0 Climbing Hills. Build Strength AND Speed!

It's very easy to get into a routine in your cycling that includes lots of long, flat rides that build fitness and endurance, but can lead to your fitness plateauing and boredom setting in.  Hill climbs are a great way to build leg strength, cardio-vascular fitness, and just as importantly, mental toughness that can help you push yourself harder and faster on race day.

True climbers are a strange breed.  Small framed, lean and weighing about 60kgs dripping wet.  You see them every year in the Giro and Tour de France, dancing on their pedals as the rest of the Peloton dies a slow, painful death on the slopes of Alpe d'Huez.  They have the innate ability to continue to accelerate regardless of the gradient, and seem almost superhuman in their ability to ride through pain. 

You don't have to be Marco Pantani or Alberto Contador to climb well.  The good news is that you can train to be a better climber, and the benefits to your flat, fast rides, and even your running will be noticeable.  

You should try to include a hill session into your weekly routine.  You don't need to train in the Alps, just find some nearby hilly terrain and get into it!

Here are some tips to improving your climbing:

• Keep your cadence high.  You'll use a lot less energy, and be able to climb a lot longer if you spin a smaller gear at a higher cadence.  If you load up a big gear and mash your pedals, you'll quickly burn up your legs.
• Stay in your saddle. You will be able to climb more efficiently if you stay on the back of your saddle.  Standing up and dancing on your pedals, whilst good for short bursts and attacks, will quickly lead to that all too familiar lactic burn and you'll fade out a lot quicker.
• Ride smooth.  Keep your pace steady and ride smooth.  Constant accelerations and decelerations are a great way to break up a pack, but it will obviously sap your energy as well.  
• Relax. Keep your hands light on the tops of your bars.  You'll tire yourself out if you are hanging on with an unnecessary death grip, and riding on the hoods or down on your drops will make it harder to breath. 
• Go hard.  As with any exercise, if you train with intensity, your fitness will improve faster.  Try to incorporate some high-intensity intervals into your climbing sessions.  Your leg strength will greatly benefit from the repeated uphill attacks.  This strength will directly translate to speed when you come to riding on the flat again.

You'll find that as you become more used to climbing, and the pain that comes with it, you will be not only stronger, but more mentally adept at handling the pain that comes on race day. Varying your cycle training is a great way to add variety, and improve your allround performance. 

0 Climbing Mountains...slowly

It's funny how things just come together sometimes.  I had to go to Nagambie today for work,  and at first I was not exactly ecstatic about the idea of three hours in the car, but then I started to think more creatively.  "Aren't there some great climbs up north of Melbourne?"  Damn right there are!!  So when I packed my car this morning, my bike and some super sexy lycra came with me.  After all, we're all time-poor and fitting a great workout into a work-day is the perfect way to save time, and enjoy work a whole lot more.

The township of Kinglake is about 60kms north of Melbourne.  A couple of years ago, devastating bushfires ripped through this area, and you can still clearly see the damage done.

Thanks to The Climbing Cyclist I knew exactly where to head to find the start of the famous Kinglake Climb.  With a length of 7.2kms, and with an average gradient of 4.8% this is not exactly the Alpe D'Huez but let's face it, for the average Joe this is a bit of a mission, achievable, but not exactly a walk in the park.

As you can see from the picture above, I couldn't have asked for better weather.  Bright, clear skies with only a hint of a breeze.  Mild temperatures, and with school holidays, barely a car on the road.

I was pretty excited to get cracking, and to be honest I probably went a bit hard in the first couple of kilometres.  I tried to stay above 20kmh but after 3.5kms, I was puffing like an old steam train and my legs were starting to complain.  Thankfully I was able to channel the great Jens Voigt disregard for physical discomfort and keep my cadence high.  The road surface is pretty good, although the roadway is very narrow, with no shoulder (be careful of cars).  As the road snaked upwards through a serious of tight turns, the pitch of the road tilts up further before a couple of false flats.

About 5kms into the climb I was starting to question why I do things like this, but the sight of another rider a couple of corners ahead of me was the boost I needed to push a bit harder over the last stretch, and before I knew it, the road was flattening out and I was at the top.

The great thing about climbing a mountain is getting to descend it afterwards.  I made the most of the clear roads and pushed hard on my way back down the hill.  Gravity is a wonderful thing, and I have to say that the descent was a LOT more fun than the ascent.

If you get the chance to make the trip to Kinglake, I'd highly recommend it.  The town is pretty, the view is amazing, and there are plenty of places to record your best time online! (Let's just say that I won't be challenging the record holders anytime soon).

0 A Cold Morning Commute

This morning was the first really cold morning of 2012.  It was a real struggle dragging myself out of bed this morning at 6am, and I could very easily have stayed in my nice warm bed.

I made a great purchase last year and bought a long sleeve Merino wool jersey from Vintage Velos .  Not only is it warm on a chilly day, but super comfortable and harks back to a time when men were real men.

Suitably layered, I set out to ride some hills along Yarra Boulevard in Kew before work.  While Kew is a bit out of my way, I love being able to incorporate some hill climbing into my morning commute.  The great thing about Yarra Boulevard is that there is almost no traffic early in the morning, and there is usually some other cyclists around to either provide a cheeky draft if you're tired, or someone to chase if you're feeling fresh.

It was a nice easy trip to work after this along the new and improved Main Yarra Trail.  Because of the cold and rain, there was very few cyclists or pedestrians to contend with.

As you can see from the picture above, there was some absolutely cracking weather this morning in Melbourne.  Unfortunately there was also a LOT of icy showers that set in to an annoyingly constant rain by the time I was 30 minutes into my ride.  This is where the Merino wool became a liability, and by the time I got to work, I was soaked, freezing and feeling and looking like a drowned rat!

A great plus of my ride this morning was the performance of my new Continental GP4000 tires.  They are fast, smooth and corner with real stability in the wet.