Hills

I've been poring over OS maps, trying to find routes around Pontypridd
that don't involve hills. These routes don't exist. So, I guess I'm
going to just have to suck it up and get used to going up them.

Now, at the moment, I can go up inclines. I can climb up from
Tongwynlais to Caerphilly, which is a couple of hundred feet in two
miles or so, and that's not much of a problem. A little puffed at the
end, but basically fine. However, when it gets a little steeper, I can
do about 50 feet before my thighs start to burn and I have to
stop. Standing up and honking isn't an option - I just can't do it any
more.

So, what's the best way to practise going up hills? Should I ride the
hills I can do (such as the Tongwynlais route I mention above) lots of
times? Or should I try to ride up the steeper ones and do a few feet
extra each time?

(The best thing I could do is lose weight, but that's a little more long
term, and I'm thinking that if I learn to climb hills weighing what I
weigh now, it'll be a picnic when I do lose weight - I'm thinking of it
as extreme training. Like some of you lot climbing hills with a child on
your back :-))

--
Keith Willoughby http://flat222.org/keith/
"We are not the only experiment"

"Keith Willoughby" wrote in message
...
Now, at the moment, I can go up inclines. I can climb up from
Tongwynlais to Caerphilly, which is a couple of hundred feet in two
miles or so, and that's not much of a problem. A little puffed at the
end, but basically fine. However, when it gets a little steeper, I can
do about 50 feet before my thighs start to burn and I have to
stop. Standing up and honking isn't an option - I just can't do it any
more.

I take it you have no more gears in a downward stylee?

So, what's the best way to practise going up hills? Should I ride the
hills I can do (such as the Tongwynlais route I mention above) lots of
times? Or should I try to ride up the steeper ones and do a few feet
extra each time?

Perverse as it may seem, try doing the hills that you can currently do,
carrying more weight. This will improve your fitness and climbing ability.
There was an article about this in C+ recently. It is apparently called
"hypergravity training" and is basically bloody obvious. Train with weights,
remove weights, go faster and further!

(The best thing I could do is lose weight, but that's a little more long
term, and I'm thinking that if I learn to climb hills weighing what I
weigh now, it'll be a picnic when I do lose weight - I'm thinking of it
as extreme training. Like some of you lot climbing hills with a child on
your back :-))

While trying to get further and further up a hill which is currently beating
you is admirable, it is likely to leave you demoralised. Making routes that
you can do, harder, will increase your strength and fitness without losing
the feelings of victory. Do you ride alone? If you have someone who can ride
with you, you may find you could go further. The pyschological boost of
having someone else there can be all it takes to push those last few metres!

Good luck

Jon

--
Keith Willoughby http://flat222.org/keith/
"We are not the only experiment"

Jon Senior wrote:

"Keith Willoughby" wrote in message
...
Now, at the moment, I can go up inclines. I can climb up from
Tongwynlais to Caerphilly, which is a couple of hundred feet in two
miles or so, and that's not much of a problem. A little puffed at the
end, but basically fine. However, when it gets a little steeper, I can
do about 50 feet before my thighs start to burn and I have to
stop. Standing up and honking isn't an option - I just can't do it any
more.

I take it you have no more gears in a downward stylee?

Nope. I've hit the lowest gears on a triple, and twenty seconds later
you could cook an egg on my upper legs.

So, what's the best way to practise going up hills? Should I ride the
hills I can do (such as the Tongwynlais route I mention above) lots of
times? Or should I try to ride up the steeper ones and do a few feet
extra each time?

Perverse as it may seem, try doing the hills that you can currently do,
carrying more weight.

Hah. OK, I guess it makes sense. I'll put the panniers on.

This will improve your fitness and climbing ability. There was an
article about this in C+ recently. It is apparently called
"hypergravity training" and is basically bloody obvious. Train with
weights, remove weights, go faster and further!

A Welsh boxer from the 50s whose name escapes me used to do that. He
used to train in miners' steel-toe-capped boots.

[...]

While trying to get further and further up a hill which is currently beating
you is admirable, it is likely to leave you demoralised. Making routes that
you can do, harder, will increase your strength and fitness without losing
the feelings of victory. Do you ride alone?

