Training for hills when you have none.
 

I got stopped by a hill yesterday. Granted this was a monster. the kind of hill you drive up in 2nd gear and pray the whole time your brakes are working. It was about two miles, I dropped into my lowest gear and grinded my way about 1/4 mile up and then collapsed on the side of the road while my riding buddies on Touring bikes went by me at 4 mph. I pushed my bike the rest of the way.

So my question is how do you train for hills when you don't have any hills on your regular rides? I ride 13-20 mi a day, but its all completely flat. To find a hill I have to drive atleast 20 minutes which I don't have time to do on weekdays. So doesn anyone have any advice getting that hill training in using TRainers, Rollers etc?

Just a couple'a personal thoughts.

Interval training: one or two rides a week, once every ten minutes shift into your highest gear and push to max speed for one minute.

If your trainer has a resistance setting, set it to max and keep the cranks turning until you reach max HR. Take a few minutes to spin easy, then repeat.

Do HEAVY weight training in the gym. On an incline press machine, put 400# on...can you push it once? If you strain till you poop but still get it up, that's the max. :D Now drop 10% and do three sets of three reps. There is a machine that lets you do similar lifting your knee but I don't remember what it is called.

Climbs are a chore for us flatlanders! :eek:

Rhumb

Take advantage of HEADWINDS!! Fighting headwinds actually provides good fake hill training.

Although some may disagree with taking indoor cycling classes - I highly recommend "Spinning" if it is available a couple of nights at a local gym.

As far as not having time to drive "at least 20 minutes" on weekdays for the nearest hill ... I don't cycle on weekdays at all. All of my cycling is done on the weekends and between weekend riding and 4:30AM weekday gym workouts, I am doing quite well on the bike. I realize that everybody is different, but this is just me sharing what has worked for me.

Keep plugging away whenever, wherever, and however you can and the effort will pay off in the end. Don't let people passing you discourage you - in time, you can reverse that.

In Chicago, folks that wanted to train on hills, they had to go to Galena, Illinois and do their hill work there. Chicago has a lot of wind too, but it is no substitute for actual hills.

If you put your bike on the train and ride the train to a hiller area of your state, you probably could get in hill rides about two times a month. Then when you're at home, you can just focus on riding in higher gears and riding into headwinds and stuff.

Koffee

If you have a trainer, you could try elevating the front wheel a few inches and set the resistance pretty high. But . . .I feel sorry for you folks in the flats :)

Edit: just saw OP's location . . . just across the bay & north from me . . . though I suppose from Alameda it is a short drive/ride to the hills, you don't really have too much to complain about! There are actual needy people in flat areas just starving for hills and here you are throwing them away :)

j/k of course but seriously, to say you have "no hills" is stretching it quite a bit. Bite the bullet (perhaps literally) and ride east over to Oakland, Richmond, etc. and you'll have plenty of hill work.

The problem with riding to Richmond/Oakland is time. I can do it on weekends and do (The hill I crapped out by the way was up on Bear Creek Rd somewhere, I think it was South Park Rd, its a goddamn wall.)

I started riding because I could do it in an hour, leave my house and ride right back. I didn't have to spend extra time getting to the gym, changing clothes etc. And when winter comes along I'll probably be doing all my weekday rides on Trainers.

Thanks for the tip on interval training RhumbRunner. Also I do weightlifting about twice a week but I actually lowered my leg weights when I started riding regularly. I guess I thought it would fatigue my legs or something.

Thank everyone.

I use the wind when I can. Turn into a headwind, put it into a big gear, and grind away.

weights are a good way to go. Go for a lower weight and higher reps, like 15-25 per set, and if you can, do the lifting right before you ride.

Headwinds work too, but keep the candence lower.

Do intervals in a big gear that's hard for your legs to push and that you have to keep at a lower cadence (80-85). don't do this for too long so that your don't upset your knees.

