Tips on getting faster - Cycling

James07

James07

James07

Soldato
Joined
6 Dec 2006
Posts
5,914
Location
West Yorkshire
I keep pushing and pushing on my routes but when it comes to hills I seem to fail massively. I push hard, to the point where I start to feel sick but I don't seem to see a real improvement, I mean I'm getting faster but very slowly, and I'm trying to up my miles week by week (bar last when when I was recovering from a cycling accident) to improve my endurance but its the hills where I'm failing. The worst thing is I like the hills, I like the push and the strength it's giving me. My shoulder is very very painful after my ride home from work but I assume thats the 2 huge hills at the end of my ride but that wont be helping at the moment.

Anyone have any good tips on getting up those hills faster?

http://www.strava.com/activities/185893542
http://www.strava.com/athletes/5669888

Before anyone says anything, I'm getting a road bike within the next 2 weeks haha :) although ill be gutted if I'm still no faster up the hills!

Thanks,

James.
 
Its a painful type ache, I sprained it in a 30mph crash nearly 2 weeks ago, I might have jumped back on the bike a bit too fast but I need to as I have a 90km charity ride for cruk on Sunday so I need to rack up the miles a bit.

After Sunday ill be taking it very easy for a couple of weeks and if the pain persists then Il probably see a doc, hopefully it'll be fine, popping pills for fun, first time I've touched any legal drugs in years!
 
What technique are you trying to use to climb the hills?

I find it best to stay in the saddle, and put it in an easier gear, then keep a high cadence (pedal rpm). I find I go faster up hills when I do this, than keeping it in a harder gear and standing.
 
More time on the bike will make you faster.
Joining a club and riding with faster people will make you faster.

I got faster and I think it was the consistent rides with those faster than me that made the difference.
 
James07 said:
Its a painful type ache, I sprained it in a 30mph crash nearly 2 weeks ago, I might have jumped back on the bike a bit too fast but I need to as I have a 90km charity ride for cruk on Sunday so I need to rack up the miles a bit.

After Sunday ill be taking it very easy for a couple of weeks and if the pain persists then Il probably see a doc, hopefully it'll be fine, popping pills for fun, first time I've touched any legal drugs in years!
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forget a doc, theyll just give you pain killers and not treat the problem.

i found after a particularly heavy climbing ride recently that my shoulders were quite stiff and achey for about 1-2 weeks after. physio went to town on them and they were loads better.
 
Echoing what other people say. More time in the saddle, longer rides, and climbing, climbing and more climbing. When I started, about 18 months ago, I tended to climb hills out of the saddle because I didn't have the legs to sit down and grind it out, but I felt like I was missing a trick by battering up the short hills and struggling on the long hills. A mixture of interval training, longer rides, more rides and more climbing was the sort of obvious, non-quick fix approach that worked for me. Gradually started climbing in the saddle more, this seemed to help my legs even more, and the penny dropped that it was just a far better way to climb most hills. Find what sort of cadence/gear you can just about sustain going up local hills, then try and push past that - constantly. If you spend most of your time breathing out of your arse you're going to get faster.
 
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I find myself at 34 / 28 or 39 / 32 on most climbs pretty quickly spinning as best i can. Occasionally i will get out of the saddle around 3 gears higher and push like that for a while but it is more tiring for little gain, and more a kind of rest for some of the muscle groups.

Something i find is that it is a mental as well as physical battle when you are pushing up big hills, and it takes time to build both of these up
 
Brilliant, thank you!

I weren't sure if I were cycling right up the hills. Today up,halifax road impact from the bottom to the top but up past the Woodward I got to the end of the upward slope where the hill really starts to climb, changed down a couple of gears, stood on the bike and really give it some.

I might try sitting down the whole way up in the morning and see how I get on.

Thanks for all the replies!
 
a 40 minute uphill grind to get to the local forest, couple of short loops then a speedy descent (hit just over 40mph on the way down on my fs boardman mtb )
i'm unfit, overweight and managed the climbing by keeping a relatively high cadence in a low gear. a full susser doesn't respond well to climbing out of the saddle so i don't :) - have both the front and rear shock locked out for climbing which helps.
on my hybrid i ride clipped in which helps with the climbing, and a few hilly rides in the last week definitely helped with the climbing today

http://www.strava.com/activities/186064979
 
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Fantastic, on my way to work today I kept my speed of pedaling up, kept changing to a higher gear if I felt I needed to and got some better times.