Mostly, yeah.

If you have someone who can ride with you, you may find you could go
further. The pyschological boost of having someone else there can be
all it takes to push those last few metres!

Hmm. If it was a stamina thing you might be right, but it's mostly a
strength thing at the mo. The muscles just give up really quickly.

I think I'll try doing the Tongwynlais climb twice in succession. If
nothing else, the freewheel down is lots of fun.

--
Keith Willoughby http://flat222.org/keith/
9-3

On Sat, 17 Apr 2004 08:00:01 +0100, Jon Senior wrote:



Perverse as it may seem, try doing the hills that you can currently do,
carrying more weight. This will improve your fitness and climbing ability.

I think this sounds very perverse and is potentially harmful for someone
who isn't fit. It sounds like a training programme for very fit people who
want to get fitter, not people like the OP who need to lose weight.

My suggestion is to find hills that you _can_ ride up. Failing that
there's nothing wrong with pushing. Any exercise, including pushing, will
help you get fitter and you _will_ eventually be able to climb those hills.
It's often possible to ride a bit, push a bit, ride another bit etc.

Another suggestion is to take your bike a bit further south (using the
train?) where it's flatter. I was an unfit youth in Cardiff and did lots
of cycling around Caerphilly, Rudry, Michaelston, St. Fagan's and down into
the Vale of Glamorgan on a 3-speed Raleigh. Even down there I had to push
a bit from time to time but so what?

BTW what cadence (rpm of feet) do you ride at, approximately?

--
Michael MacClancy
Random putdown - "I have never killed a man, but I have read many
obituaries with great pleasure." - Clarence Darrow
www.macclancy.demon.co.uk
www.macclancy.co.uk

Michael MacClancy wrote:

On Sat, 17 Apr 2004 08:00:01 +0100, Jon Senior wrote:



Perverse as it may seem, try doing the hills that you can currently do,
carrying more weight. This will improve your fitness and climbing ability.


I think this sounds very perverse and is potentially harmful for someone
who isn't fit. It sounds like a training programme for very fit people who
want to get fitter, not people like the OP who need to lose weight.

I agree. Cycling need not be masochism, unless one is really trying to
achieve peak (racing) performance)



My suggestion is to find hills that you _can_ ride up.

My suggestion is to fit lower gears. Unless the OP already has ~20T
chainring and 34T largest cog on the cassette, he can drop the gearing
to a level at which cycling will be not be much faster (and thereore not
much harder) than walking.

James
--
If I have seen further than others, it is
by treading on the toes of giants.
http://www.ne.jp/asahi/julesandjames/home/

Michael MacClancy wrote:

My suggestion is to find hills that you _can_ ride up. Failing that
there's nothing wrong with pushing. Any exercise, including pushing,
will help you get fitter and you _will_ eventually be able to climb
those hills. It's often possible to ride a bit, push a bit, ride
another bit etc.

Yeah, that's what I've been doing. Keep at it, then, and be patient.

Another suggestion is to take your bike a bit further south (using the
train?) where it's flatter. I was an unfit youth in Cardiff and did
lots of cycling around Caerphilly,

The hill up to Caerphilly is one of the few I can do

Rudry, Michaelston, St. Fagan's and down into the Vale of Glamorgan on
a 3-speed Raleigh.

I have considered getting a train down to Barry and cycling around the
vale. I've also considered cycling down to the vale, but it's pushing my
maximum distance a bit. Ideally, I'd cycle down through Efail Isaf,
Pentyrch, and Creigiau - but there are hills that way

Even down there I had to push a bit from time to time but so what?

BTW what cadence (rpm of feet) do you ride at, approximately?

Last time I counted, it was 70. I've bought clipless pedals since then,
though. Much more than that and I start bouncing, probably because I've
hit the natural frequency of the aerobelly

--
Keith Willoughby http://flat222.org/keith/
I hate you, Butler

James Annan wrote:

Michael MacClancy wrote:
My suggestion is to find hills that you _can_ ride up.

My suggestion is to fit lower gears. Unless the OP already has ~20T
chainring and 34T largest cog on the cassette, he can drop the gearing
to a level at which cycling will be not be much faster (and thereore
not much harder) than walking.

