How to train for hills when you live in the flatlands?

[LIKESBIKES716]

I can say this much you will drop the weight. Im interested to know when you did that ms ride what did you weigh. What kind of bike do you have? my concern is that I weigh 220 now and I dont know what kind of road bike would suit heavier dudes like me. also what was your workouts like before you picked up a bike? Im sorry Im being so personal but I'm kind of in the same boat as you.

I just started cycling in May of this year with the idea of riding in an MS 150 ride. I spent most of my time just building a base and getting to the point where I could do the miles necessary to complete the ride. We did go up a few times and do some relatively short rides in hilly terrain (typically about 25 miles) but most everything else was 30-50 mile weekend rides on level roads and 15-20 mile weekday rides, again on level roads. I recently completed the MS 150 ride and one of the things that was really obvious to me during the ride was that my ability to deal with hills needs lots of improvement. I was able to stay with pace lines around me at 15-17mph easily when it was flat, but as soon as we started up any hill, I got dropped like a bad habit. The easy solution is to say "go ride more hills", which I would love to do. However, I live on the west side of Houston, and the nearest "hills" are at least an hour or two's drive away. So within the confines of flat roads, a gym, and possibly with a soon-to-be aquired trainer (probably fluid), what can I do to increase my climbing power and aerobic capacity? Also, I have dropped from 265lbs to about 235lbs since the beginning of the year with an eventual goal of about 190lbs. I know being lighter will make a big difference in my climbing, but is building my climbing power compatible with trying to continue losing weight? With the upcoming time change, I will only realistically have time to do road riding on weekends, and the rest of my time will have to be either in the gym or on a trainer. I do have access to spin bikes at the gym outside of actual spinning classes as well.

So what should I be doing to try to improve my climbing and lose weight at the same time? I will be doing some smaller one-day group rides this fall and early next spring, but my target is to be in much better climbing shape by next April or so and to be at or very near my goal of 190lbs by August or September. I want slow steady weight loss, because I know that that is what will be more likely to be sustainable for me in the long run. Thanks in advance for any advice you can give.

 

[John Budnik]

The more I think about this, the more it seems to me that weight is the over-riding factor in climbing.

Take for instance Lance....
1998 he decides he needs to be a better hillclimber so he tells the press he needs to drop 12 lbs and he proceeds to start weighing all the food he ingests.
2005, he does poorly in a race preceeding the Tour Du France , his immediate reaction when he got off his bike, is that he has to drop 6 lbs before the Tour.
He never mentioned developing more power, although he did focus on changing his climbing technique.

One of the best climbers I knew came from your very own Houston. He was a little guy, great lungs and 140lbs. He proceeded to kick everyone's butt on the hills in NY. That was in cat 2 road races!

I drop 28 lbs and all of a sudden people are telling me that I'm a great hill-climber. The truth is they're very easily impressed, although I climb hills much better now.

 

[txags92]

I can say this much you will drop the weight. Im interested to know when you did that ms ride what did you weigh. What kind of bike do you have? my concern is that I weigh 220 now and I dont know what kind of road bike would suit heavier dudes like me. also what was your workouts like before you picked up a bike? Im sorry Im being so personal but I'm kind of in the same boat as you.

I did the MS 150 bike to the beach from San Antonio to Corpus on Oct. 1-2 this year. I lost about 10 of the pounds I lost late last year and early this year running on an elliptical trainer at the gym trying to build up some cardio capacity prior to starting on the bike again. Prior to that, I had been pretty sedentary for several years. The other 15-20 came off since about May when I started riding the bike. For May and June I was riding a 15 year old Huffy mountain bike that I put road slick tires on. At the end of June I bought a 2003 Marin Argenta on Ebay. It has a steel frame with a carbon fork and carbon seat stays, so it is fairly light, yet seems sturdy enough to carry me even when I was about 245 when I bought it. Since then, I was doing group training rides of anywhere from 25-40 miles 1-2 days per weekend and 2-3 nights a week I would ride about 15-20 miles by myself. Up until now I was purely building a base to be able to survive the MS ride. I only made about 67 of 92 miles the first day due to a headwind blowing 15-20mph both days and a heat index of 111 degrees, but I completed all 62 miles on the 2nd day in similar conditions after figuring out that morning that I had apparently had a slow leak in my front tire that had developed the previous day (which I am sure had a huge impact on the latter part of the day's riding).

Now that the need for base training I was doing to get ready for the ride is over, I am going to focus more on losing more weight and building sustainable power for next year.

 

[wiredued]

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