Simple top 7 tips

The quickest 7 tips to cycling uphill I would give are:

1. Avoid going into the ‘red’ too early on the climb. Don’t get carried away on the lower slopes, if you still have a long slog to the top.
2. Maintain a reasonable cadence of 65-80 rpm. It will be a lower cadence than normal, but avoid pushing a big gear at a very low cadence.
3. Anticipate steep sections in advance by getting into lower gear before.
4. Traffic permitting, avoid the steepest apex and go wide around corners to maintain the best rhythm and constant speed.
5. Where possible remain seated. Save standing on the pedals for the really steep hills and steep sections.
6. Stick to your own pace. It is counter-productive to try and stay with much quicker riders. You will lose more time in the long run.
7. Know what you are climbing – length, gradient, max gradient, and likely time needed.

Preparation

The effort required to cycle uphill increases exponentially as the gradient increases. If you’re unfit/new to cycling don’t start off in the Lake District, it may put you off for life. You need a reasonable fitness before you tackle steep hills. Also, when you start to climb, you use your upper body and back more. Core strength exercises to strengthen upper back muscles will help a lot.

Climbing in saddle or out of saddle?

A big issue is whether to climb seated in the saddle or climb out of the saddle. In short, I find it best to be seated for long gradual climbs.  Getting out of the saddle is useful for when the gradient really gets steep. Climbing out of the saddle is less aerodynamic and is harder work. It is good for short bursts of power, but you will tire more quickly.

Climbing in the saddle

Where possible, I try to remain seated when climbing. It is more efficient and you can maintain a high power for longer. It is also more aerodynamic. For novices, it is good training to try and climb whilst seated and get out of the habit of standing on the pedals as soon as the road goes uphill.

Climbing whilst out of the saddle

Sometimes referred to as ‘standing on the pedals’. Here you employ a lot more muscles and upper body strength to help you pull up against the handlebars. If you stand up, you will get a short term increase in power. If you’re using a power meter, you will probably see your power increase significantly. This is great for acceleration or getting through a particularly steep section. But, when the fast twitch muscle fibres are exhausted, the burst of power will evaporate, and you will find your power dissipates.

Bear in mind, there is no hard and fast rule about climbing in the saddle. If you watch the Tour de France, you will see different riders have different styles. A light rider like Alberto Contador always seems to be out of the saddle rocking around all over the place. A heavier more powerful rider like Cancellara will be much more likely to be going up the Alpine climbs whilst seated. Shorter, lighter riders generally do better out of the saddle than heavier riders. Sometimes it’s good to get out of the saddle just to give your back muscles a stretch and break the monotony of climbing in the seated position.

Don’t forget the wind

Some of my hardest hill climbing experiences have actually been due to a super strong headwind, as much as the gradient. The closest I came to walking up a hill was Wrynose pass (25%) but, that day there was a super strong headwind. Obviously, if you can keep lower on the bike, it helps avoid the headwind. This is why it can be good to practise climbing seated. On the other hand, in 2013 the national hill climb had a 35mph tailwind, making it an advantage to do most of the climb standing up!

Rock solid core and minimising other movements

Talking of pro techniques – watching last year’s Vuelta Espagne I was struck by the stage where Vasil Kiryienka (Team Sky) won. On the last climb, he was absolutely solid on the bike. His lower and upper back wasn’t moving – only his legs were moving. He must have worked a lot on core strength, this increases power climbing because more effort is going to his legs and less into his upper body.

Best line to take climbing

Where possible you want to try and reduce the gradient of the hill by going wide on the corners and avoiding the apex. The shortest route is not the quickest. If you go through the apex you will break your rhythm and be forced to try harder. It is better to try and maintain the same gradient by going wide. You can keep in the same gear and maintain your speed; this is a secret of climbing, maintain your momentum where possible.

Pacing

One of the most important aspects of climbing hills is pacing. Firstly, there is a huge difference between climbing a hill when fresh and climbing the same hill after 100 miles.  A sportive rider needs to pace his effort through the 100 miles to leave enough in the tank for the last few hills.

For the hills itself, it is important to have a rough idea of what you are facing. If you are doing an Alpine climb like Alpe d’Huez, I wouldn’t think of it as a short British hill climb, but more like a one hour time trial. If you’ve done a one hour time trial, you will have a better idea of pacing than you will doing five-minute British hill climb intervals.

The hardest hills are those which are long and steep for a long time. I once got caught out on Bushcombe Lane in Gloucester. It was 20-25% for a long time! It was winter, I wasn’t so fit and my lowest gear was only 39*25. 20% is OK, for a few 100 metres, but 1km of 20% is a different matter. Knowing the length of the hill would have made me hold back more at the bottom (I would also have much preferred to have a compact chainset) Knowing what to expect is important. It did have a 10/10 rating in 100 hill climbs, but I thought nothing in the South could be so hard.

See more: Pacing hill climbs

Gearing

Gearing is going to be an individual thing depending on the hill and your fitness. The ideal is to have the gearing to enable you to maintain a respectable cadence for the hills you will face. If you’re doing the Fred Whitton Challenge (including 30% hills after 100 miles, most riders will need a compact chainset with 34*28). Even pros can use compact chainsets when the situation requires it. During a stage race in Italy, British pro, Alex Dowsett (who won a time trial in Giro d’Italia, 2013) was asked by his mechanic whether he would like a compact chainset or 30 tooth ring to get over a 30% hill – he replied both! There’s nothing macho about struggling to get a 39*25 over a steep hill at 30rpm!  I know because I’ve done it many times.

