Improving my sustainable LT Power on climb???



BlueJersey

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Jan 5, 2005
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The past Sunday race showed me that I lack endurance on a longer climb (2 miles+). I have a OK power to weight ratio (5w/kg) but couldn't last more than 5 minutes. What is the best way to improve my sustainable effort? Around here in NYC (NJ side), the longest climb I could find and the nearest is about 1.3 mile long. Should I can find some longer climb to train for climbing endurance? Or continue to do these intervals on a shorter climb but with greater intensity?? This would somehow translate into greater climbing endurance???
 
BlueJersey said:
The past Sunday race showed me that I lack endurance on a longer climb (2 miles+). I have a OK power to weight ratio (5w/kg) but couldn't last more than 5 minutes. What is the best way to improve my sustainable effort? Around here in NYC (NJ side), the longest climb I could find and the nearest is about 1.3 mile long. Should I can find some longer climb to train for climbing endurance? Or continue to do these intervals on a shorter climb but with greater intensity?? This would somehow translate into greater climbing endurance???
I have no choice but to ride hills. Just riding them more helps, but since that's not an option for you... I've also started doing intervals (5 min.) at very high power in an attempt to build muscular endurance. It seems to help. I've also read that big gear hill repeats, etc. can help.

I'm sure there will be hundreds of opinions on this, but if you're like me it's your legs that will go before your lungs. Not necessarily burning, just tired.
 
BlueJersey said:
The past Sunday race showed me that I lack endurance on a longer climb (2 miles+). I have a OK power to weight ratio (5w/kg) but couldn't last more than 5 minutes. What is the best way to improve my sustainable effort? Around here in NYC (NJ side), the longest climb I could find and the nearest is about 1.3 mile long. Should I can find some longer climb to train for climbing endurance? Or continue to do these intervals on a shorter climb but with greater intensity?? This would somehow translate into greater climbing endurance???
I have a similar situation with not much in the way of hills. So I ride regular intervals on smaller hills. Then every so often I put the bike on the car rack and drive an hour to some decent hills and see how I go. This seems to work fine. Look at it this way, what choice do you have? :confused:
 
you dont need to climb to get better at climbing. as i said over at bicyclingforums, just do lots of intervals, mostly longer ones. tempo is great.

I killed myself during my tempo ride today, which was basically a 70mile TT. sooo much pain. you have to make yourself hurt a lot to get better.

good luck, and i want to see you race well at housatonic hills in 7 weeks.
 
I see what I can do but these flat land 2x20 intervals are different. During these intervals I average about 250w. On a climb like the Bear Mountain, I think I was generating some where in the 320w just to keep up with the pack. When these guys were attacking I am sure their power output was in the 400+w. I am going to take it very easy for 2 weeks also. In the middle of May I will begin to pre for Housatanic race. :D What was the grade on that climb again? 10% or 13%? Either way, I need to generate 400w+ just to keep my pace going at 10 mph.

velomanct said:
you dont need to climb to get better at climbing. as i said over at bicyclingforums, just do lots of intervals, mostly longer ones. tempo is great.

I killed myself during my tempo ride today, which was basically a 70mile TT. sooo much pain. you have to make yourself hurt a lot to get better.

good luck, and i want to see you race well at housatonic hills in 7 weeks.
 
velomanct said:
you dont need to climb to get better at climbing. as i said over at bicyclingforums, just do lots of intervals, mostly longer ones. tempo is great.
To a degree yes, but climbing is not just about fitness. Technique, position and mental approach are huge. By riding hills, all these 3 components can be fine tuned. Sure, if you haven't got hills to train on, then intervals are great...but to really go to the next level, you need to climb. ;)
 
Muscle endurance and technique are tied together as you will find different techniques use different muscles.

I don't have many hills in my area, so I find a nice long road with a good strong headwind and practice my muscle endurance there. Pushing against a headwind is very similar to climbing a long and constant hill (I assume the 2km climb was constant) and explains why riders from the Netherlands are good hill climbers.

For muscle output training, practice pushing larger gears on a constant hill. Sit down and grind away, as long as you can push bigger gears on a regular basis (I moved up a cog each fortnight) your building strength that can later be trained for endurance at that output.

Goodluck
 
BlueJersey said:
The past Sunday race showed me that I lack endurance on a longer climb (2 miles+). I have a OK power to weight ratio (5w/kg) but couldn't last more than 5 minutes. What is the best way to improve my sustainable effort? Around here in NYC (NJ side), the longest climb I could find and the nearest is about 1.3 mile long. Should I can find some longer climb to train for climbing endurance? Or continue to do these intervals on a shorter climb but with greater intensity?? This would somehow translate into greater climbing endurance???

I guess it may depend on how long it takes to climb that long climb. try doing some longer intervals of 15 to 30-mins (on flat or rolling roads or the trainer) to bring up your sustainable TT power. You also want to work on the shorter climbs of ~ 3 to 8 minutes where you ride at a higher power than the longer intervals.

The former intervals will help increase your TT power (and LT) and to a lesser extent your VO2max/MAP, while the latter intervals will help with MAP/VO2max and to a lesser extent sustainable TT power.

ric
 
BlueJersey said:
I see what I can do but these flat land 2x20 intervals are different. During these intervals I average about 250w. On a climb like the Bear Mountain, I think I was generating some where in the 320w just to keep up with the pack. When these guys were attacking I am sure their power output was in the 400+w. I am going to take it very easy for 2 weeks also. In the middle of May I will begin to pre for Housatanic race. :D What was the grade on that climb again? 10% or 13%? Either way, I need to generate 400w+ just to keep my pace going at 10 mph.
the longer intervals will still help you a lot. you need to raise your threshold, no matter what power output you have to climb at in the races. a higher threshold means you will work "less" than before, even if the power you are climbing at is still above threshold.
but yes, you should also do shorter intervals as ric mentioned.
BTW, at housatonic hills in the cat 3 field, i got dropped along with many others on the first climb, even though I was producing 5.4w/kg for about 4 minutes. i could not believe it, i was losing ground even though every time I looked at my power meter the watts were in the upper 400s to mid 500s. i was 80kg then. and that was on the 1st climb, not the 12% 2nd climb.

do your intervals, long and short. thats all you need to know.