Hmm. If I counted correctly, they're 22 and 30. Quite a lot of room to
play with, then, with lower gears.

--
Keith Willoughby http://flat222.org/keith/
"Go back, Jack, and do it again"

Keith Willoughby wrote:

James Annan wrote:

My suggestion is to fit lower gears. Unless the OP already has ~20T
chainring and 34T largest cog on the cassette, he can drop the gearing
to a level at which cycling will be not be much faster (and thereore
not much harder) than walking.


Hmm. If I counted correctly, they're 22 and 30. Quite a lot of room to
play with, then, with lower gears.

Not as much as i was hoping for...

I think 18T chainrings can be fitted, actually. Changing to a cassette
with 34T is a very simple operation. You may also find you get further
if you keep the pedalling smooth and not too fast rather than heaving
and huffing and pufffing. But certainly, if you just keep on riding
regularly, and enjoying it, it will not be long before you look back at
the currently unrideable hill and wonder what all the fuss was about!

You might also be surprised how much difference it makes fitting
thinner, slicker and higher pressure tyres. Of course that depends what
you already have. Sorry I haven't been paying that much attention to
what you have posted before...

James
--
If I have seen further than others, it is
by treading on the toes of giants.
http://www.ne.jp/asahi/julesandjames/home/

James Annan wrote:

Keith Willoughby wrote:

James Annan wrote:
My suggestion is to fit lower gears. Unless the OP already has ~20T
chainring and 34T largest cog on the cassette, he can drop the gearing
to a level at which cycling will be not be much faster (and thereore
not much harder) than walking.
Hmm. If I counted correctly, they're 22 and 30. Quite a lot of room
to
play with, then, with lower gears.

Not as much as i was hoping for...

I think 18T chainrings can be fitted, actually. Changing to a cassette
with 34T is a very simple operation.

I might wait until it needs replacing. By then . . .

You may also find you get further if you keep the pedalling smooth and
not too fast rather than heaving and huffing and pufffing. But
certainly, if you just keep on riding regularly, and enjoying it, it
will not be long before you look back at the currently unrideable hill
and wonder what all the fuss was about!

.. . . I'll hopefully not need it

You might also be surprised how much difference it makes fitting
thinner, slicker and higher pressure tyres. Of course that depends
what you already have. Sorry I haven't been paying that much attention
to what you have posted before...

And there's me thinking you were all hanging on my every word, waiting
for the new installment of Fat Bloke Goes Cycling

It currently has big thick knobbly tires on. I've been putting off
changing them because when I do, I may as well clean the chain and
casette while I'm there, and then I can never face all that grease.

--
Keith Willoughby http://flat222.org/keith/
"Too lazy to work, too nervous to steal"

James Annan wrote:

Keith Willoughby wrote:

James Annan wrote:
My suggestion is to fit lower gears. Unless the OP already has ~20T
chainring and 34T largest cog on the cassette, he can drop the gearing
to a level at which cycling will be not be much faster (and thereore
not much harder) than walking.
Hmm. If I counted correctly, they're 22 and 30. Quite a lot of room
to
play with, then, with lower gears.

Not as much as i was hoping for...

I think 18T chainrings can be fitted, actually. Changing to a cassette
with 34T is a very simple operation.

I might wait until it needs replacing. By then . . .

You may also find you get further if you keep the pedalling smooth and
not too fast rather than heaving and huffing and pufffing. But
certainly, if you just keep on riding regularly, and enjoying it, it
will not be long before you look back at the currently unrideable hill
and wonder what all the fuss was about!

.. . . I'll hopefully not need it

You might also be surprised how much difference it makes fitting
thinner, slicker and higher pressure tyres. Of course that depends
what you already have. Sorry I haven't been paying that much attention
to what you have posted before...

And there's me thinking you were all hanging on my every word, waiting
for the new installment of Fat Bloke Goes Cycling

It currently has big thick knobbly tires on. I've been putting off
changing them because when I do, I may as well clean the chain and
casette while I'm there, and then I can never face all that grease.

--
Keith Willoughby http://flat222.org/keith/
"Too lazy to work, too nervous to steal"