Wheelspin

Climbs can be made extra tricky by rain. As you stand on the pedals and make a big effort, the backwheel can spin and you lose traction. This is tough because, at the hardest point of the climb, you lose your speed and momentum.

Wheelspin can be reduced by reducing pressure in the back tyre, e.g 70-80psi in rear tyre rather than 90-100psi. Also, a 25″ rear tyre will have more grip than narrower tyres. Some tyres have better grip in the wet, e.g. Continental 4 Season.

Staying seated,  if possible will help reduce wheelspin. The problem is that when the gradient is steep enough for wheelspin 20-25%, it’s usually impossible to do it seated anyway.

Avoid sudden surges in acceleration. You are more prone to wheel spin, if you have a sudden surge in power, e.g. if you lose momentum and then stand up and make a huge effort, you are most prone to wheelspin. If possible, you will be maintaining momentum and anticipate the steepest section. Make a big effort, just before you reach the steepest gradient and then carry this momentum through the steep section.

Sometimes, you just can’t avoid a bit of wheelspin, I just see it as part of the joy of hill climbing….

Over 10% gradient

As a very rough rule of thumb, if the climb goes over 10%, I start to think about getting out of the saddle. After a minute of being out of the saddle, you will probably find yourself wanting a bit of respite to get back in the saddle.

Cadence when climbing

When climbing I very rarely watch my cadence reading. However, as the gradient increases, generally, your cadence will fall. It is not efficient to try and maintain a high cadence on a really steep climb. Usually, on the flat, I average 95 rpm, for shallow gradients, this may fall to 85rpm; for steep hills it may fall to 65-75 rpm. When I’ve over- geared, it’s fallen to 30-50rpm, but this is no fun and inefficient.

If you don’t have enough gears and are forced to power you’re way up a climb at 40-50 rpm, this is very difficult and inefficient. You will get exhausted and go much slower. It has happened to me quite a few times, that I’ve struggled up a 25% hill at 40rpm, and it would almost have been quicker to get off and walk. (Though I have this hill climb pride which means I will rather ‘kill myself’ climbing at 30rpm than get off and walk)

For beginners, I would generally recommend training at a higher cadence on hills. I typically see novices try to force a lower cadence too early in the climb. It is good training to try and climb whilst maintaining a higher cadence than normal. Try and keep a target of 80rpm.

Climbing at a high cadence also gives you a bit more confidence should the gradient increase or you tire. It’s a bit of room for manoeuvre.

Use of gears

A common mistake is a reluctance to lower you’re gearing and either try to do a hill in the wrong gear (too high) or not have enough gears.

An important feature is to anticipate a steep gradient before it occurs. If you see the road veering up, lower your gear and start spinning a higher cadence. The main reason is that if you leave it too late, it is hard to change gear when the road is very steep. When you change gear, you momentarily disengage and lose speed. Once you’re on a 25% section, you don’t want to be making last minute changes.

One of my worst experiences climbing was in the 2012 National hill climb championship – after flailing around in a big gear, I had to go down a gear at the steepest 25% section of the Rake. A schoolboy error, after years of climbing hills. I was just too ambitious in trying to force a big gear up a steep hill. But, changing at 25% definitely knocks your momentum.

(If you have money to spare, I hear the electronic Shimano Di2 is very good for changing under pressure.)

It is important to use your gears to maintain a manageable cadence, but try to avoid very frequent gear changes because you do lose a little momentum when changing gears. Also, gears are most likely to fail you, when the hill is steepest. This is when standing on the pedals can be helpful in getting a  bit of extra power for a short steep section, reducing the number of gear changes you need.

Hill climb racing is another article. But, over the years, I’ve tried to reduce the number of gear changes I make in a hill climb.

Will you really go faster on the big ring?

One thing I’ve never really understood about climbing hills is the anecdotal evidence you sometimes hear from ‘enthusiasts’ that ‘you’ll go faster on the big ring’ I’ve never really understood this. The only thing to be aware of is the chain line. If you ride 39*11, the chain is at an awkward angle and will be more inefficient. You would be much better off riding in a 53*15. Both gears give a speed of 25mph riding at 90rpm. But, how many climbs do you go up at 25mph?

To be honest, there are very few hills where the big ring is essential. If you ride 39*14 – that’s still 19.7mph at 90rpm.

• It’s a bad chain line, but if you rode 39*12 that’s – 22.9mph at 90rpm.

The main thing is you want to avoid a bad chainline (stretching the chain at an awkward angle e.g. 39*11 or 53*23) This can happen when climbing because you’re making so much effort you forget which chainring you are in.  Also mid climb, you don’t really want to be switching between inner and outer ring mid climb unless you have to. You might be better off accepting a non-optimal chainline than going up to the big ring.

In the 2013, national hill climb championship, there was a roaring 30mph tailwind. Despite an average gradient of 10%, I did a lot of the climb in the big ring. But, near the end of the race, I tried to go from the inner ring to the outer ring, but the gear wouldn’t move. Perhaps I was too exhausted to move the front mech properly.

I suppose there is a vague sense of bragging rights if you can claim you went up a climb in the ‘big ring’.

Position of hands

Often in climbing, I have my hands on the top of the hoods. It is reasonably aerodynamic, comfortable and powerful.

For long climbs, you often see Tour de France riders riding with hands on top of the handlebars. This is quite comfortable and some riders feel ‘it opens up the lungs to make it easier to breathe.’

