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Climbing
Hills
By Rich Strauss
Race season is here and many of us are
racing hilly bike courses this year: Cali Half, WF, Lake Placid,
Wisconsin, etc. Riding and racing hills is a technique. A power
meter is an extremely valuable tool on a hilly course. I used my
Powertap to develop some good strategies at Wisconsin. I want to
share them with you here.
If you ride with a powermeter and "just
ride" on a hilly course, you will see how we naturally
tend to ride a hill. I've found that we naturally seek to
maintain the same, comfortable cadence at all times on a
hill. At the bottom this creates a sharp, upward power spike.
At the crest the opposite occurs, as we dramatically decrease
our power.
- When you first enter the hill, your natural
tendency is to maintain the same cadence as you were holding
on the flat. If you start to climb but maintain the same
gear and cadence, you have dramatically increased your
work output. Even as you shift down through the gears,
this work output remains high. If you ride with a powermeter,
you'll see your watts spike in this first third of the
hill. If you are riding with a group of people, providing
a spatial point of reference, you'll see you gain very
little ground for this extra work output.
- In the second third or body of the hill, you
naturally compensate for this initial spike by backing
off the power quite a bit. You will usually hold more watts
than you were on the flat, but your power drops off considerably
from this spike. In addition, your heart rate begins to
catch up to your effort. Heart rate lags effort by about
90 seconds, meaning an increase in intensity won't be accurately
reflected in your heart rate until about 90 seconds after
the initial increase. Usually, your HR rises to a level
higher than you would like, as it finally reflects that
initial spike at the bottom of the hill. This high HR is
usually taken as a signal to back off your effort again.
- When you reach the crest, remember that your
body wants to maintain the same, comfortable cadence. If
the hill flattens out and you maintain the same gear and
cadence, your power output drops dramatically. Again, even
if you shift up through the gears, the tendency is to back
off the power and being to rest on the crest of the hill.
You give up the opportunity to quickly accelerate to your
top speed as soon as possible.
In summary:
- Entrance to hill: power spike, as your body
seeks to maintain a constant cadence. Very little to no
tactical gain achieved.
- Body of hill: after this initial spike, you
drop off the power considerably. Heart rate now begins
to catch up to effort, until it rises above where you would
like to see it. You back off the power again.
- Crest: downward power spike, as your body
seeks to maintain a constant cadence. You start to rest
at the crest and on the initial part of the downhill.
Two Tools
We can use a two tools to figure out a better
way to climb. The best tool is a powermeter, such as a Powertap,
SRM, or Polar power device. These devices tell you exactly
how hard you are working at any point in time and allow you
to smooth out your power application over the hill. If you
don't have one of these, you can use your feet. Yep, your
feet. If you have begun to climb a hill, but are maintaining
a constant cadence, you have begun to increase your power
output. You are now pushing harder on the pedals and will
feel this increased pressure on the soles of your feet. Therefore,
pay attention to your feet and shift down through the gears
as you feel this pressure (power spike) increase. Your goal
is keep a constant pressure on the soles of your feet as
you transition from the flat to the entrance of the hill.
Let's climb the hill again, using these two tools:
- Entrance
- With Power Device: pay attention to your
monitor and stop yourself from spiking your wattage.
- Without Power Device: feel the soles of
your feet and shift down through the gears as this
pressure increases. Also, try to enter the hill with
another rider, to provide you with a spatial point
of reference. Assuming they have not read this article,
they should gap you a bit, as they spike and you
keep the power steady.
- Body
- With Power Device: settle into your target
wattage. I recommend relating your effort to your
CP30 wattage. Depending on the length of the race,
the length of the hill, and the tactical situation,
I will ride below, at, or above my CP30 wattage.
It helps if you have seen the course before the race
and have made a plan for the major hills.
- Without Power Device: settle in and expect
your heart rate to rise to your target heart rate,
much like the target wattage above. If you have avoided
the spike at the entrance, you should stay at or
below your target heart rate. You should begin to
close the gap a bit on the other racers around you,
as they back off their power.
- Crest and Downhill. This is where the
fun starts!
- With Power Device: watch
your power meter and hold your climbing
wattage across the crest and into
the first third of the downhill.
You will quickly accelerate through
the gears and reach your top speed
very quickly. In fact, if you are
going to dramatically increase your
power on a hill, do it across the
crest and into the downhill. Rather
than coasting at 32mph, you are now
coasting and resting at 37+ mph.
Furthermore, you carry this speed
across the intervening flat and into
the entrance of the next hill. Try
this with your non-power-training
friends sometime and watch the huge
gap you open up on them.
- Without Power Device: listen
to your feet again. Maintain a constant
pressure on the soles of your feet,
quickly accelerating through the
gears to your top speed, per above.
Manage your effort up the hill without spending
it needlessly at the entrance. Conserve your energy and then
simply maintain it over the crest and into the first third
of the downhill. You will quickly accelerate to top speed,
carrying this speed across the intervening flat and into
the next hill. In effect, you begin your climb of Hill #2
at the crest of Hill #1.
Happy Climbing!
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