QUESTION: Why is it “easier” to go hard on a hill than on a flat road? I do intervals on both types of terrain and can’t seem to exert myself as much on the flats. — Maxine S.
RBR REPLIES: Many riders experience this. If they wear a heart rate monitor, they can hold a higher average heart rate on climbs compared to a flat road. The same is true if they use a power meter. It seems easier to sustain a given power output on climbs. This also holds if your method of gauging intensity is through perceived exertion.
One theory is that climbing requires much more force to be exerted by the quads just to maintain momentum. You can’t soft-pedal periodically like you can on flat ground.
Not all riders experience this phenomenon, however. Those who hate climbing often can’t go hard on climbs. They think about how much they despise hills, shift to their lowest gear and twiddle up. But these same riders will bury themselves in a flat sprint.
So if you want to go harder on the flats, you need to do two things.
1. Change your attitude to that of an all-around rider. Know that you can give a full effort no matter the terrain.
2. Do some training time trials on flat terrain. Work at increasing your heart rate and power production. As with most things, practice will help you improve.
The physics of climbing are different from the physics of flat riding.
That affects how the two feel to you.
On flat ground, the energy to overcome wind resistance goes up with the cube of your airspeed.
When climbing, that portion of your energy spent lifting you varies directly with your groundspeed.
Back to flat ground: You’re riding 20 mph. If you want to go 22 mph, 10 percent faster, you have to exert 33 percent more effort.
On a climb? Depending on how steep the climb is, 10 percent faster might be closer to 10 percent more effort.
Which feels better to you, and why? That’s a question I can’t answer.
I am always surprised by the number of riders who simply don’t know what it is like to ride hard on the flats. Learning the pacing of time trialing will teach you how to go hard on the flats. Nobody who has done a lot of time trials would make the claim that they seem to be able to go harder on hills than on the flats.