Sometimes, in hill climbs, I find myself racing on the drop handlebars. This will be for hills with a gradient of 6% or less. It is the most aerodynamic position, but doesn’t really work when the hill is steep.

Time trial bike

It may be hard to believe, but for some hills of less than 3%, it can be quicker on a time trial bike. You’re very unlikely to choose a time trial bike unless you’re doing very specific hill climb races. But, if you do hilly time trials or hilly triathlons, it is important to practice hill climb intervals on a time trial bike and not just a road bike.

Psychology of cycling up hills

Definitely some hills can look intimidating. Even after years of cycling uphill, I get a thrill when I see the hairpins of a climb like Hardknott pass looming in the distance. It’s thrilling and challenging at the same time. There’s a lot to be said for concentrating on one section at a time and don’t worry about the rest of the hill. One of the best ways to tackle hills is to have the confidence that you know what you are climbing and that you are going to maintain a pace that you can manage to the top. This confidence from climbing hills will come from practice, knowing the hill and making sure you have the right gears.

If you look up, the difficulty can put you off. I remember last year racing Mow Cop, I was already in my lowest gear and I looked up where the gradient rose from 15% to 25%, this was a discouraging thought.

Practise

From a personal perspective, when I was learning to cycle I never remember reading an article on ‘how to cycle uphill’. You just cycled and after 20 years of cycling you realise that cycling uphill is not entirely different to cycling along the flat, except it’s much harder work. The best way to learn cycling uphill is simply to practise on different hills. The more you try different hills, the better you will know your limits and how to pace yourself. The best way to tackle hills is not to worry about rpm, cadence and technique but to have the confidence you know what to do and concentrate on the effort.

Weight

It goes without saying that weight becomes crucial for any hill. Lose weight and you will go faster. To give a rough idea of how much extra weight may handicap you. Two climbs

Rake. – Length 900 metres. Height gain – 100 metres Average Gradient 11%
Weight of rider 61Kg, power 500 watts
1 kg weight loss = Time Saved – 1.7 seconds

Alpe d’Huez – 14 km distance average gradient of 8.1%. Height gain 1071 metres
power 400 watts
1Kg saved = 24.16 seconds

Climbing with a  power meter

In the past year, I’ve been using a power meter whilst climbing. It’s quite interesting tool. Some things stand out.

As the gradient increases, you tend to see your power goes up quite quickly. When the gradient then reduces, it’s surprising how quickly the power evaporates. One training interval I do is trying to keep a constant power going up the hill. This involves paradoxically concentrating and trying harder on the flatter section. However, for getting up difficult hills, it is inevitable you will save your biggest effort and power output for the steepest section. Generally, I wouldn’t advise looking too closely at a power meter whilst climbing. It’s better to learn to climb on feel. But, in training, a power meter can be a useful tool to help learn what is a manageable effort. If you see you’re doing 500 watts at the bottom of Alpe d’Huez, it is a clear sign you’re going far too hard. If you know you’re threshold power is 300 watts, that can be a rough guide to helping climbing long Alpine climbs.

A power meter can help with pacing. It particularly helps to check you aren’t going into the red too early.

Techniques for different hills

30% + Climbs

In the UK, there are a few hills with a 30% plus gradient. These include Hardnott Pass (both E+W) in Lake District, Rosedale Chimney (North York Moors, Ffordd Penllech (Wales, upto 40%) Millock, Cornwall.

30% is a real test and not to be treated lightly. I vividly remember climbing Hardnott Pass in Lake District, at one point there is a straight section of 30%. You have to fully commit to giving it everything to get up. I had a strange feeling of falling over backwards whilst climbing. It’s just really hard, I had to rely on going wide on the corners, and trying to recover. Just go in your lowest gear and stay in there all the way to the top.

Variable gradient 5-20%

Many British hill climbs are variable gradient. A series of ramps. To some extent, you can recover on the shallower gradient and save yourself for the steeper section.

Alpine Climbs – 1 hour +

For climbing long Alpine climbs, a different approach is needed. British hills typically may last 5-10 minutes. But, climbs like the Col du Tourmalet can easily take over 1 hour. As mentioned previously, a better guide is a one hour time trial, where you are riding at your threshold power.

Power climbs / ‘Big ring climbs’

Sometimes watching procycling, you hear commentators talk about ‘power climbs’ or they may even be referred to as ‘big ring climbs’. These are essentially climbs with shallow gradient. It means heavier riders can use their power to keep in touch. At 3-5%, the gradient is not sufficient to really favour the lighter ‘mountain goats’. The steeper the climb, the less important power is, and the more important power to weight ratio becomes.

Hill climbs

This is more a general article for climbing hills. It’s not really geared towards those specialist hill climbers, who feel they haven’t really tried unless their legs go blue and they feel sick at the top of the hill, collapsing in an undignified mess.  But, I’ll leave that for another article!

 Riding Fixed

In the good old days, everyone would ride fixed. Now that’s a proper way to go up hill requiring a different technique!

Eric Wilson’s national hill climb bike from 1960s.

The art of weight saving

• Marginal gains for hill climb bike

How to enter hill climbs

• How to enter hill climbs
• Hill climb courses/events 2015

Related

• Hill climb intervals – how to get fit for cycling uphill
• Is it OK to walk up hills instead of cycling!? 
• 100 hill climbs at Amazon.co.uk List of hardest hills in England
• Hill climb photos

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Riding a time trial bike can hurt parts of the body – that a road bike can’t reach. If you are unused to riding in a TT position, it is wise to break yourself in gently. But, I have been enjoying my newfound sense of freedom and had my heart on reaching Chipping Norton a good 60 mile round trip on undulating roads.

