Our last Look Pro edition discussed moving Sur la Plaque as you approach the top of the climb, thereby reducing your riding companions to withering leaves of wet lettuce. But the article ignored the other component of climbing like a Pro, which is commonly referred to as going Steady Up with More Speed. Right from the bottom.
Many riders make the mistake of assuming that going less hard is an easier way to get up a hill than by drilling it. In fact this is a myth. Scaling a climb at speed is in many ways easier than ascending slowly. At low speeds, we stretch the duration of the climb, we feel every change in gradient, our minds dwell on nuances that might indicated how we’re feeling or how well our machine is adhering to the Principle of Silence. None of these help you climb better.
But, assuming you can sustain the effort, going faster up a climb accomplishes several things. First, rhythm is everything. You body is completely dominated by rhythm, and cycling is no exception. The beating of your heart, the rate of your breathing, the cadence being tapped out by the guns; all these things work together. Settling into your natural cadence in a higher gear means you’ll go faster. Your body wants to maintain the rhythm it’s in, so it will assist you in keeping the speed higher. As you feel your cadence lift and body start to groan, flick your chain into a cog less. Your body will again seek out the cadence it was in – at a faster speed.
Second, momentum is everything, and carries you over the changes in gradient with little effort. Hitting a steep ramp at low speed will dramatically change your rhythm and velocity. Hitting it at high speed means that lifting out of the saddle and adding just a bit more power will let you dance over the ramp with hardly a change to your effort.
Third, the duration of the effort is much shorter. This seems obvious, but consider my climb up Haleakala. It took me four and a half hours, while Ryder Hesjedal motored up that brute in two and a half. That means that at any given time, he was going a little less than twice as fast as I was. That’s a lot more speed, but the complexities of maintaing an effort and keeping the body topped up on fluids and foods are disproportionately greater for a four and half hour effort than they are for a two and a half hour effort. The simple fact is that Ryder could do it and I would have been collectedin a dustbin, but his shorter effort is easier to gauge and monitor, given that it can be sustained.
The mistake most riders make when beginning a climb is to reserve strength or recover from a previous effort by easing off prior to the accent and on the lower slopes. Worse yet is the impulse to downshift at the base into the gear you expect to do the climb in. Counter-intuitive as it may be, increase your speed as you approach the climb. Hit the base as fast as possible, and only downshift as the gradient increases in order to avoid going into the red. A trained cyclist can sustain an effort just below the red zone for quite a while; so long as you don’t go red, you should be able to sustain a high pace.
Breathing also plays a major factor. Many riders will ignore their breathing entirely and slip into short, shallow breaths that start to fall into rhythm with your cadence. Other riders will only start to control their breathing as the effort takes its toll. This is the kiss of death for your climbing. Control your breathing in long deep breaths from the base of the climb and don’t slip into short shallow ones despite the considerable temptation to do so.
In summary, take it from a guy who can’t climb for shit and keep these pointers in mind:
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Oh yeah, for sure. My usual climbs have gradients all over the place, and thankfully have sections that are "less steep" where I can catch my breath for a few seconds before the next incline starts. They max in very short sections is 10-12%, but the "average" according to my data on Strava for the two climbs I hit the most frequently is around 5%-6%, averaged out over a distance that is exactly 1 mile for one of them, and 1.4 miles for the other. When the road tips up past 7% or so is when I start to really feel the hurt it seems.
@frank
Yes, very true - however I feel that for folks who are still getting their form tuned and fitness up, there is an initial period of time where climbing will hurt less the more they do it, and the more fitness they gain. I do agree with the main point that you'll always suffer, but the amount of suffering can be lowered a bit, and the amount of TIME exposed to that suffering is also lessened as you get up and over the hill more quickly.
Several months ago these same climbs were making my heart feel like it was going to pound out of my chest, as well as experiencing awful lower-back and side cramps. That is mostly in the past now, so climbing feels better than it once did, despite the suffering that is still done. I'm just suffering a bit less, and in shorter intervals.
