I am sure that this topic has been discussed to death, but any help with this would be very appreciated. A couple of years ago, I started racing locally and noticed that my climbing and general condition was lacking. Basically, every road race that had a hill in it caused me to be the first rider off the back. So this past winter, I decided that I wanted to change all that and start my own training plan. Basically 3 months base training, and 2 months building. I also, decided that I needed more strength in my legs to climb better and hit the gym doing squats, hamstring curls, leg presses and other such exercises. I used my max heart rate of 170 to basically divide out the percentages for target heart rate zones when training. As the races started here on the west coast, I came to sad realization, my climbing has not improved. It seems that every time the road starts to goes higher than 3%, my heart rate jumps to the 160 zone. With a max at 170, basically I am becoming anaerobic as the hill begins. It's scary to see your heart rate go from 135 - 145 to 165- 168 in 3ths of a mile on a 2 mile climb. It's also sad to see you go from being with the pack to watching the pack ride off in front of you and you having no gas left to catch them without blowing up. The other sad point is that I am 5 11' and 150lbs and there are guys bigger than me passing me on the hills.
Basically I am at a lost, do I push more weight and try to get stronger or do I go back to base miles and get my aerobic engine overhauled. Also, I noticed in my hill training that my heart rate always jumps into the danger zone when climbing hills. People say that it power vs. weight. So that would leave me to believe to climb faster become stronger. However, if your lungs can't keep up with the additional effort needed to climb faster then??
Also, if it helps, it seems that my lungs give out way before my legs do. However, my legs are quick to follow since I am gasping for air in most cases and not getting enough oxygen to my muscles to contract properly.
So the question is, do I lift more to become stronger, do I do hill repeats to train better in an anaerobic state, or do I go back to base miles and see if by training my aerobic engine better my climbing will get better?
Any ideas or suggestions?
Basically I am at a lost, do I push more weight and try to get stronger or do I go back to base miles and get my aerobic engine overhauled. Also, I noticed in my hill training that my heart rate always jumps into the danger zone when climbing hills. People say that it power vs. weight. So that would leave me to believe to climb faster become stronger. However, if your lungs can't keep up with the additional effort needed to climb faster then??
Also, if it helps, it seems that my lungs give out way before my legs do. However, my legs are quick to follow since I am gasping for air in most cases and not getting enough oxygen to my muscles to contract properly.
So the question is, do I lift more to become stronger, do I do hill repeats to train better in an anaerobic state, or do I go back to base miles and see if by training my aerobic engine better my climbing will get better?
Any ideas or suggestions?