After slogging into a headwind for the first 30 miles, there was a light tailwind to push me along the return home. There is a great downhill run from Chipping Norton to Charlbury and then Islip. Apart from a few short climbs, you can get up a good speed with a TT bike and tailwind.

I stopped on one occasion to get some blackberries for food.

Recently I have been getting into eating more fruit. The best fruit is wild-grown organic produce you find yourself by the side of the road. You could pick these organic-wild-super-food blackberries, put in a plastic punnet and sell for £3 outside Waitrose. It is a good food because it is so resilient. None of this GM stuff. This is a survivor which manages to produce fruit no matter what happens to the climate or its environment. It’s centuries of adaption and survival give the food an accumulated strength. Well, this is what I tell myself anyway.

I had hoped that a daily 20-minute yoga routine would give me sufficient core strength to negate the need for training on a TT bike, and somehow I would be able to ride a TT bike as effortlessly as doing a one minuted headstand. Perhaps I secretly hoped that mastering a challenging yoga routine could be the marginal gain which would give a competitive advantage on any return to domestic racing. But, it seems that even yoga can’t make you sufficiently flexible for riding a TT bike for three hours. So if you don’t know your asanas from your mudras fear not, I doubt yoga will make it on to the list of marginal gains.

Even with aching back, it is tremendous fun to be able to remember the sensation of speed. It’s a good time of the year to be on the bike.

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In a way, these years off the bike remind me of my early twenties. Where a combination of illness and injuries kept me off the bike from around 1998 to 2004. The difference is that in those days I did not do very much to get better. More than anything, I had the mentality of a student and I was too tight to pay £45 to see a physiotherapist. When I did go to a good physio, it helped considerably and on a few occasions of injury, I was able to get better.

This time, I have tried everything you can think of. But, nothing seems to shift the relatively minor but very stubborn injury. It is becoming a mystery. I have tried several physios, osteopaths, rolfing massage (painful, relaxing and expensive) Egoscue, Pilates, stretching, riding through pain, complete rest. MRI scan, expensive back doctor specialist e.t.c. And at times, a combination of the lot. There is probably something missing but I’ve become weary for trying new things.  Whenever I go to someone, they are always optimistic it will soon be better and I believe this optimism. I don’t think my problem is a negative thought pattern or subconsciously holding onto suffering. I remain hopeful I will be able to ride properly soon, but then I’ve been hopeful for the past 27 months.

What to do when not cycling?

Often you notice how much you value something when you can’t do it anymore. Cycling was a great balance to my work of sitting hunched over a computer. I thought without cycling I’d be able to do a lot more with all the new free time I have. But, it doesn’t always feel like that. Not able to exercise makes you less dynamic and you can end up struggling to maintain that same sense of purpose. Certainly having virus over summer was not much fun. I have written two economics books, but that feels scant consolation.

Without cycling, I have spent more time in trying different exercises which maintain movement in the body. As a workout, its very low level, but it gets you breathing, moving and the heart working a little more than just being stationary. Even doing this low-level exercise is very helpful. It doesn’t replicate cycling, but it goes some way to maintaining that sense of dynamism and looking after the body, which is really important.

These are some brief comments on different practises I have tried.

Pilates

I always dismissed Pilates because I associated it with a particular type of ‘yoga mum.’ Subconsciously it just felt like something I shouldn’t do. But, I read a book and there are a few things I like.

A key element of Pilates is to maintain complete control, focus and concentration on the exercise. It is not the number of repetitions that is important but the quality with which you can use the mind to be involved in the particular movement. It’s not unique to Pilates, this kind of absorbed focus I have thought about before. But, it is an interesting challenge to try and attempt that 100% focus on the movement, and not allow thoughts to distract you. Before moving, you put your will into the muscle to make it more effective.

This kind of ‘mind-training’ for want of a better word will be useful for cycling.

There are some Pilates exercises which are good for relieving back pain. They are similar to egoscue.

Egoscue

One thing I learnt was that my posture was bad. Doing all these egoscue exercises for four months has led to a much better posture. In theory, this should enable the body to heal itself and move again without pain. I have the posture, and am now waiting for the muscles to catch up. Again like Pilates, you can see the benefit of concentrating wholeheartedly on the exercises.

Ancient Tibetan Rites

I have written previously about the ‘Fountain of Youth‘ exercises. I started doing them a few months ago. They are supposed to delay ageing – even reverse it. When you feel the years slipping by, sitting on the sidelines, I like this focus on staying young at heart and ignoring your physical age. The exercises strengthen the core, and it was satisfying to be able to build up the strength to do 21 a day. Spinning 21 times in the morning is kind of fun too.

One interesting thing, if you see old people they tend to become hunched over, become shorter. These Tibetan exercises work by stretching and working in the opposite way to avoid getting curled up but remain tall and strong.

Physiotherapy

After over a year of doing physiotherapy with no results, I stopped doing them when I started Egoscue. The egoscue practitioner stated if your body is out of balance, you may just be strengthening your imbalance. Now I have good posture I went back to doing some physio exercises for leg strength. Unfortunately, on the first day back, I did my left hamstring in and it is stubbornly hanging around.

Stretching

The hamstring problem reminded me to do stretching. Also, some Pilates exercises look impossible because I don’t have the flexibility so I should do more stretching.

