Some background, I'm a big guy with a bad lower back (210lbs) and generally keep my butt in the saddle and spin up hills, usually around 90Rpms. I'm not very fast, averaging between 16 and 18Mph on my lunchtime rides (which are my only rides right now). That being said, I'm a flat-lander and while I can cover over 400 vertical feet in just over 11 miles, it's broken up across around 10 different "hills", so I have no way to practice real climbing. Long hills around me top out at .3 miles in length, even though some of them are fairly steep, they're just over way too fast to ever establish a rhythm.
I'm sporting a Compact (50-34) with a 32-12 in the back.
Here is my dilemma: I'm trying to ride in the Garret County Gran Fondo, which includes a fresh slice of hell known as Bowman Hill. This hill averages 10% for 1.1 miles. On Strava, the KOM averaged a whopping 10.3MPH on this hill. A cyclist I work with who rides with the A group of the local bike club averaged 5.2MPH (by contrast, I doubt I could ride with the B2 group, so I'd probably be in the C group). Granted he was close to the end of his ride and had ignored all rest stops, but he's way faster and way more fit (and smaller) than I am.
Riding in a 34/32 combo, I put spinning at 90RPMs to be around 7.7Mph. I'm not going to be able to put out that kind of wattage. 5MPH is around 60RPMs, and that might be pushing it. So I literally can't spin up this climb.
Should I try to integrate some low cadence grinding into my rides to get me ready for this, or will that not help at all?
I'm sporting a Compact (50-34) with a 32-12 in the back.
Here is my dilemma: I'm trying to ride in the Garret County Gran Fondo, which includes a fresh slice of hell known as Bowman Hill. This hill averages 10% for 1.1 miles. On Strava, the KOM averaged a whopping 10.3MPH on this hill. A cyclist I work with who rides with the A group of the local bike club averaged 5.2MPH (by contrast, I doubt I could ride with the B2 group, so I'd probably be in the C group). Granted he was close to the end of his ride and had ignored all rest stops, but he's way faster and way more fit (and smaller) than I am.
Riding in a 34/32 combo, I put spinning at 90RPMs to be around 7.7Mph. I'm not going to be able to put out that kind of wattage. 5MPH is around 60RPMs, and that might be pushing it. So I literally can't spin up this climb.
Should I try to integrate some low cadence grinding into my rides to get me ready for this, or will that not help at all?