Newbie, what's giving out on hills...

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Relatively new to cycling. Have a lovely audax bike & finally getting out on roads/hills (north downs).
Cambridge (other place I've cycled) hills leave me out of breath/pounding heart, but not burning leg muscles. Here, get burning leg muscles + end up stopping before I run out of puff.
Quite unfit for cycling - though can swim a mile in the pool in 50 minutes fairly easily.
Not sure where problem is coming from - burning legs before running out of puff - what causes that? Was using lowest gear up hill - can't stand (dodgy knees!)

Velvet

That's a bit of a conundrum, the only time I'm legless is when I hit the wine bottle too hard:rolleyes: and burning muscles sounds like you have got a lactic acid build up. I suggest you read this -

http://www.cptips.com/muspain.htm

...and you have to remember that Rome wasn't built in a day and good hill climbing legs probably take longer. I wouldn't worry about not standing, I hardly ever do nowadays as it is an inefficient way to climb. Granny gears, spinning cranks and breaking yourself in progressively is what's required. If you've got dodgy knees check that you have pedals with a good amount of float and again take it easy. Cycling is all about enjoyment (I think) and if you make it hell I can see a nice Audax bike gathering dust

Good luck
Sean

The bike's been gathering dust as it is (inexperienced on roads so been too nervous to go out on my own round here - as well as scared of the hills) but having put in a weekend of riding quite a bit recently, am confident enough to manage out on the roads (and have work-arounds for the inability to signal, till I get that bit sorted!)

No way am I going to let the bike gather any more dust. Cost me a small fortune (and still is, as I change things to get it to fit me better, should have got one built to me, would have been cheaper in the long run). Pedals have all the float I could ever need - they're standard platforms at the moment - having tried toeclips it came with and had a nasty moment of nearly not pulling right free in time when I stopped and bike leant to the right instead of preferred left...

Have a set of clipless my other half bought me for my birthday (yay!) but am not allowed (nor want) to put them on till I master a few other skills first. Miss the toeclips, but having decided to simplify the whole thing during the learning curve, I don't want to learn toeclips then have to unlearn to deal with clipless!

Have learnt that hills are hard work but still enjoyable (odd that) now that the bike fits a bit better and I'm a little less nervous about stuff, so on a positive run here at the moment!

Just like me, you should worry about general fitness first before concern about weak links. I've put in 350 miles since picking the bike up again in May, and as others have reminded me... that's basically nothing.

Get in those clipless and you'll see a difference for sure. I do that quickly -- you don't want to get too in the habit of pedaling in squares.

Just like me, you should worry about general fitness first before concern about weak links. I've put in 350 miles since picking the bike up again in May, and as others have reminded me... that's basically nothing.


Nonsense!
That is a START. Which is the seed of progress...

Originally posted by Aztec


Get in those clipless and you'll see a difference for sure. I do that quickly -- you don't want to get too in the habit of pedaling in squares.

Um, no. I've not got the experience with a bike like this (racer-style) yet to handle clipless - I've just got to the stage (as of the weekend just gone) of getting the bike matched to me properly, in a way that doesn't give me too much to think about and too many new things to learn: Drops, derailleurs, toeclips, overstretched position, swinging leg back and over saddle instead of step-through, relearning signalling/balance/stopping procedures...

I'm still working on the signalling, not yet got down onto the drops on the bars, and stopping is still uncoordinated and abrupt/not fast enough some times!

As an aside, having put in a 32 mile ride yesterday, have made a lot of progress - feel much happier and at one with the bike, and wearing my HRM gave me an insight into the puff/burning legs relationship (or lack of).

Thanks for the help, I guess it's onwards and upwards around my local mountains :-)

Originally posted by Velvet
Um, no. I've not got the experience with a bike like this (racer-style) yet to handle clipless - I've just got to the stage (as of the weekend just gone) of getting the bike matched to me properly, in a way that doesn't give me too much to think about and too many new things to learn: Drops, derailleurs, toeclips, overstretched position, swinging leg back and over saddle instead of step-through, relearning signalling/balance/stopping procedures...

I'm still working on the signalling, not yet got down onto the drops on the bars, and stopping is still uncoordinated and abrupt/not fast enough some times!

As an aside, having put in a 32 mile ride yesterday, have made a lot of progress - feel much happier and at one with the bike, and wearing my HRM gave me an insight into the puff/burning legs relationship (or lack of).

Thanks for the help, I guess it's onwards and upwards around my local mountains :-)

I agree -- trying to learn 12 new motor skills at once is contrary to how the species learns. (I'm still in toe clips - frugal streak - but I didn't get *them* until I had a few miles under my butt. You're going to fall down at least once or twice though.)