Gardening

The main alternative to cycling has been gardening. I’m fortunate to have an alternative outlet. Though sometimes digging aggravates the hip/back.

Cold showers

Now, this is something I never thought I would do. But, I’ve never liked how susceptible to the cold I am. This is partly my ectomorphy body type. When you are 190cm and 60.5kg, that is a large surface area to mass – it is a brilliant heat defuser in summer, but the flip side is you’re going to be cold. (BTW. I got back from New York, the land of donuts, fried food and calories – and despite no exercise for the past three months, I was still at my racing weight of 61kg! 61kg and not able to do hill climbs – What a waste! Some riders have to kill themselves to get that kind of body-fat ratio.)

Anyway, back to cold showers. The logic is that if you take cold showers, the body adapts and is able to better withstand the cold. You can find some videos on youtube where people are evangelical about the benefits of cold showers – saying it will solve everything from the common cold to losing weight and better circulation. Maybe. But, in a bizarre kind of way, cold showers remind me of hill climb intervals. Why?

• You dread doing hill climb intervals/having cold showers.
• You know it is good for you.
• You are interested to see if you can increase your capacity – ride faster/stay in the cold for longer.
• When you are doing them it is torture. But, as soon as you stop, you have that endorphin rush of exhilaration that you made it through, and you feel a sense of satisfaction you stuck it out.

I started on lukewarm showers and then turned it to cold for about 10 seconds. But, in the past few days, I have been able to stay in for a minute, and I feel a little proud of myself, plus surprised. I know I’m clutching at straws to compare cold showers to hill climb intervals, but if it heals my Reynauds disease I will let you know.

Meditation

One thing about training at full intensity is that you were often tired. This is a virtuous kind of tiredness, but getting up in the morning was sometimes hard work as the body was just so sluggish. The one advantage of not cycling is that you don’t have this physical fatigue. It makes it easier to stay awake for my early morning meditation, which is a bonus. With not cycling I have put more attention on my meditation, and this has been a good alternative.

Conclusion

So if you’re not able to ride your bicycle, just think of all the things you can do. Cold showers, pilates, meditation and growing giant marrows. Always look on the bright side of life and all that. One thing though it is definitely harder to write a cycling blog.

Well, if you are doing the hill climb season this year – good luck! and just be grateful you’re not stuck indoors doing yoga and having cold showers.

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Pro Perspectives

Bradley Wiggins said that the best preparation for riding the Olympic Time trial (2012) was riding the three week Tour de France – finishing nine days before. The Tour de France has two ‘rest days’. But for Wiggins a rest day meant a three hour ride with an alpine climb – not my kind of rest day.

In the nine days between the Tour de France and the time trial, Wiggins was riding hard – including burying himself in the 250,m road race. Many less capable cyclists would have turned up to that time trial – not in a peak state of fitness, but complete exhaustion. During this particular racing period, Wiggins is taking very little rest.

Obree method

At the other end of the spectrum, in Graeme Obree’s training manual – he states that after a really hard training session, it could take him up to four days to fully recover before the next full-on training session. Obree’s philosophy was that to make progress, you have to train at a higher level than ever before. To transcend previous achievements you need to be fully recovered. If you train when already tired, you can’t make the same progress.

So with two very successful professional cyclists – you have two very different approaches to the amount of rest needed. For amateur cyclists aiming for maximum fitness with limited time, rest days take on more importance.

On the one hand, coaches often stress the importance of rest days to allow full recovery – but then the best cyclist are those who race 100 days a year and ride three-week tours.

Rest and Recovery Days

It should be stated that pros like Wiggins will definitely have recovery put into their training schedule, at different times of the year. For them, recovery days may involve 1-3 hours on the bike. This is called ‘active recovery’ Low intensity gives the muscles a chance to gently recover without going to sleep.

Some days I don’t cycle because my schedule doesn’t allow it. If I have time, I like to have an hour’s gentle cycle rather than full day off bike. I feel these aids recovery more than stopping completely. If I have a race the next day, I will always try and warm up the day before. However, these active recovery days are often a luxury for amateur cyclists. If you have to sacrifice a few hours training, these low intensity recovery days may be the first to go.

How Many Rest Days Do I Need?

Firstly, you can’t judge your need for rest days by copying the program of a professional athlete who has years of building up their aerobic capacity. The first step is to realise that the amount of recovery will be individual – depending on your base fitness, and your bodies capacity for recovery (and other factors like age/type of job you have e.t.c.)

Also, when training, I found it varied throughout the season. (see hill climb section at the end)

It also depends on the experience of the cyclist. When I started cycling (and had little base fitness or muscle memory), I seemed to need more recovery. But, after a few years cycling, you build up more base strength.

Some times, I raced on consecutive days and felt I did better on the second day of racing! There are no hard and fast rules, but in a week, I usually had 1-2 rest days, plus 1-2 easier days.

Listening to the Body

It is a useful practice to try ‘listen’ to the legs and body and work out how much recovery is needed. After one day’s recovery, I may go training the next day but find I still can’t reach that target of performance I want. Therefore, the training session misses its targets. There just isn’t the same responsiveness.

Yet, the day after this intended interval session, you may be fully recovered and you know that now you can race/train at the highest intensity.

It’s hard to explain, but sometimes you go out on the bike, and you just know you won’t be able to reach that peak of performance. You could ride all day, but something prevents you going into the real red zone. I take this as a sign that you need to change your training plan and cycle at a lower intensity and come back the next day.

Sometimes after a ‘failed interval day’ the next day feels perfectly fine.

