Up hill climbs

[thefollen]

come up to merstham one day i'll show you best part my commute ( a23 from coulsdon (m23/25/A23 split) though into redhill great curved slight downhill reasonable gd road as partly resurfaced great on the trip home bad on the way to work

Sounds good, always up for a cycle. I'm in Balham so not a million miles away.

 

[Hacienda71]

A lot of climbing is about technique. You have to learn to relax your upper body when climbing. Pulling hard on the bars will not get you up the hill quicker but riding with a good rhythm with a relaxed upper half will. If it gets steep and you are getting tired get out of the saddle for a bit to utilize slightly different muscles, then sit back down again. Most of all though the more you ride hills the faster you go up them.

 

[lulubel]

To the OP ....

I used to get this a lot when I started cycling again. I'd be out on my road bike, and fly past MTBs on the flat, only for them to casually pass me on the hills while I was red faced and gasping for air. I put it down to 2 things.

1. They were fitter than me.
2. Their MTBs were low geared, so they were spinning out on the flat, which is why I could pass them.

Since then, I've gained a lot of fitness and lost some weight, and I'm rarely passed by anyone on a MTB if I'm on the road bike, but there is some element of planning in it. If I'm catching up with someone who looks seriously fit on a MTB and I know there's a challenging hill coming up, I'll often slow down and play with the Garmin for a bit, and wait and see how quick he is on the hill. If it turns out he's slower than me, I can pass him on the hill and feel even better about myself!

My experience is that the majority of MTBers around here are stronger/fitter than the majority of roadies, probably because they do take their MTBs up mountains, and some of the off-road climbs make the road climbs a breeze by comparison. Just riding up into the mountains a few miles from us is a near death experience for me, but I know if I did it regularly, it would really help my road fitness.

 

[Leodis]

Thanks everyone, I worked on it today and set a best time 21:15 for 5.2 miles