Should I sit or stand on climbs?

Q:  I climb a lot better when I’m sitting. If I stand even for 30 seconds, my cadence slows, I lose momentum, and I get winded. Should I try to learn how to stand or just stay in the saddle? I’m 5-foot-10 and 168 pounds with about 10 percent body fat.—Curt P.

COACH FRED:  I’m about your size and I climb much better seated, too. Last summer I rode the weeklong Tour the Peaks in Colorado. We averaged 97 miles per day with around 5,000 vertical feet. I sat on most of the climbs except to stretch my legs or go around a switchback. Like most riders, my heart rate goes up about 5 beats per minute when I stand, compared to riding seated at the same speed.

I think climbing position is a function of three things: your genetics, how you train, and your goals in the sport.

Some people climb much more comfortably while standing due to their low bodyweight, muscle fiber type, and other inherited factors. A good example is 142-pound Pete Penseyres, the multi-time national masters champion. Plus, if you want to climb well while standing you have to train that way. For example, on flat terrain use your 53x12-tooth gear and stand for 5 to 10 minutes into a headwind.

The final factor is your cycling focus and goals. I climb seated most of the time because my favorite event is the time trial. I’m trying to build seated power.

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How can I get in shape for a long tour?

Q:  I’m in average shape. I currently commute 10 to 20 miles a day. I would like to do a two-week, 1,000-mile ride five months from now, riding a mountain bike on the road. Am I a little crazy or is this possible?—Jeremy F.

COACH FRED:  You can certainly ride 1,000 miles in two weeks. Plenty of riders handle Lon Haldeman’s PAC Tours across the U.S. that cover nearly 1,000 miles each week at an average of 120-140 miles a day. If you train for the distance and the day-after-day aspects of these rides, you don’t have to be Lance Armstrong to complete the event and have fun.

Build your mileage with one longer ride per week until eight weeks before you plan to start your trip. Aim to eventually complete a 75-mile ride comfortably during this time.

Two months before your departure, start doing long rides on both weekend days. You’ll want to gradually increase to 75 miles on Saturday and 50 to 60 miles on Sunday. These rides will accustom you to the daily distances you’ll experience on the tour. They’ll also give you a chance to make sure that your clothing and equipment choices are suitable.

If you do the ride on your mountain bike, mount slick tires. They make a considerable improvement in rolling resistance, speed, and comfort on the road. Also install bar-ends for additional hand positions and more effective out-of-saddle climbing.

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Will extra protein help my riding?

Q:  My wife is on a diet that isn’t especially radical but it does emphasize protein over carbohydrate. I’m a relatively serious cyclist (2,000 miles per year) and during the cycling season I follow a high-carbohydrate diet. Would switching to my wife’s high-protein diet help or hinder my cycling performance?—Jim B.

COACH FRED:  High-protein diets are popular—and controversial. Some athletes push the protein, as do many dieters.

Protein advocates suggest a diet of only 40 percent carbohydrate with 30 percent protein and 30 percent fat. However, the overwhelming opinion of researchers, nutritionists, athletes, and coaches is that diets high in protein and/or fat aren’t optimum for athletic performance.

The biggest problem is low carbohydrate levels. If you eat the large amount of protein recommended, there’s little room left in the diet for adequate carbohydrate to sustain endurance activities. You might have to eat so many extra carb calories that you gain unwanted weight.

Carbohydrate is the body’s energy source. It’s converted to glycogen, the muscle fuel that allows you to train and ride hard. Endurance performance is partially limited by the ability to deliver oxygen to the working tissues, but it is also limited by fuel. Even with a great ability to consume oxygen (VO2 max), if there’s no glycogen in your muscles, you won’t go fast.

High carbohydrate intake is also important because the body makes glucose from carb. Glucose is the only fuel your brain can use. If levels are low, your body protects the brain by manufacturing glucose from whatever is available—even cannibalizing protein in muscle tissue. You’ll feel lethargic, you’ll ride slowly, and your sweat will smell like ammonia from the byproducts of breaking down your muscle tissue for energy. Don’t go there.