The length of recovery will depend upon various factors:

• Duration of ride. A 20 minute 10-mile time trial can be quite quick to recover from. A four hour ride with periods of high intensity will take twice as long.
• Experience. The more you cycle, the better recovery becomes. When I first started cycling, I wouldn’t think of racing on consecutive days, but after several years of training, it is much easier.
• General health and condition. If you are a little off-colour with minor cold or poor nutrition, recovery can be much delayed.
• Accumulated fatigue. Sometimes fatigue can accumulate. The same ride may suddenly need more recovery than earlier in the training cycle. This is why it is sometimes good to have a light week once a month.
• Psychological motivation. A key factor in training at high intensities is having the motivation and enthusiasm to push yourself. Sometimes an ability to train hard may be due to a simple mental fatigue as much as physical fatigue.

Signs you need more rest days

• Heart rate. An elevated resting heart rate – can be a sign of overtraining, though bear in mind heart rate can also be influenced by temperature and other factors
• Low max power.
• A feeling of listlessness and tiredness. (but it is a skill to distinguish between real physical fatigue and the mind’s tiredness.) Sometimes, I felt mentally tired, but going out on the bike showed by body was really in top shape.

Three Day Cycles

Another training philosophy used by British Cycling is to use three consecutive days of training followed by a days rest / active recovery.

Then I heard about the British Team pursuit squad which had days where they had three training sessions – in a single day! Something which would take us all week to do!

Confused about how many rest days to take? Just use your common sense and you should be OK. But, don’t be afraid to mix it up. One week training block, followed by much easier week.

Time trials and days off

When I was training for long-distance time trials, I was less worried about days off. I was training more at endurance/sweet-spot level. This is hard, but doesn’t create too much intense muscle damage and fatigue. With time trial training, there is a greater effort to maximise training load and time off.

Hill Climbs and days off

In the short 8-10 week hill climb seasons, days off became more critical. In this period of training it felt like training was more “All or nothing” Full on hill climb intervals followed by days off.

Sometimes in September, I might do three really quite hard interval sessions – with three of four days off the bike (or active recovery). However, after a few weeks of this ‘training overload’ I found the best way to see a 20 watt improvement in power was to take three-four days off the bike. Nothing was as reliable for getting max power than three days of doing nothing. Of course, when you’re highly geared towards training, it can take a lot of discipline and self-restraint to actually do it. But, towards the peak end of the hill climb season, there were definitely weeks when I was training quite low mileage.

2017/18 rest days.

These days I am definitely doing very well in making sure I have plenty of rest days!

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One ride is to cycle two miles south to Kissena Boulevard outdoor velodrome. Here I cycle around in 250-metre circles for an hour before I can’t take it anymore – and then cycle the two miles back home. I don’t have a power meter in New York, so just try to make sure I keep an average of over 20mph for the velodrome riding. It’s a bit more fun if there are other cyclists there too. Last week a random cyclist latched onto my wheel for quite a few laps. It encouraged me to very slowly raise the pace from 20 to 21mph then 22mph. After about 10 minutes I reached 25 mph and suddenly my wheel sucker friend went pop and lost contact. I didn’t mind, in fact, I was grateful that he gave me the motivation to ride harder than usual. It was a surprisingly good feeling to just ride someone off your wheel by imperceptibly raising the pace. It also reminds you how hard it can be to motivate yourself when cycling on your own.

The other type of ride I do is to cycle a relatively pleasant 3 miles through Cunningham Park bike path to a hill – called locally as ‘Sanitation Hill’. It is so named because it is the destination for New York refuse lorries to dispose of their waste. At the end of your lung-bursting sprint up the hill, you get a few deep breathes of rotting garbage. Lovely!

It’s a mere 0.8 km average 3% gradient, 33m height gain. My all time record is 1.35 (1.31 for the Strava segment) so it’s not exactly Alpe d’Huez, but as far as Queens cycling goes, it makes it relatively fun. You can also approach the hill by coming down another and getting a flying start.

If I can ignore the feint waft of rotting food emanating from the trucks, I can repeat up to 10 hill climb intervals. By the end, I will be taking 2.00 or even 2.10. So I guess that 20 minutes of hard effort is a good training session. Occasionally I spot other cyclists go up this hill, though in all the 15 years I’ve been up and down, I’ve never spotted anyone using it for hill climb intervals.

I’m not sure what benefit these 1.30 intervals are at this time of the year. It is interval training with no focus other than it seems like a good way to spend an hour on the bike.

And that’s it for me, I don’t care to venture any further than a 3-mile radius from my home. I don’t feel adventurous, even in the slightest. In New York, I just want to get back safely. I never push my luck, but take it easy and willingly surrender to the aggressive trucks and SUV’s (SUV’s  / 4WD are very popular here – it is partly due to the state of the roads but also it seems to fit the more aggressive style of driving. )

I give Queens New York a hard time for cycling but in fairness – for a city setting you could do a lot worse. The outdoor velodrome is a dream and that 33m of height gain by sanitation alley is just enough for a bit of variety. I wouldn’t recommend it for a cycling holiday but it shows even in the urban setting you can usually find some ways to eke out your training.