Gonna give it a good blast on my way home.

I want clip in pedals but I'm going to upgrade to them at a later date I think.
 
Deadlifting, squatting, Rowing, benching and some decent core work. Set at Gas Mark 11 and within a month you will notice a difference. Half a year, and those hills will feel very easy.

I know this because I have been working with a colleague (also a cyclist) after an ACL reconstruction and the differences in his colloquial and Garmin outputs are quite startling.

All athletes need strength training. Your legs are only as effective as your core is at helping them transfer their power to the pedals.
 
OP: look at the Mobility thread for some pointers about shoulder mobility, because the chances are that you have none. :)

[DOD]Asprilla;26818555 said:
Whilst I advocate the above, remember that road cycling is an endurance discipline not a strength discipline.

Core strength is vital but overall leg strength isn't.
Click to expand...

Of course, this isn't track cycling where absolute power is king, but having decent enough leg strength to remove power output from the equation is another piece of the performance mosaic. :)

More cycling is always the first choice for most things about cycling, but some things needs a bit of a different approach. Power is a function of work over time, but the work is a function of force... Which is leg strength and the ability to transfer that to pedals. Peak power is less relevant, but still important in attacking. Particularly up hills.

Better leg strength is an output of more effective musculature, which itself is a derivative of better contractile apparatus (muscles) and better neural pathways. Weight training allows the athlete to exceed their normal muscle activation thresholds, bringing the more powerful fibres to the party, more regularly... Something long, slow rides does not achieve unless the rider is naturally gifted in this area.

In addition, direct muscle training also builds the work capacity of those muscles, storing more carnosine, glycogen, creatine, as well as improving the way the brain works with those muscles.

touch said:
Can you explain this a wee bit more?
It sounds interesting but I dont really know what you mean.
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He deadlifts and squats as part of his ACL reconstruction rehab and is making big imroovements in those particular areas, but the cool thing is the carry-over to what he enjoys. Cycling.

The individual concerned provides me with colloquial feedback ("this felt much easier,"), but this is backed up by the data from his Garmin (average cadence improves, as does speed in general, but also when climbing), as well as his times over a specific mapped-out route... And the fact that I know he doesn't do much other cycling training (I have cycled with him on his commute and being through a city centre at rush hour, there is no room for much of anything).
 
My shoulders do ache a little after certain routes but most the time they're fine, yesterday I felt a tweak in my oft leg up by my bum but on the inside, I decided to give it a rest today as I have a 55mile charity ride on Sunday and so far I've done nothing to that extent yet.

I feel my shoulders are quite strong, I got slot of strength training in when I played rugby a couple of years back. My legs on the other hand are quite poor strength wise, I don't want to sign back up to the gym because I just can't make it there consistently due to working nights, what I can do though, is be versatile on my style and distance of cycling, Im getting a road bike too so hopefully that'll make a difference.

The road bike will be better for core training, the mtb won't be doing anything firmly core, but the geometry of the road bike will, not massively but I will notice different muscles aching. What kind of home based training would you recommend for core training?

I'm upping my miles week by week, I feel fitter and stronger enough to do it, this week I've felt a couple of tweaks in my muscle and my knee so like I've said above, I've rested yesterday and won't be on the bike now until my charity ride Sunday.
 
Goblet squats (use a bag of books or water);
Bulgarian split squats ( use a settee or bed);
Nordic curls (tuck feet under settee);
Calf raises;
Chinups (loft hatch)
Inverted row (under dining table)
Pushups (various angles);
Weighted step-ups (dining chair)...

Another thing to include in your cycling training is max power/cadence intervals. ;)

The joint tweaks you are getting are probably due to rubbish mobility. Sorting it out might even address elements of your power problem, too.
 
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James07 said:
I decided to give it a rest today as I have a 55mile charity ride on Sunday and so far I've done nothing to that extent yet.
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Yep, rest is the best thing to do now. Might be good to have a quick spin on saturday. 20-30 mins, very easy. easy gears and fast pedalling.
The most important thing on Sunday will be eating + drinking enough.
I would usually have a high-carb meal on saturday night, pasta or rice.
Then porridge for breakfast on sunday.

During the ride, I will have a drink at least every 20 mins and eat something (energy bar, banana, fig rolls, small sandwich) at least every hour. If you wait until you're hungry before you eat - it's too late.
 
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