Training for Hills in the Flatlands

[grellboy]

Evening. I live in Norfolk where hills are few and far between. I recently got copies of "100 greatest climbs" and used them to plan a ride of four of the hills in the book in the Sevenoaks Weald area of Kent. This is quite close to my mum's home so thought it would be an ideal opportunity. Hmmm. Talk about sobering. The hills - chalkpit Lane, Toys Hill, etc - were graded between 5 and 7 out of 10 in the books, but they might as well have been 107 out of 10 for me!!!!!! Could not believe the gradients or the lengths! Nothing in the whole of East Anglia can compare to these hills in Kent (and I do realise we are not talking Mont Ventoux here!) I had to stop several times on each hill and was completely shafted when I finally crested each brow - at 5.4 mph! Part of this rubbish performance was a lack of familiarity with the actual hills - not knowing when and where each steepened/ended for example - but most of it was due to total lack of ability to climb hills. Now in my local area I can easily keep up 17 mph for 20 miles and laughably have several Strava KOMs on the flat round here but on different terrain I was completely useless today: literally 4800 out 4900!!! Now I know one solution is to lose weight (I am about 15 stone at 6 Foot) but apart from that, can anyone offer viable training tips on getting better at climbing hills in a flat area when one lives in a place where the biggest hill is virtually a mole hill!?

 

[HarryTheDog]

Essex is qute flat as well, a friend of mine wanted to train for a holiday cycling in the pyrenees mountains. He got a fixed gear bike with a big gear and went around on that for a month or so, he reckoned it really helped. Or you could get on a turbo and put it on max resistance big gear and churn out lots of watts.

 

[uclown2002]

Ride a lot more than you are doing at the moment.

 

[screenman]

You already know what will make the most difference.

Do this tomorrow, pick up 6 bricks carry them around with you for a few hours, strap them to your bike and then ride up any hill/rise you may have.

 

[S-Express]

Now I know one solution is to lose weight (I am about 15 stone at 6 Foot) but apart from that, can anyone offer viable training tips on getting better at climbing hills in a flat area when one lives in a place where the biggest hill is virtually a mole hill!?

Lose weight and improve your sustainable power.

 

[HLaB]

Pretty flat round here too but that hasn't affected me too badly on the Marmotte, LBL or 312 which are all pretty mountainous. For the first two I did lots of riding to make up for it and a few hillier sportives in the build up but for the 312 I was advised to do the opposite and concentrate on shorter intervals and that didn't seem to adversely affect me. A lot of its psychological if you can develop the power (which I did for the 312) its the same power on x% as it is on y%

Edit/addition:

Before he moved to hillier terrain recently, Steve Lampier trained mostly in the 'pancake flat' Fens and won the KOM in the ToB.

 

[clid61]

Ride into strong headwinds

 

[Sharky]

Like your comments on our terrain down here in kent. Lots of people think its a flat county and would be surprised at the ups and downs. I avoid the really steep ones but even the gentle ones are tough.

 

[PK99]

http://thecolcollective.com/learn/advice/how-to-train-for-the-mountains-if-you-live-on-the-flat

 

[briantrumpet]

Proper mountains are much easier to train for on the flat, than the sort of lumpy stuff we have in the UK. With big mountains, gradients tend to be gentler vary relatively little, so just riding on a fairly constant power (like riding on the flat) works well. Get on the stuff that is constantly changing, going up to silly 20%ers or more just pummels the body. The lumpiness of Devon is in many way much more draining than the 600m+ drags you get in the Alps. It's really hard to train for lumpiness without riding it, as it's not just a question of power, or even power-to-weight.

 

[mjr]

Ride into strong headwinds

This. They aren't called Dutch mountains only as a joke!

Edit: and I did move to the Mendips for a few years. That's easier in that there are descents to rest on which you don't get here, but I never quite managed to ride up the 25%

 

[S-Express]

I wouldn't want my hill training to be weather-dependent though. No strong winds = no training. Plus, strong headwind = only training in one direction. Not sure it's a serious option.

 

[grellboy]

Psychology was definitely part of it. Not knowing when and where it would end was mental torture! Well,you know, we're not talking waterboarding but you get my point.

 

[mjr]

I wouldn't want my hill training to be weather-dependent though. No strong winds = no training. Plus, strong headwind = only training in one direction. Not sure it's a serious option.

If you have vertical hills, you only train upwards and if the weather is unkind (too heavy rain for a safe descent, for example), then no training. Also, we tend not to lack strong winds in the fens at this time of year - nothing to stop it for 50ish miles!

 

[CanucksTraveller]

15 stone at 6 foot is a pretty substantial weight to be pulling up climbs, unless you're a wall of leg muscles like Chris Hoy. Lose 2 stone, and going up hills is way, way easier. Oh and 2 stone can be got rid of in 6 months, if you want to and if you're focussed. I know it's obvious, but sometimes the obvious is overlooked.
Good luck, lots of other good tips already by the looks of it.