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But, at the same time, I was hopeful that I could just ride through and keep going. This weekend I’ve been up in Yorkshire, and it’s been great for a few reasons. The weather is excellent. Yorkshire in spring with the sun out takes some beating. But, at least this weekend, the more I cycle the less I’m getting bothered by old injuries and niggles. Saturday I made a visit to Pateley Bridge for one of my favourite climbs – Greenhow Hill. All told it was 50 miles and just short of 2,000m of climbing. After an easy day going to Grassington, (an easy day in the Yorkshire Dales can still mean 1,000m of climbing) I went south-west towards Silsden and some steep hills around there. This year I’ve done relatively little in terms of volume of training (compared to previous years), But, in the past week, I’ve started to feel in good shape. The top end fitness has come back quite quickly. It is also a psychological boost to get the summer bike out of the loft.

From Sutton-in-Craven, I went up Ellers Road – a tough climb of 1.4 miles at 10%, with a particularly difficult beginning. It’s a very good test. I also found a new climb just to the south of Ellers Road. It is a climb called ‘Dick Lane’ or the ‘Cote de Dick’ if it gets in the Tour de Yorkshire. It is a very nice climb, 1.4 miles at 7% (and unlike its near neighbour Ellers Road – never too steep.) It is a smooth gradient, decent road surface and outstanding views across the valley to the left. I’ve been cycling in Yorkshire for 25 years but it’s still surprising how you can come across a new climb less than 15 miles from your house.

The weather forecast predicted a mild north westerly but the topography of the climb and embarkment seemed to funnel the mild cross/sidewind into a strong tailwind. The nature of the embankment catching the eddies and funnelling them uphill. I guess it can work in the other direction too. It would make a good hill climb.

After that, I descended into Keighley and found myself riding amongst the rush hour traffic.

***

Going back to riding through niggling injuries – I did try it back it last Autumn when I rode through the hill climb season, though curtailing training quite a bit. I hoped it would soon disappear but at that time it didn’t. I think part of me was willing to have a good break from the top end of competitive cycling after five years of nose to the stem. This winter has been really quite light on training, and at the moment I’m just trying to enjoy the riding rather than worry about getting the miles in for 100 mile TT’s and the like.

There are some injuries you can’t ride through and indeed can make worse. But, if there is persistently low pain, there is a case for seeing what you can do. Every case is different, and of course, it is worth seeking the opinion of a specialist. But, at least in the past two weeks, it seems riding very hard is better than doing nothing!

One difference between now and last autumn. Is that after a good break of a few months, I feel the old enthusiasm for training hard returning. In past few weeks, I was eager for the problems to go away so maybe that had something to do with it.

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To me, interval training means doing 3-5 mins @ 110-130% of FTP.

If my FTP is around 300, a ‘sweet spot’ ride may average 230-260 watts.

Hill intervals will be around 330-400+ watts.

• To confuse matters, you can do intervals of ‘sweet spot’, but I never do. I just do 1-4 hours or however long I can maintain it)
• One other point, this assumes some degree of more traditional endurance base level riding.

Which is best?

There is a debate between the different methods of training. Some coaches and riders, place a lot of faith in ‘sweet spot’, others put more focus on intervals. I know riders who, at different times, have talked about the superiority of both! Perhaps I fall into that category too. In recent years, I have done more sweet spot training than I used to.

In a sense, ‘sweet spot’ is pushing from below. Intervals are pulling from above. Both can give benefits to race performance but in different ways.

Advantages of Sweet Spot

• Sweet spot offers a high return on increasing aerobic power. It should also lead to a quick improvement in fitness. After two months of ‘sweet spot’ training, most will see significant improvements in fitness.
• Enables a higher CTL (Chronic Training Load) because it can enable high intensity, without too much fatigue. After a day of sweet spot, a fit rider should be able to repeat on the next day. With intervals, there is a greater need for rest and recovery. Therefore, with intense intervals, the total training load may end up being smaller.
• For those with limited time, it is an efficient method of training. It is certainly more efficient than long, slow endurance training.
• Most races/cycle rides will benefit from this improvement in aerobic fitness.

Advantages of interval training

• Increases anaerobic capacity vital for higher intensity racing.
• Evidence that interval training also improves aerobic capacity quite quickly. E.g., Joe Friels “Anaerobic endurance intervals have been shown to boost aerobic capacity (VO2max), economy, and anaerobic threshold [Billat, Laursen, Esfarjani]” (link)
• Gives valuable practice for getting up steep British hills.
• Pushes you out of comfort zone and stretches your limits.

So which is best?

To some extent, it depends on the racing that you are doing. If you are doing long distance time trialling, ‘sweet spot’ is ideal for preparing for these long endurance efforts. If you are racing one-hour criterium, ‘sweet spot’ training is good as a base, but also starts to have diminishing returns. In a criterium or cyclo-cross event, you need a lot of explosive power for the anaerobic intervals up short hills and racing out of corners.

Sportive rider

For a sportive rider seeking to travel to the Alps, sweet spot training is an excellent way to replicate long Alpine climbs. If you are climbing a steady 8% gradient for 20 km, in the sportive you will be doing these hills at a similar intensity to your ‘sweet spot’.

For a sportive rider preparing for a British sportive in the Lake District or Wales, ‘sweet spot’ training will be very helpful; but it would also be advisable to do so some intervals to prepare you for those challenging, steep hills, where you need a big effort to get up.

Whatever kind of rider you are, it is good to incorporate a base of sweet spot training (and slower endurance riding also). For example, a pro-cyclist doing six hour races, a good proportion of this will be at level three endurance. A road race will obviously have a finishing crescendo which gets up to maximum effort. But, to compete in the sprint, you need the endurance to get to the end of the race.

