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Index / Cycling training / Hill Climbing?
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Subject: Hill Climbing? |
kdelong
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 Posted: 17-01-2008 2:05 |
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| I am fast approaching the ripe old age of 50 and I have noticed that my hill climbing ability seems to be in decline. Does anyone have any good suggestions about how I might improve without purchasing a heart monitor, power meter, new bicycle, etc? I am basically just a recreational rider who is tired of small children and joggers passing me on the hills. |
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Paul
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| Posted: 17-01-2008 14:11 |
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Despite the age of 30 or 50 years and despite advanced training equipment or not. It's the quality and quantity of your training you should focus on.
Quality training is specificity (cycling and intensity) combined with a structured training plan. What is the length of the hills where you want to improve your performance? |
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EvilGoodGuy
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| Posted: 19-01-2008 18:27 |
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Hill climbing is all about power to weight ratio. If you can decrease weight or increase power, you'll be able to climb faster. I have found 20min intervals on a hill to be the most effective way to improve climbing. When climbing attempt to keep your RPE at the point where you are breathing hard.
As far as weight, I recently had a body fat test done with a personal trainer. It helps to give a bench mark for improvement. I'm at roughly 9.5% body fat at 163 pounds (6'0). Roughly, 15 pounds fat, I could lose 5 pounds to get to 6% body fat. |
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strader
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| Posted: 19-01-2008 20:48 |
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Link: http://www.pponline.co.uk/encyc/0261.htm
I'm convinced that high intensity training is the key to thwarting the fitness decline that comes with age. The articles I have read indicate that VO2Max and fast twitch muscle fibers decline rapidly with age if unused. Sure, the power you can generate over 20+ minutes is the best performance indicator for endurance cycling, but I think being able to generate lots of power in the range of a few minutes is really important for keeping your momentum over the short steep grades. This has become really evident to me while riding with my powertap. I can be pedalling along at 200 watts, come up to a moderate grade (~4%), look down and see the power has jumped up to 400 watts without me realizing it. |
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Index / Cycling training / Hill Climbing?
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