Hi Fans of cycling,
As Summer is coming in full strength, I decided to share my Top3 Tips for road climbing on a road or mountain bike, which can help you shave some time from your PR or just to get you up there being fresh and ready to tackle the next obstacle.
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1)So the first tip, and the most obvious is to pace yourself. However if you are new to the sport and you don't have a lot experience, you can "cheat" a little and you can use a pacing tool. The most know and used way to pace yourself is pacing by looking at you heart rate.
The pros are that is fairly cheap technology, however there are a lot of variables which plays a role. The HR number depends on if you are dehydrated, if you had a good sleep, if you are overtrained, if you have a stress in your life etc.
The second pacing tool which gets much more used recently is the Powermeter.
Probably the best way to pace yourself is by it. You can get instant data on your reading device( garmin, bryton, polar, leyzene), while there is some lag in the data from the Heart Rate Monitor. Prices are fairly high, but not as high as 5-6 years ago. I am using a Stages Powermeter and i gotta say it's probably the best thing I bought in terms of cycling. I am using it on my MTB and should say the calibration process and the changing of battery is as quick as. In order to pace yourself, first you have to do a 20min Functional Threshold Power ( ride for 20min as hard as possible, without fading at the end). So when you know your 20min power (in wattage), you can pace on the climb, while pushing the correct wattage for the climb.
2)The second tip would be to keep a high cadence.
Cadence is a term which refers to the speed of your pedaling or how many revolutions per minute you do. A good cadence would be between 90 to 100. While you keep a high cadence, much less fatigue and lactate acid is produced in your legs. If you go on a really steep hill or live in a hilly area it's good idea to have a bigger cassette like 11-30,11-32, also would suggest to use a compact crankset in the front.
3)So the third tip would be to change the position on the bike while riding.
This means to use seated and standing climbing style.
This apply to longer hills instead of the short hills because if you want to surge on a really short hill, that's only a couple of hundred meters, it's generally best to be out of the saddle and using your bodyweight in order to generate the most amount of power. However on longer climbs it comes down to managing the fatigue and being as comfortable as possibly can. Riding seated uses the back muscle as well as the quadriceps muscle . These are really effective in generating power for a long amount of time and it is very efficient style of riding. When you standing your cadence naturally drops and that's fine as it's suit that type of riding.
You'd learn what's best for you trough your progress in cycling.
So that was a few tips connected with your climbing I will have plenty more coming soon.
Thanks for the attention and stay tuned for more.
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