There are no hills in swimming. You have total control over how much you push - no wonder you can go forever. Swimming's more upper body, too.
I'd use those gears to make it as smooth as possible - is your technique going to the dogs when you're working harder, too? WHen I'm climbing I try to focus on a smooth, round stroke and no wasted motion anywhere - and practice wind sprints in the pool and tread water a lot (whipkick is at least a little like cycling).

Based in Northern California, I began riding 16 months ago. Surrounded by mountains, I graduated from the flats to climbing. My first experiences were the same as yours, get winded and blow up.

I searched the internet and books looking for help, to no avail.

I then discovered a 'beginner' technique which allowed me to climb successfully and create a foundation on which steadily improve. Instead of the usual cadence of 90 - 110, I lowered my cadence to 60 - 80 and selected gears appropriately. This kept my heart rate lower, and more importantly, allowed me to finish the climb and enjoy the experience...albeit slowly.

I have now graduated to larger gears, faster cadence (if I choose) and climbiing out of the saddle. Every ride includes a climb, I have completed two centuries with greater than 8000 feet of climbing and have climbed Mt. Hamilton and Mt. Diablo (for the No. CA forum members)...all within a year.

Stick with it! Climb when ever you can and try this technique. It should enable you to build a foundation.

See you at the top!


Originally posted by Geonz
I agree -- trying to learn 12 new motor skills at once is contrary to how the species learns. (I'm still in toe clips - frugal streak - but I didn't get *them* until I had a few miles under my butt. You're going to fall down at least once or twice though.)

There are no hills in swimming. You have total control over how much you push - no wonder you can go forever. Swimming's more upper body, too.
I'd use those gears to make it as smooth as possible - is your technique going to the dogs when you're working harder, too? WHen I'm climbing I try to focus on a smooth, round stroke and no wasted motion anywhere - and practice wind sprints in the pool and tread water a lot (whipkick is at least a little like cycling).

Heh! My cadence drops far below the 60 mark when climbing hills in the lowest gear. Bad for knees - but I can't keep the cadence any higher, and I have no lower gears available - and this on a 27 speed audax bike...

Then again, this weekend managed a 32 mile ride with some gentleish but long haul hills, and only had to stop twice on one hill, sweated and groaned my way up a couple of others, so things have improved over what I'd have been capable of before, I think. Feeling a lot more positive about it all!

And, my normal cadence is anything between 70-90. Can't spin any faster than that - not only is it too much strain on the legs, but I have platform pedals whilst learning other skills :-) Feet going round too quick come undone from the pedals, which is a Very Bad Thing :-)

32 miles is pretty solid! The feet coming off the pedals just points more to getting into those clipless as soon as you can. Jeez, I couldn't spin any faster either, nor climb at all, without some straps on there at least!

Having had a few confidence setback already though, I just don't feel ready to begin the clipless learning experience. Once I'm sure I can stop in a controlled manner (I tend to put a foot down before being completely stopped) then I'll think about getting the clipless on there. I ride in traffic around here, and they're not clued up to cyclists at all, so falling over still clipped in would likely lead to some dozy motorist driving straight over me (not having seen me fall over in front of his car whilst we've both been stopped at a junction).

I *know* clipless should be good - I missed (and still do) the toestraps, even though they were always really loose - but I'm just not quite coordinated about stopping to remember to release the cleats before thinking about the rest of the stopping procedure.

The day will come :-)

For the record, clipless are much easier to get out of in an emergency situation, and about as hard to get into as toe clips.

Bite the bullet and go clipless, you'll never go back!

The mistake some people make is that with toeclips they used to use their runners to stop, rather than their brakes. You can't do that with clipless pedals: unclip, brake, stop.

Originally posted by Shabby
For the record, clipless are much easier to get out of in an emergency situation, and about as hard to get into as toe clips.

Bite the bullet and go clipless, you'll never go back!

The mistake some people make is that with toeclips they used to use their runners to stop, rather than their brakes. You can't do that with clipless pedals: unclip, brake, stop.

It's just like riding a bike, once you learn it, it's innate.

When I finally took the 'plunge*' and went clipless, I found my greatest gains in hill-climbing/cadence. Once you get those fast twitch muscle fibres properly whipped into shape, you can spin up walls if your attached and have the proper gear inches.

*PLUNGE = the requisite 'stop - freak out - tip over' that christens the newbie clipless'er. Usually happens on the second ride - when ya think ya 'got it down pat'