Today I did my first hill climb of the year. It felt great, I never felt like I wanted this climb to end or anything like that. In fact I even went a little further than normal as I wanted to get a two hour ride. Had I turned around as scheduled I would had to ride laps around my house block to get two hours in. I hate doing that. Hey, I am only kidding about the loops around my house block thing. But I do know people that do that to get in the mileage wanted. In any case I went 2:05 so that was good for me.
My first climb of 2006 was only a 7 mile climb to a town called Jamestown. It is a very popular ride and since today was such a nice day here in Boulder it was a perfect opportunity. The great part about this ride is that there is a bike path almost the entire way and very little traffic. Boulder is very bicycle friendly.
When I first came to Boulder in 1990 I came from Houston Texas. If you have ever been to Houston you know the main difference between Houston and Boulder. In Houston the only hills anywhere are the highway overpasses. It is absolutely ‘pancake’ flat. I had no idea how to ride the hills and hardly ever did them. It took me a few years to learn and to really enjoy them. Now I love them. There is no better feeling than conquering the mountain passes. The views are absolutely breathtaking at many of these mountain passes. I totally recommend you come to Colorado sometime and experience it. Just get enough gears for your bike.
Gears, oh yes; that is by far the most important thing to have. Particularly if you are weight challenged. Do not try to be all macho and power some of these. Your knees will thank you. Not to mentioned that if you can have a good cadence while climbing you will save energy for the rest of the ride and recover for more training the next day.
One common question I get from athletes goes like this: “Coach, I am training for the Big Mountain Triathlon and there are huge hills. But you want me to keep my heart rate down and it is impossible to ride hills with the heart rate so low. How am I ever going to do this triathlon if I can not ride on the hills?” Sounds like a fair question wouldn’t you say. Here is my answer: Hill climbing is all about power to weigh ratio. If you want to be good at hill climbing you want to be as lean as possible and have as much power as possible. I have seen so many rookie triathletes that buy a bike and ride some of the local hilly rides and do great. They never rode a bike in their life. But because they are super thin and have strong legs, they do wonderful. They never did hill repeats or anything like that. It is pure power to weight ratio.
So get thin to minimize the weight part of the equation. Eat less and exercise more. That is the best diet. Now how do you develop the power and make that part of the equation bigger? Well as many people do, you can do many hill repeats and ride hills all the time. If you survive that type of training you will do great on the hill climb. The problem with that approach is that usually the race does not end at the top of the mountain nor at the end of the bike. You usually have to ride some more and then run, it is a triathlon and not a bike race. So if you left all you had on the climb you will not do great at the end of the race. I rather you develop your power on the weight room and not always on the hills. You can then ride easy and aerobically even on the flats during the base period of your training to develop your aerobic endurance which is number one for triathlon. For sure if you have enough gears on your bike you can do hill climbs while keeping your heart rate down. Then once the speed part of your training begins you can hit the hills and go hard. I am sure you heard of “sport specific strength training” right? It is such a buzz word now days. Well, doing your speed work on hilly terrain will do exactly that for you.
Now how do you ride the hills? My recommendation for a steady climb is to have a cadence as close to 90 as possible and stay steady. Your heart rate monitor can definitely help you with the steady part. Try to find that rhythm that you feel comfortable at and stay there. Today my cadence was in the 80’s and on some steeper parts it was in the 70’s. I have to put more gears on my bike to handle steeper stuff later in the season. Now, I have seen many riders that do great on the hills and either ride big gear and slow cadence or ride off the saddle often. Although that is not what I recommend for triathlon it seems to work for them. So as you see there is room for your personal style. But whatever you choose to do have confidence in it and practice it in training. On race day you will see all types including some that will ride by you with slow cadence and off the saddle. Why? Power to weigh ratio of course, how soon do we forget.