@mcsqueak
+1
I've been at it not quite as long as you, and it's one of the few plus factors to picking cycling up a bit later is experiencing marked improvements almost every week. I know it won't last forever, but I take an almost maniacal glee in constantly showing myself up.
I'd add to your point about the time/suffering nexus that it's a lot more bearable to be in the box if you're happy or proud with how you're doing, rather than hating yourself for a lack of fitness or dedication.
@mcsqueak, @CJ
For sure, there's a difference in suffering when you're completely hammered into the 9 months from peaking hurt box versus the high speed, nail-to-the-wall suffering when you're peaking. Both are awful, but once you get the fitness you need to feel as though you have some kind of control over the pain, that's when it gets to be downright fun, no matter how fast you're actually going.
Another thing I notice is that I am 99.9% convinced that I can ride at the same speed/intensity/amount of suffering with the group I'm riding with behind me vs. in front of me and I'll hurt the same amount except when I'm in front I'll feel "great" and when I'm in back I'll feel "awful".
It's amazing the influence that morale has on the whole bit.
@CJ
Indeed! I was just a skinny dork in high school and college and I didn't play any sports, so actually getting into shape feels freakin' fantastic. I read somewhere that after taking up the sport, a dedicated cyclist will gain fitness for around 10 years before leveling off, which was interesting to hear.
Once you break the glass ceiling on something, say a climb that has been making you crack, it gets much easier mentally to handle it because you know that despite the hurt, you have made it up before, and there is no reason you can't this time.
Just this past Saturday I did an 80 km ride, the longest solo ride I've done. It started out as any other ride, but since I had the whole afternoon free from other obligations, I just kept going and going because I felt GOOD. What started as plans for my normal 2 hr/50 km ride quickly stretched out.
It's amazing, because I can still remember my first ride on a bike in a LONG time, about 3 years ago when I purchased a used Peugeot and decided to ride 5 miles to the river. It was such a hard ride. And that bike had all sort of mechanical issues, so I wound up not riding much until I received my dad's old Schwinn a year later. Now that same route is an easy warmup spin for me, and that short of a distance is not even worth mentioning.
Regardless, at the end of my ride this past Saturday I wound up missing my personal time record for a specific flat, 3 mile section that I keep track of by a mere .3 MPH (I rode it at an average pace of 18 MPH, and my fastest was 18.3 MPH from late last September), and I wasn't even trying. By that time in my ride, my legs were tired, my ass was starting to hurt, and I was hungry - but I was easily cruising along at a speed that it took me cycling for 5 months last summer to reach. And that feels fucking awesome.
Oh, I haven't picked up a Mokka pot yet, but just before my ride on Saturday I grabbed up a straight double espresso from the coffee shop down the street and slugged it down.
There were no stroopwafels within sight, but can it be coincidence that one of my best rides in some time was preceded directly beforehand by pure espresso? I think not.
@Karolinka
Nice!
Wife and I were doing a crit on Canada Day a few years back and she explodes off teh front right from the start! I am like, "holy crap she is going to pop." ANd she did. But she lead the race for a while, and yes it was full of pros and elites 15 years younger than her. I sandbagged and rode with the age-groupers and ended up near the ass end of a lapped group...and explaining my general lack of testicles and my pink purse. Lesson learned.
And blowing chunks or bleading from the nose, will always get you cred!
*bleeding* a little fast on the keyboard today...
True dat. Another good reason to fight for the front. My problem is that every other twatwaffle is fighting for the front, too, and a lot of them (especially the young ones) have a.) bad bike handling skills and b.) a lot less to live for than I, apparently. So I find myself drifting to the rear rather than bumping elbows on fast training rides, then bam! off the back I go.
Also, having someone in front of you can give you some motivation to speed it up a bit, so you don't get left way back in the dust. One of my fastest times up a local hill recently when I saw a guy with a local race club kit on and decided he would be my rabbit (not that I could have held a candle to him normally, but he made a good target to race up the hill after).