Up hill climbing problem

Justinpk

Justinpk

Squid
Some advice please, i have been riding for about 2 months on mostly single tracks and loving it, i have a good fitness level but find uphill climbs are really zapping me. I find it kills me for the rest of my ride. Do i just suck it up and wait for my legs to become use to the uphill or is there some techniques i should try.

Thanks for reading.

Cheers
 
Bit more info would be good such as what bike, hill type (long steep, short technical), are you clipped in, cleats or flats, seated or standing etc....
 
Apologies a bit more info

I find short steep climbs not to bad, its the long continous that are really killing me. I stay mostly seated during the climb.
Bike Hard tail Gary Fisher Tassajara
Cleats.

I find mainly my pace at the start of the climb drops dramatically in relation to the climb and its a real struggle from there on. Any rhoughts would be appreciated.
 
It may be the case that the specific cycling muscles aren't used to the lactate build up caused by sustained hill climbs.
The lactates are released as a by product by the anaerobic energy system, the major way your body is supplying energy to your muscle in time when oxygen is in short supply.
Some ways of reducing the initial burn of the climb would be to increase the amount of oxygen that can travel to the specific muscles, which you do by riding often and consistently a few times a week. Another way is to build up a higher tolerance lactate, which involves riding at higher intensities more often, so your muscles get used to the lactates. Examples of doing this, could be including more hills in your rides.

When you say that the hill climbing kills you for the rest of the ride, are you referring to your legs being too sore to keep riding at that pace, or that you find that your just too tired to keep riding and that you have no energy left in the tank to keep going?
 
the way i see it is that you have only been riding for 2 months, Climbing neatly is something that takes time.
I suggest trying 2 things,
find a not too steep, consistent road/dirt hill that is close to home that you are going to come very familiar with, then,
try to find something long i.e. 300m, 500m 1km,

1. put your bike in a fairly easy gear and spin up it without changing gear, try not to use your granny gear for this and pedal up the hill remaining seated. do this 10 times

2. put your bike in a fairly hard gear and see how many times you can climb before standing, then finish your set of 10 with a bit of standing.
staning/stomping on your pedals helps abit as you are using more body weight than muscle to keep the cranks turning over.

they are my thoughts and they could be totally wrong.

also when climbing you want your chin to be over your stem bolts as this will keep you stable especailly when seated climbing.
 
indica said:
Keep riding.
There is no "secret", exercise hurts....
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Yup.

Sounds like your unfit. Only way around it is to ride harder and eventually you'll get fit enough to zoom up the hills in the biggest gear.

Couple tips: If it's your lungs/energy dieing then find a long big hill and make an effort to ride up it to the top. Repeat until you feel like your going to vomit. Do this at the end of your ride if possible so you still get in a fun ride! (If your into fitness stuff, check out HIIT)

If it's your legs that just can't turn the pedals then maybe get in some leg-specific weight training to help the riding. Build up the key muscles.

Otherwise just ride as much as you can (every second day max, you need to rest) and try and ride further and further each time. It doesn't actually take that long but give it 2-3months and you'll realize riding bikes when your fit is unbelievably fun! Keep at it, it will come.

I used to race bikes but I was off regular riding for like 1-2years. When it was time to get fit again (last year) I just rode further and further distances every week and found I was riding (over 30km) about 3km/h faster each week. It feels like shit starting out but now I purposefully point myself up hills because I find it fun!

EDIT: When you say your "Fit" what does that involve? It may be you haven't worked the muscles needed for cycling or your a little down on the cardio side of things. You could just be hitting the hills way to fast but I doubt it. Get into a nice cadence and stay a constant speed, Don't rush up the hills at full tilt, you'll just get half way and die.
 
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Climb, climb, climb...

Been riding seriously for two years and all I seem to do is climb, always hurts but I'm getting faster I reckon. Climbing is oh so important so just keep it up!
 
Same here... I'm not ready for tracks involving progressive uphill. I just can't keep up the pace. Need to ride more often.
 
Another Q is how much body fat you are carrying.....

Try to stay relaxed on the hill by spinning an easier gear and work on hills once a week by doing repeats of the some long climbs.

I used to be really overweight and hated hills.

Now i am a bit overweight and don't like hills.:D
 
One of those weird little tips that I found really useful is to remember to keep your heels pushed down. I found I was unintentionally pointing my toes whilst climbing and remembering not to increased my climbing stamina. Something to do with keeping your calves stretched out increasing blood flow.
 
Thanks for the feedback

Will put all of your thoughts into practise, greatly appreciated. Thanks for taking the time to give me some insight.
 
Hey mate, when you're hill climbing, are you seated or standing up? Try to climb seated so as to develop muscles that will assist next time you need to climb.

One thing I found that greatly improved my rides was keeping hydrated. Now I always ride with the camelbak and feel more refreshed throughout the ride.
Magnesium pills taken at the start of a ride I found to help with not getting legs that feel like they're going to explode, and also taken afterwards along with Flaxseed oil to help recovery.
 
