QUESTION: I live in a pancake-flat area but want to improve my climbing for an upcoming event with lots of hills. What’s the best way to train without access to any real climbs? —Mark S.
RBR’S STAN PURDUM REPLIES: That’s an excellent question, one I wished I had thought about before riding across the United States several years ago. In preparation for that trek, I rode 2,000 miles in my home state of Ohio, which has a mixed geography. The western part of Ohio has plenty of pancake-flat terrain, but the northeastern part, where I lived at the time, also has hills and some significant climbs, though nothing as long as the mountain slopes I encountered in the American West, where I started the cross-country route. During the first week, I often ended up walking the bike for portions of the upslopes, but by the second week, I walked less often. In other words, I “trained” for the mountains while on them with loaded panniers.
One of the mistakes I made was not taking sufficient advantage of what hills I did have in my home riding area. Instead of just riding up them and continuing on, I could have done repeated climbs. If it took me five minutes to complete a certain hill, I could have climbed it 10 times or more and gotten more the effect of a longer upslope.
But if you have no hills at all in your riding area, you do likely have wind, which can give you as much resistance as a steep climb does. So on a windy day, pick a route that heads you into the wind and work on sustaining a pace that keeps you moving steadily. Depending on the strength of the wind, you may need to do your effort as intervals, at least initially — say five minutes strongly into the wind, then a couple minutes at a slower pace and then repeated cycles of 5/2.
Another option is to do some riding in big gears, even on flat roads. The bigger gears will force you to work harder, simulating the effort you’d need to pull against gravity while climbing. One advantage of using bigger gears over simply repeating hill climbs is that if you select a long road where you don’t need to stop for crossroads or traffic lights, you can maintain a steady speed against resistance for a long time, which approximates what happens when pedaling up a mountain. With hill repeats, you break up your steady speed while going back down to run the hill again.
You can also increase resistance by riding on irregular surfaces, such as gravel, which will spill off your momentum more quickly than a smooth pavement will.
Finally, don’t overlook riding on a trainer. Smart trainers in particular can simulate a long climb, using apps like Zwift or Rouvy.
Stan Purdum has ridden several long-distance bike trips, including an across-America ride recounted in his book Roll Around Heaven All Day, and a trek on U.S. 62, from Niagara Falls, New York, to El Paso, Texas, the subject of his book Playing in Traffic. Stan, a freelance writer and editor, lives in Ohio. See more at www.StanPurdum.com.
I live on the Indiana/Michigan border. Here’s how I learned to prepare for doing mountainous centuries. There are two pieces, as I see it, technique and aerobic training.
Technique is not obvious but if you’re new it’s something to work on esp. for steep gradients (15%+). Most areas at least have a short steep climb (here they’re on glacial moraines). Do repeats on that hill. Try different gear combinations. Try sitting and standing. Work on keeping the pace fast enough to sustain your momentum but slow enough so that you don’t go anaerobic. You’re figuring out what works for you. as well as getting practice.
Aerobic training. Long climbs are like a time trial. That’s why Stan suggests riding into the wind (we have a lot of wind here and it’s very much like doing a climb). The other element is aerobic. Interval training will raise your aerobic threshold so that you can sustain a higher pace on climbs. If you have a longish, not very steep, hill, you can do intervals on it (with repeats, of course).
When I lived in Tampa, parking garages where popular with the racer types for training for hills,
There were days when riding in Florida where the only elevation was from overpasses, some of which were in low-traffic areas where hill repeats would be possible.
One time riding the Death Ride I happened to ride along a couple of riders from the Texas panhandle. Despite their flat home territory they were having no trouble with the mountains. I asked them how they trained for these climbs and their reply was “We have wind.” After hearing that remark I have often wondered how how headwind velocity corresponds to % grade. For example, is a 15 mph headwind equal a 5% grade? I have never been able to find an answer. Anyone have an answer?. BTW, I would much rather climb that ride into a wind any day.
I am an IRONMAN Athlete (age 72 & a 3x World Champion) and train on a trainer (why is a different story)……my approach to cycling hills is, given the proper gearing (a KEY), there is (at least should be in an IRONMAN) little effort difference between the hills & flats. In IRONMAN Racing, spending an appropriate effort evenly on the bike is a key to success as one swims 2.4mi before the 112mi bike and runs a 26.2mi Marathon after the bike…….strategies to ‘drop’ a competitor on the bike leg are far secondary (often do NOT exist) to an appropriate even distribution of energy expenditure on the bike. I realize ‘hills’ in cycling racing are often FAR more challenging vs IRONMAN (Nice, France is an exception). However, this can often be made up for on the trainer with appropriate high gear, low cadence as well as VO2max intervals. Running hills is a different problem as gearing ranges in cycling can far exceed any technique alterations to adjust to the hill inclination and running hills (outdoors OR treadmill) is often a key for building the strength to accomplish these efficiently in a race. BTW while hills in cycling can be steeper than those often found in IRONMAN Biking; Hills in running can be more challenging (e.g. Kona) than those found in Marathon running (but not always) AND occur AFTER completing a 2.4mi swim and a 112mi bike. Just some thoughts, yours may differ.
Very good information. I too live in the flat lands of the midwest.
My only question about riding in larger gears is the stress it could put on a person’s knees, is that an issue?
As long as you don’t sustain riding in the larger gears too long, the stress would be no worse than the stress of riding hills, which is what you are training for.