Can you simulate climbing on a stationary trainer

I'm a semi-serious recreational cyclist in training for a climbing event at the end of January (1 day ride total 125ml, 42ml climbing, 12800 ft ascent @ avg 5.4%). I have my training plan laid out which has to fit around my work/family life.

• I commute a total of 52mls a week with 1 hard interval session mixed in there (about 1 hour long usually).
• I've also planned 4 trips between now and end of Jan to nearby climbs which will give me a total of 75ml climbing with 21,000 ft ascent @ avg 5.5%.

I can't manage any more climbing trips than this, but my question is can I supplement this work with a stationary trainer and somehow simulate climbing? e.g if I put the front wheel on an incline?

If not, is there any other way to similute/train my ability to climb on a stationary trainer? Would it be better to do more interval/lactate threshold training on the stationary instead?

Not sure you need to be that specific. 6% grades aren't that technical after all. You'll probably climb most of it on the saddle.

So your ability to do well will mostly depend on how much power you can sustain for the duration, no mater the incline.

If there's anything technical here, I'd say that it will be your gearing/cadence choices. The specificity on the trainer would be to adopt the same range of cadence. In other words, if you climb higher torque at 85rpm, don't do all your indoor training lower torque at 100rpm.

And of course make sure that your bike gearing is appropriate. You mention an avg grade of little less than 6%, but there might be some more difficult sections. Make sure you have gears that are easy enough to go over these difficult sections.

Thanks for the tips. I've done the ride before and there are many sections of over 10%, however some flatter sections drag the avg % down to under 6. I'll keep your idea on cadence in mind, that makes sense.

THere are a few climbing DVD's out there they may help. The one I have uses larger gears to simulate incline.

Bingo! We have a winner!

Don't bother raising the front wheel or trying to get too fancy on the trainer. Adding a second threshold interval session per week will do the trick just fine. Good luck.