Tell me how to love hills...

[MikeG]

all great advice, but what do you do when you have a 32 on the back and you're grinding, and your HR is 25 above your max for your age?..........

You either adjust the sprocket on the back or the chainring on the front so that you aren't grinding.

 

[Ice2911]

all great advice, but what do you do when you have a 32 on the back and you're grinding, and your HR is 25 above your max for your age?

yep that's me! generally fit, can do a 100miler at 16mph, but rubbish at hills, being 6'3" and 15 stone probably doesnt help, but it never seems to get any easier!

That’s when I use my 24 inch gear ie my 2 feet

 

[nickyboy]

Poor advice. It's just basic physics: the lighter you are, the easier you'll get up hills.

My meaning is this...
OP Has a few pounds to lose. There will be far greater gains to be had by improving fitness and, I suspect, a tougher mental attitude than losing a few pounds
Concentrate on the areas where the greatest gains are to be had...which for all but the truly obese is fitness

 

[Racing roadkill]

My meaning is this...
OP Has a few pounds to lose. There will be far greater gains to be had by improving fitness and, I suspect, a tougher mental attitude than losing a few pounds
Concentrate on the areas where the greatest gains are to be had...which for all but the truly obese is fitness

Judging by the OPs avatar, I’d say this wasn’t so.

 

[ColinJ]

Judging by the OPs avatar, I’d say this wasn’t so.

If you mean that she doesn't look overweight (I agree - she doesn't!)... I think nickboy meant that she ONLY has a few pounds to lose so concentrating on fitness makes more sense.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Indeed the limits of hill climbing tend to be cardio vascular and rarely pure leg strength.

 

[Lee_M]

You either adjust the sprocket on the back or the chainring on the front so that you aren't grinding.

My bike won't take more than a 32 on the back and I cant bring myself to drop from a 34 on the front

 

[ColinJ]

My bike won't take more than a 32 on the back and I cant bring myself to drop from a 34 on the front

There are ways ... I managed to get my CX bike to take a 36 at the back, which goes nicely with the 34 that I put on the front.

 

[Ian H]

My bike won't take more than a 32 on the back and I cant bring myself to drop from a 34 on the front

Compacts are crap. Get a proper chainset, but with a sneaky third ring inside.

 

[ColinJ]

Compacts are crap. Get a proper chainset, but with a sneaky third ring inside.

I managed to bodge one onto my CAAD5.

As shown, it was a 48/38/28 but when I wore the 38 out I replaced it with a 36, which is a really good ring to use with the bike's 12-30 cassette. (I can get up many climbs on the middle ring if I want to, but also go quite fast without needing to change to the big ring if I don't want to.)

 

[si_c]

I'm not the lightest of people, and I live in a flat area, so for the first couple of years I was riding a bike as an adult, I found hills demoralising and hard. I lost some weight which definitely helped, but the biggest thing was just going and finding hills and riding them. I tend to look for the steepest hills in the area, even if they are relatively short, and just do repeats.

It's actually a surprisingly good tactic as if they are shorter I tend to hit them as hard as I possibly can, which means I'm toast for the second run. It taught me how to pace myself on climbs, and improved my recovery speed as well. I'm still not quick on any climbs really, but I do enjoy them a lot more and don't find them as hard or as daunting as I used to.

As others have said improving fitness, and better understanding how to pace yourself will likely result in a much better experience when going uphill. I'm not sure where you are based, but there are plenty of places in the UK you could go to which would give you a crash course in how to love hills as well as being great places to go to!

Lastly, you could consider changing your setup to have much lower gears, I've tweaked my setup a bit lately, but last year I was running a 48/32 at the front paired with a 11-34 at the rear - even stupidly steep hills weren't too much of a problem.

 

[capricapers]

I'm not the lightest of people, and I live in a flat area, so for the first couple of years I was riding a bike as an adult, I found hills demoralising and hard. I lost some weight which definitely helped, but the biggest thing was just going and finding hills and riding them. I tend to look for the steepest hills in the area, even if they are relatively short, and just do repeats.

It's actually a surprisingly good tactic as if they are shorter I tend to hit them as hard as I possibly can, which means I'm toast for the second run. It taught me how to pace myself on climbs, and improved my recovery speed as well. I'm still not quick on any climbs really, but I do enjoy them a lot more and don't find them as hard or as daunting as I used to.

As others have said improving fitness, and better understanding how to pace yourself will likely result in a much better experience when going uphill. I'm not sure where you are based, but there are plenty of places in the UK you could go to which would give you a crash course in how to love hills as well as being great places to go to!

Lastly, you could consider changing your setup to have much lower gears, I've tweaked my setup a bit lately, but last year I was running a 48/32 at the front paired with a 11-34 at the rear - even stupidly steep hills weren't too much of a problem.

Thank you so much for your wonderful advice. Very true and sensible - every word of it! I am glad to say I went on my first ever group ride today and I really had no problems with the hills at all. In fact, I was first in my group! I think Strava and my ambitions have a lot to answer for! Riding with real people today made me realise I am not so feeble and rubbish as I think. Yay!

 

[13 rider]

Thank you so much for your wonderful advice. Very true and sensible - every word of it! I am glad to say I went on my first ever group ride today and I really had no problems with the hills at all. In fact, I was first in my group! I think Strava and my ambitions have a lot to answer for! Riding with real people today made me realise I am not so feeble and rubbish as I think. Yay!

All our expert advice has turned you in to a climber already . Well done anyway keep at it

 

[nickAKA]

I am in the school of ‘that-looks-a-short-uphill-let’s-go-like-stink-from-this-downhill-and-use-my-existing-speed-to-conquer-all-of-or-part-of-the-hill-in-front-‘ but that only works SOMETIMES! Thank you.

The "false crest" is the nadir of this approach I hit one recently on an unfamiliar road; must have been 50 yards away from the perceived summit when the second crest came into view. I quickly changed into the little ring and sat in for the duration, thus minimising the chances of hurling in front of local onlookers, but it was soul destroying as I layed down the heavy watts like a pathetically weak Peter Sagan...

 

[ColinJ]

The "false crest" is the nadir of this approach I hit one recently on an unfamiliar road; must have been 50 yards away from the perceived summit when the second crest came into view. I quickly changed into the little ring and sat in for the duration, thus minimising the chances of hurling in front of local onlookers, but it was soul destroying as I layed down the heavy watts like a pathetically weak Peter Sagan...

The climb from Keasden south to Bowland Knotts is the worst example I know around here if you are feeling tired (and usually I would have done a very hard ride just to get there). You think you are looking up at the summit as you climb for 3 km but just as you crest that summit you realise to your horror that you are only halfway up. I couldn't believe it the first time I did it.

One look at the elevation profile should explain why that happens ...

The first half completely shields the second half from view!

PS If your GPS can display a profile like that then you will not get caught out. Ideally, check the profiles of your route before setting out if it includes climbs that you haven't done before so you know what to expect.

Even if your GPS does NOT display profiles you could always add some waypoints on the big climbs, labelled e.g. 10%, 20%, 30% and so on to indicate your progress up them.