Uphill Cycling.



rvijay07

New Member
May 10, 2007
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When it comes to cycling uphill or walking with a bicycle uphill I seem to do very poorly. Cycling uphill is just a Non No for me.

I am overweight by approx. 35 lbs. Haven't cycled in the last 12 years, never have cycled uphill before and also have a poor upper body physique. Male in late 30s.

Please Advice.
 
First and foremost, lose the extra weight. You want to practice on hills. Don't be afraid to stand up out of the saddle. Normally good riding principals go out the window when you have a long steep climb. The main thing is to practice and build up the strength to make the climbs manageable.

About the upper body physique, most riders do some type of cross training. On days that you don't ride, get to the gym and work out your upper body.
 
rvijay07 said:
When it comes to cycling uphill or walking with a bicycle uphill I seem to do very poorly. Cycling uphill is just a Non No for me.

I am overweight by approx. 35 lbs. Haven't cycled in the last 12 years, never have cycled uphill before and also have a poor upper body physique. Male in late 30s.

Please Advice.


I am also a male in my late thirties and overweight.
After seriously cycling for six-eight years, my experience is that no matter how strong you are on flat routes or how strong your upper body is, on serious hills you cannot compete with people which are 20 kg lighter.

Even when I cycled tours of 240 km on flat terrain ,worked regularly out at the gym, and outraced my friends on flat terrain, it didn't help me cycling up hills during holidays with those same friends, some of them which train only once in two weeks.

During an episode when I was 12 kg lighter, I came usually among the first three on the top instead of the last three (out of eight people who cycle regularly on long weekends in the mountains)
Also I went on a cycling holiday with a heavy loaded bike (25 kg panniers, including food and water) and made several climbs in the Alps of 1000-1500 meters with much less effort.

So my experience is that the only thing which helps is losing weight. If anybody has found another way to compensate, I would also like to know.
 
In the hills power to weight is the only thing that matters. You may be able to hang with the lighter guys on short climbs but on repeat climbs or longer climbs the lactic acid build up will get you in the end.
Loss that extra weight and may find your times improve but is still going to hurt. I have a short hill near my place and it dosn't matter if I do it in 15min or 12min it still hurts like hell to do.
 
rvijay07 said:
When it comes to cycling uphill or walking with a bicycle uphill I seem to do very poorly. Cycling uphill is just a Non No for me.

I am overweight by approx. 35 lbs. Haven't cycled in the last 12 years, never have cycled uphill before and also have a poor upper body physique. Male in late 30s.

Please Advice.
Eat 500 kcal less than you burn each day and you'll lose one lb per week.
2.2 lb = 1 kg
1 kg less ~ 1.25% faster up hills
 
Just remember, no matter what your speed going up the hill - it never gets less than painful.

"It never gets easier, you just go faster" - Lemond


My 27:08 hill climb TT didn't hurt any less at the top than my 33 minute time last fall. Two things I changed - lost 5kg and improved my power.
 

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