I have had a few fit clients lately who want to climb hills better...who doesn’t, right? There are many ways to get up hills better so I will go over a few. These are not in any kind of special order as it will be specific as to the rider.
Weight: Yeah, I went there! It can be a touchy subject but hear me out. Some riders are perfect weight for climbing but I don’t think that it is important to focus on that. Think back to previous years riding when you were better on hills. Were you lighter? Maybe even heavier due to some muscle from gym workouts? Use that as a guide. Most people have some sense as to whether they need to drop or add weight but whatever you do, be gradual and sensible. Lighter is NOT always better. Remember that!
Training: If you ride once a week, you probably aren’t going to go up hills very well. Try for 3 times a week minimum. A majority of your riding time should be easy. Conversation with a friend pace. Pros do it and you should too. Make an effort to add more climbing in if you don’t do much. Look back on your rides and see how many feet you average climbing for every mile. Try to bump that up. Around Birmingham, it is easy to get 100 feet per mile and up. Don’t smash every hill...get good at riding up them at easy pace. I learned this from Brian Toone. It works. You will go really damn slow and that is fine. Sometimes go hard on hills but the idea is to ride a variety of hills at a variety of efforts. To be honest, most riders are bad at climbing because they don’t do it much! Some of the best riding around can be found in hilly areas. If you don’t know where to go, just ask around and someone local can show you new routes.
Technique: Don’t sit on every hill. Learn to climb standing some, maybe for 30 seconds to start but you should be able to do 5 to 10 minutes standing climbing. That might sound insane, but you can do it. Focus on relaxing while climbing. Are your hands relaxed? Your face? Do a checklist, any extra muscle tension is wasted energy. As far as cadence, again, try for variety. Spin fast some, but also get good at seated climbing down to 50-60 RPM. Also vary cadence some standing but don’t shoot too high as it gets incredibly inefficient at high cadences. Remember the adage of the mountain biker: Heavy Feet Light Hands. Most of your weight is best used mashing pedals, not leaning on the bars like a shopping cart! These new techniques take practice but will become second nature eventually.
That is it! Nothing really complicated, so go find some hills and have fun.