic!

Really have to give ya credit!

Doing Tabata intervals on a spin bike over the winter, really helped my climbing and aerobic capacity.......but I don't know if that would work for you, with asthma- as I could hardly catch my breathe at first- and it was very painful for the first few weeks....

evan938

and the thing is, i've never known what its like to breathe at "full capacity" or what someone without a breathing restriction can do. thats what im working with the docs now to try to get myself closer to a "normal" set of lungs and see if i feel better during rides. i know i shouldn't be hurting like i do.

MetalPedaler

Oh, you'll DEFINITELY feel better if your doc can help you out and get your capacity up there! I've always had very good capacity, and I know it was still very hard on me when I first started riding. I couldn't imagine being like that all the time- which is how it must be for you- or even worse!

evan938

update -

just 1 week after my initial ride on those hills, i opted to go back. there was a race out there which some friends were competing in, but i just wanted to go out to ride.

now, i don't know how much of it was the warmer weather (it was in the 70s vs 40/50s last week), but this weekend had 20+mph winds, which wasn't fun. with all that, i was surprised with my results

on what i would call the hardest hill, with the 16% kicker at the top, i shaved my time down from 4:22 to 3:50 while my avg HR went from 187 to 183!

next hardest hill i took my time down from 5:35 to 4:55, avg HR went up 1bpm from last week. though i did have a run up it where i was still :18 better than last week, and 4bpm

on the "easy"est from last week i repeated this week, i missed my best time by 6 seconds (3:22 vs 3:28), BUT, the 6 seconds slower time was 14bpm average lower than last week.

feels good to know im performing better without exploding my heart. i maxed out at 191 this weekend, which is 5-6 less than last week.

and the best part, i actually felt quite decent after the ride. i did 22 miles and had a little over 2500' of climbing. i think i could've realistically done another 15 miles/1500' and felt ok.

https://app.strava.com/activities/47736340#833536543

Jandro 

Good mile:feet ratio.

Good job on the PRs.

Gran Fondo

Just passed 3000 miles today and over 51,000 feet of climbing. I can't imagine a ride without hills. One nice thing about climbing is, what goes up must come down. There's a downhill segment that I routinely surpass 50mph on (still haven't quite hit 60mph). What a rush.