I guess I could add something useful instead of just geographical nitpicking: Try Individual Leg Training . . . shift into a relatively high gear, put one foot on the chainstay or otherwise out of the way, and pedal with the other leg only. You're shooting for relatively low RPMs, around 50-60. It is a strength-building exercise but it can also help even out your pedal stroke. Alternate about 1-2 minutes per leg x 4-5 sets, and build up a lot of leg strength.

Alameda flat? Try Davis.

During the winter I use Spinervals tapes on the trainer. There is one called (I think) the Big Hill Grind. These tapes really do work (I also elevate my front wheel) and give me a fairly decent power base. Davis, of course, is windy but it is not the same as hill climbing. If you really want the power to climb hills, you have got to ride them. This year I decided that I had to make the committment if I wanted to ride any place but the local flatlands.

Even though I have to drive, I go ride Diablo, Morgan Territory, Napa Valley or something in the Sierras at least 2-3X a month. Even though I'm not riding any more miles than I did last year, I'm faster and stronger, a far better rider. I've also added time trialing to the mix. I used to ride intervals on the flat road as my only power training but this mix of riding (flat, hills and TTs) has yielded the best results.

I should add that part of what you get out of actually riding the hills is learning how to breathe properly, maintain a slow steady cadence and the "headology" of climbing. You have to teach it to be happy with the road going by at 6 mph rather than 18 mph so that it can concentrate on breathing and cadence.

I guess I've got the same problem, as I also live in Alameda, and I don't have a solution.

When I used to live in Oakland, I could leave my front door and ride hills each morning before work.

Now I don't have time to ride or drive to Oakland on weekdays, so I ride flat 3-5 days / week (other days in the gym) and ride hills weekends.

(Actually, as I'm just getting back into shape, I drive to the hills and then struggle up them.)

I'm sure that this routine will eventually pay off, but I've also reluctantly concluded the long-term solution is to move back to Oakland or somewhere with similar terrain. Great varied riding there.

were you up there sat or sun? my sadistic office mate (who is currently beating everyone he can find into shape for a north coast bike tour) ran us up there on sunday - from orinda bart up over south park to redwood, back over to moraga way. fantastic ride but i'm with you on the wall.

one quick access to a good hill climb is to head over fruitvale bridge and just keep going east. in about 15-20 min you'll be at the base of redwood and can climb until you're whuped and then turn around and enjoy the reward of speed :D

I live in Florida and have often gone on tours with long climbs in them to high altitudes. Two things help in success in hill climbing: overall aerobic fitness and not weighing way too much.

I rather thing that some suggestions might not be really useful. Interval training will help your power but hill climbing is not that intense (at least on long climbs). The same would be true for strength training.

The closest thing I have ever gotten to something that felt like hill climbing was using a stair climbing machine.

Now I have found that after getting back to FL from spending 2 weeks in mountains and doing many hour long climbs without really pushing myself that my hill climbing had noticeably improved (when I happened to climb one of our local hills).

"Interval training: one or two rides a week, once every ten minutes shift into your highest gear and push to max speed for one minute."

Exactly! Your muscles have no idea what kind of terrain they're on. They only know about exertion and how much work they have to do. If you have a power-meter, cycle-computer w/HRM, you can record your power-output, gear used, RPM/cadence, HR, etc on a hill. Then go replicate the same kind of workout on the flats and your muscles won't know the difference. Typically this requires exerting yourself above your AT on the flats and holding it there as your HR creeps up to max, just like on the hills. Basically an interval. Do 3-5-10 minute intervals in 1-2 larger gears than normal (75-85rpms) and you'll simulate hills pretty easily.

Any hill any day
www.insideride.com

Yes, your muscles can tell the difference between riding on the flat and climbing. The resistance is different.

You make it up with the gearing... If you're pushing 150-180lbs of pedal force at 85rpms and cranking out 600watts on the hills, you can simulate the same exertion by upshifting 2-3 gears on the flats and hammering at 32-35mph... Mashing & hammering the big-gears at 85rpms & 33mph is quite a different workout than spinning 110rpms. Watch your HRM and it'll slowly increase just like you're doing an interval going up a hill. And your leg muscles will be burning and quite sore just like working out in the hills.