Years of research have shown that eating about 65 percent of your diet as carbohydrate and only 15 to 20 percent each of protein and fat is best for endurance performance as well as for general good health.

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How can I lose fat and get faster?

Q:  I’m overweight (6-foot, 230 pounds) and I’m slow. How can I lose weight and get fast enough to hold my own on fast group rides?—Davis K.

COACH FRED:  You would see a big improvement in your speed, especially on climbs, if you were lighter. This is assuming that your extra weight is fat rather than muscle.

If you are 230 and 10 percent body fat, you don’t have much extra to lose. Doing so might mean you’ll get weak and lose power. But if you’re toting 20 percent body fat, you’ll benefit from losing weight in a sensible and moderate way.

Check with your doctor, a sports medicine professional, or qualified health club trainer to get a body fat assessment and arrive at an appropriate weight goal.

The other part of the equation is training. In order to go fast with groups you have to go fast in training while still allowing for sufficient recovery. I recommend an interval workout once or twice a week. Intervals develop your ability to go hard and then go slow, over and over again, as happens on a group ride.

Don’t forget enough long and steady rides to build aerobic fitness. These will help you lose weight, too.

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What can I do to be safer in a pack?

Q:  I have adequate pack riding skills. I even won our local criterium last year. But this year I rubbed tires and went down. How can I practice for the close quarters of pack riding?—Mike A.

COACH FRED:  Over the years, lots of riders have increased their pack riding skills with the drills used at the Carpenter-Phinney Bike Camps. I’ve participated in some, so let me pass along three techniques for you.

You’ll need half a dozen large paper cups or traffic cones, a large grassy field, and several friends who want to learn these things with you. Wear your helmet and gloves for protection.

1. Bump and lean. Ride side by side with a friend at slow speed. Start by touching elbows and shoulders. Get comfortable with this contact. Then get more aggressive and bump each other. Soon you’ll be able to lean heavily on your friend and recover. Make a game of it—try to knock the other guy off-balance by bumping or leaning. Keep the speed slow and make sure the grass is soft! One other rule: You must keep both hands on the handlebar.

2. Touch tires. Ride behind your friend. Practice overlapping his rear wheel with your front and touching his tire with yours. You’ll quickly learn how to steer into his wheel (not away from it) to keep from going down.

3. Do a grass crit. Set up a 6-corner criterium course with the cups or cones. Keep it short with about 75 feet between them. Challenge 3 or 4 friends to a race, using a gear restriction to keep the speed down. A good choice is 39x19. Ride the course like a regular crit, attacking and chasing. You’ll learn a lot about pack riding, bumping, and cornering with mild consequences if you fall.

A few sessions spent working on your pack riding will help your reactions and confidence in races or group rides.

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Should I climb using the tops or drops?

Q:  I’ve always been told to hold the brake hoods during out-of-saddle climbing. They say this makes it easier to breathe. But when I watch races on OLN, I see many pros climbing with their hands on the handlebar drops as if they were sprinting. What made the old advice obsolete?—Stan M.

COACH FRED:  There’s nothing wrong with holding the brake hoods while climbing out of the saddle. The old advice is still good. You get more breathing room plus plenty of leverage.

But you’re right. The pros are increasingly climbing while holding the drops, a trend popularized by lightweight Italian climber Marco Pantani (RIP).

Here are two reasons for a low grip while standing on a hill:

• Gripping the drops gives you even more leverage than holding the brake hoods. It improves your ability to use your upper body to counteract the downward push on the pedals. This lets you use a larger gear and still turn it over at a reasonable cadence.
   

• Cycling continues to select better athletes and train them more scientifically, so pros are going faster and faster on climbs. And the faster they climb, the more important aerodynamics become. You can get lower and more aero when gripping the drops rather than the brake levers.

Bottom line: Try both techniques and see which works better for you.

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