Justinpk said:
Some advice please, i have been riding for about 2 months on mostly single tracks and loving it, i have a good fitness level but find uphill climbs are really zapping me. I find it kills me for the rest of my ride. Do i just suck it up and wait for my legs to become use to the uphill or is there some techniques i should try.
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It will take your muscles a long time to get used to climbing. Be patient...

If you're finding that the hills are destroying you are probably going a bit too hard. Try to slow down your overall ride speed a bit and climb a bit slower if you are able to do so. Even better if you can increase your ride times to build your leg (and other) endurance.

Technique wise I'd suggest staying seated for now, irrespective of your height/weight ratio. If you are actually fit (as you have suggested) you need to get your heart and lungs doing the work. Try keeping your cadence above 75 in a very low (easy) gear while climbing.

If you are thinking about body dynamics then you need to try and keep your arms square with your shoulders and have a slight bend at the elbow. Are you getting your heels down at the bottom of your pedal stroke? Think about keeping completely still on the bike as it conserves energy and will result in a faster rolling speed.

If time permits do a couple of road rides. It's much easier to control the amount of pain you feel and cadence you ride at...

Most importantly keep your expectations realistic and enjoy the climbs :)
 
posts are a good read, here's my spin on this.

One thing I love about climbing is it requires you to dig deep into your character: it's a personal quest to conquer that climb. Once you have the fitness and required strength then it really does become a mental thing.

A problem with mtbing and climbing is yes it's mountain biking so you do spend a lot of time climbing up and down through terrain. But mtbing doesn't have the sustained climbing that you see on road climbs - each year I do the Audax Alpine Classic 200k, it's the toughest climbing I do for year with 4 tough long climbs - nearly 4000 mtr ascent. Guess what i'm saying is if you want to fast track your mtb climbing do some road climbing as the sustained effect will have great benefits to pacing yourself and building the climbing strength for mtb. If you're in Melb the Kew Boulie is a good place for this.

Some other things to consider: do you get a sore back or quads climbing? Could be weak core and/or ride position, is bike appropriate for climbing or does it have a downhill emphasis - no good for steep climbs.
 
All good feedback, being a newbie (two months) it might also be worth getting someone to check your bike set up? eg. your saddle positioning, seat height, head stem length etc all affects the handling, endurance and overall enjoyment of the ride.
 
Justinpk said:
Apologies a bit more info

I find short steep climbs not to bad, its the long continous that are really killing me. I stay mostly seated during the climb.
Bike Hard tail Gary Fisher Tassajara
Cleats.

I find mainly my pace at the start of the climb drops dramatically in relation to the climb and its a real struggle from there on. Any rhoughts would be appreciated.
Click to expand...

Especially for beginners don't go too hard too early.

Pick a pace you will be able to hold all the way up rather than charging off the start and blowing up.

Spin. Spin. Spin. A cadence of 80-90rpm is good. Stomping big gears just leads to quicker muscle fatigue so if you can spin an easier gear a bit quicker you'll be better off (kinda like doing slow bicep curls with a heavy weight vs doing fast ones with a light weight.)

Push down, pull up. Make sure you are taken advantage of the cleats by pedaling in full circles rather than just stomping down.
 
mtb101 said:
One thing I love about climbing is it requires you to dig deep into your character: it's a personal quest to conquer that climb. Once you have the fitness and required strength then it really does become a mental thing.

But mtbing doesn't have the sustained climbing that you see on road climbs - each year I do the Audax Alpine Classic 200k, it's the toughest climbing I do for year with 4 tough long climbs - nearly 4000 mtr ascent.
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Agree about the mental aspect, i find it can be very rewarding to achieve some big climbs.

Maybe in Australia we don't have sustained climbs but i rode a couple of tough MTB races in Europe last year. The 1st with 4280M of climbing in 85ks, the second with over 7000m (up to 30%) of climbing over 200ks. Both were single day, 1 lap course.
 
thecat said:
Especially for beginners don't go too hard too early.

Pick a pace you will be able to hold all the way up rather than charging off the start and blowing up.

Spin. Spin. Spin. A cadence of 80-90rpm is good. Stomping big gears just leads to quicker muscle fatigue so if you can spin an easier gear a bit quicker you'll be better off (kinda like doing slow bicep curls with a heavy weight vs doing fast ones with a light weight.)

Push down, pull up. Make sure you are taken advantage of the cleats by pedaling in full circles rather than just stomping down.
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I was going to chime in with the magic word, but The Cat (rightly) beat me to it. 'CADENCE'

When you spin REALLY think about your legs running in perfect circles around the bottom bracket. You're clipped in, so pay attention to 'pulling' up and back with your foot just as much as pushing with your front foot. That said - don't push/pull literally. If you ride anywhere imagine your feet making perfect concentric circles around that BB and you'll find climbing so much easier.

Even if you're a fat old runt like me :);)
 
Theres some good advice here but your best bet would be to ride with some experienced riders and have them analyse what you're doing. Without seeing you, there could be 101 things to consider.

Any chance you could post a video?
 
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