Psychological preparation before you climb a hill?

[Gray01974]

I'm now looking for a off licence at the top of a hill , should make that , if they sell choc m & ms as well move over Mr froome coming through lol

 

[buggi]

I can see his point. There have been a few times where I've had stuff on my mind, both good and bad, and realised I haven't noticed a hill that I normally would.

 

[ColinJ]

I can see his point. There have been a few times where I've had stuff on my mind, both good and bad, and realised I haven't noticed a hill that I normally would.

I did a local hilly route with a couple of friends yesterday and hardly noticed a steep climb that had me gasping solo last week. We were talking on all but the steepest ramps.

The only psychological preparation I usually make for a climb is to decide whether to tackle it on the middle ring or the inner one.

The one time that I can remember mind games was before riding up Park Rash in the Yorkshire Dales. It has a tough reputation and one look at the initial 30% ramp told me that it was going to be a bottom gear, out-of-the-saddle, gut-busting effort, which turned out to be correct! I nearly got off and walked but some tourists at the roadside started applauding my effort so I felt obliged to carry on and tame the beast!

 

[Rob3rt]

http://cyclinguphill.com/ is really worth reading, he's a pro but he's aware that people of all levels read his site and manages to write well without either dumbing down or coming across as patronizing. There are guides on there, (I picked up on the water thing from one of them iirc) but I find the pieces he does on the climbing/comp days are also good to read from a newbie perspective as you get actual incite and pictures on how it should be done as a reference point for your own climbing. I don't doubt he's right because pre-loading is something racing car drivers also do for races that they know they will sweat a lot in to prevent leg cramps and whatnot.

edit: of course there may be factions within the uphill TT community who will argue against this, but then there are factions in every single thing in cycling that will argue pretty much everything.

Tejvan is NOT a professional, I have raced against him many times (always to my loss), most recently in this years National 100 mile time trial and whilst he is an incredible AMATEUR athlete whom I have the utmost respect for, his website is helpful, inciteful, entertaining & generally interesting, what it is not is scientific or to be seen as an authority on the subject! It's Tejvan's thoughts and experiences, not a scientifically sound source of information.

Let's get real for a second, do you actually think you are going to become dehydrated, in the UK, within 5-25 minutes (which is pretty much the sort of time scale you are looking at for any of the UK's proper climbs)?

 

[confusedcyclist]

I race the cars... sometimes I win!

 

[nickyboy]

Tejvan is NOT a professional, I have raced against him many times (always to my loss), most recently in this years National 100 mile time trial and whilst he is an incredible AMATEUR athlete whom I have the utmost respect for, his website is helpful, incite, entertaining & general interesting, but what it is not is scientific or to be seen as an authority on the subject! It's Tejvan's thoughts and experiences, not a scientifically sound source of information.

Let's get real for a second, do you actually think you are going to become dehydrated, in the UK, within 5-25 minutes (which is pretty much the sort of time scale you are looking at for any of the UK's proper climbs)?

Of course no. And if I were to enter a hillclimb event (perish the thought) I wouldn't have a drinks bottle. But on a longer ride when hydration is important, I try to have a decent slurp a few minutes before I get to a significant climb. The reason is I don't like to drink on a climb, it disrupts my rhythm faffing around for the bottle and drinking when I should be breathing

 

[John the Monkey]

I meditate too.

I use a mantra to focus my thoughts upon existence beyond the hill.

I've never shared it with anyone before, but seeing as you're all good sorts, I'm happy to share the ancient secret of these mystic words with you all.

"Keep going, there's cake
Keep going, there's cake
Keep going, there's cake
Keep going, there's cake
Keep going, there's cake
Keep going, there's cake
Keep going, there's cake."

 

[Learnincurve]

@Rob3rt I was thinking what @nickyboy was thinking because Derbyshire will laugh and call forth the gods of bonk if you do not pay the correct tribute in the form of food and water. Round 'ear the simplest of things like not eating breakfast and popping to the the shops is A Regrettable Mistake.

 

[Brightski]

Location:
Cambridgeshire

I'm not directing all my sads at you but it's always always people from flat places that say this sort of thing. I'm not sure if it's because they don't know what it's like having a 256ft climb over a mile if you want to pick up milk or if it's the equivalent of my dad going woooo woooo whenever we go in tunnels but It's never ever funny for those of us who live in hilly areas. so and again.

Agreed I live in the flat lands, but do the odd training camp the last was 2012 in the French alps so I know what climbing is like for hours and hours,
But hats off to people that have to get there milk from up a hill, personally I would get it delivered

 

[NorvernRob]

Yeah, that's the climb out of Whaley to Pym's Chair via Wingather, I did it this week, it's quite a drag with lots of changes in gradient.. Well done on such a tough route at a very respectable pace. I use the same technique on hills. Less than 2 minute efforts I try to blast up them out of the saddle. More than that I sit and try to maintain a decent cadence and try to not go so hard that my breathing gets out of control

I was a bit disappointed with the average speed at first, but the single track roads and gravelly, twisty descents mean you can't claw back any speed as you would on normal roads.

I think the next target is the route of the Peak District Punisher, 100 miles and 9,700ft of elevation (though there's no way I'd leave it at that, if I could still turn the pedals I'd have to make it up to 10,000ft!).

I felt ok after the last one but my legs were seriously fatigued, so another 40 miles and 2,500ft would be tough for me.

 

[Turdus philomelos]

Why is it that you come upon a climb for the first time and looking up at it, absolute dread fills your mind? On reaching the top however you discover it was an amazing climb and look forward to meeting it again. Then there's the wee lump that just kills your legs and explodes you lungs.

There must be some sort of mathematical formula for the perfect climb/gradient.

I hate new council roads such as those that go over by-passes and the such like. Those gradients are pants. Not like the olden days when the engineer building the roads took into account that a man or woman with their horse and cart had to get to the top. That's my theory anyway.

As for motivation, I use the G&T visualisation. My version of the donkey/carrot.

 

[ComedyPilot]

My mental preparation involves googling estate agents in The Netherlands.

 

[I like Skol]

I mentally try not to be passed and make sure I pass any cyclist in sight.................... works for me most of the time