Time Triallist

Some argue that for time triallists, interval training above race pace is not really needed. Intervals just mean you race at an intensity you don’t  use in a time trial and then the intense effort and muscle damage require more recovery and rest. In this case, it is argued, it is better to focus on threshold training and build up your total training load. Graeme Obree is one proponent of this school of thought. He stated he never did intervals because he never did races with intervals in them. However, there was one difference, Obree’s training was to replicate races exactly. He didn’t do sweet spot, but full on race efforts in training (followed by 3-4 days rest)

On the other hand, even for a time-triallist, VO2 max intervals can be useful for getting that extra few percent. Also, if you look at power meter in a time trial, it is not constant. Going up hills will require a power output higher than average you can maintain for an hour.

As with many aspects of cycle training, it may depend on the constitution of the rider. If you find intervals very exhausting, you may want to concentrate on ‘threshold’ riding. If you get bored of threshold riding, try intervals just above race pace, and see if you notice any improvement.

Personal experience

I have tried all training techniques. But last year was an experiment with doing a lot more sweet spot and very little interval training. The reason for this switch in training was due to the fact my main goal last season was BBAR and 12 hour time trial. With this kind of long distance time trial focus, it seemed to make sense to tailor my training to the needs of these long races.

As a side-effect, I did quite well in 10 mile and 25 mile time trials too. I set pbs for my local Bentley course. This was partly due to aerodynamic improvements, but power figures were good.

One thing about last year is that I missed doing hill climb intervals. I was so focused on sweet spot training, I didn’t get round to doing many hills. In fact, because I was riding a 56 single chain ring, I was riding around looking for the flattest routes.

This year, I’ve got to the stage in my cycling career, where I worry less about the latest training studies and choose training depending on what I feel like doing. This year, I want to get back to hill climb intervals – not so much in the hope of improving time trial times by 1-2%, but because I enjoy the challenge of training up hills more than cycling around on the flat.

Yesterday is still early season for training. I went out for a 90 minute sweet-spot ride at 250 watts. But, for the last ten minutes, I decided to increase the effort to race pace. I did the last 10 minutes at 320 watts. I wasn’t following any training manual, I just felt like doing it.

Related

• Interval training tips
• Level 3 ‘sweet spot’ training

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Cycling in the cold doesn’t have too much to recommend it, especially if you are 61kg and 190cm. Or in old money – 9½ stone and 6 foot 3″ (135lbs for American visitors). On Friday I went out with the temperature hovering just below 2 degrees. I didn’t enjoy the ride at all. After a few miles, I did a u-turn and went back home. When hands are freezing to the handlebars, I don’t worry about trying to take any photos; but today the weather was a little more clement and it made a big difference.

I rode out towards Knaresborough and Harrogate because the forecast in the East was drier than in the West. But, despite the lack of rain, I still got wet cycling over a lot of small lanes covered in wet greasy farm manure. You just have to surrender to getting wet and dirty this time of the year. Still it was a mistake to take only one pair of legwarmers up north (originally colour of white)

Roads are permanently wet at this time of the year.

This is the road from Pateley Bridge to Otley, via Norwood Edge. The golf balls in the distance are a secret listening post used by the military.

A junction with low sun creeping through the clouds.

An interesting view from just above Otley. A lone sheep, a lone windmill and Arthington Viaduct in the distance.

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In trainspotting circles, there is something called a ‘line basher’ – it means you endeavour to travel over every railway line. Apparantely, you used to be able to do the whole London Underground network in a day, if you travelled non-stop. I’ll take their word for it. But, after 20 years cycling over the same terrain, there is part of me which wants to go down that road I’ve always gone straight past, just because – well it’s there.

Quite often these dead-ends are just that. Another road to nowhere, but sometimes it can give a rewarding view, interesting location or even unexpected climb.

Last Saturday I was on the road from Eynsham to Oxford, after 50 miles in the Cotswolds. It is a flat, rather uninspiring road – a narrow B road, with a constant stream of cars overtaking at 50mph plus. For cyclists going back to West Oxford, it is a road much travelled as there are not too many alternatives. When you get on this road, there is no relaxation or admiring of the scenery. It is the kind of road which is head down and get home as quick as you can.

As a small detour – one of the very first races I did was a club event organised by Oxonian CC. It was a very old fashioned style of race Oxford – Cheltenham – Oxford. In the old days, you used to race from Oxford post office to Cheltenham Post office, but increased traffic meant the start and ends were moved out of town. Basically the route was up to you, you just road to a marshall in Cheltenham and road back home. There were six of us doing the 76 miles race. I came first out of six, but more importantly set a new record 3 hours 24 minutes (I think). I got my name in the local Oxford Mail, thanks to the enthusiastic press secretary David Free. It mentioned me coming first and the new record. (it didn’t mention there were only six competitors). The reason I mention is the race started out on this Eynsham road and three hours later finished coming back.  I don’t think the races is held any more, I may well hold that particular Oxonian CC club record in perpetuity.

Anyway, back to a cold Saturday afternoon. Despite the temperature dropping quickly as sunset came on a cloudless sky, I was intrigued by a huge gathering of birds, so took a left off the main road and rode up this incline to a posh looking hall. I must have gone past that left turn 300 hundred times, but this time I took a detour to get a closer look at the birds. Looking back across the road, I could see a lake in the distance. Just a few metres of climbing and you get a very different viewpoint from being on the B road – with head down back to Oxford.

The sunset and gathering of birds was quite rewarding and, even though I got cold taking the photos, it was worth the short detour from the road often travelled.

Related

• Finding cycle routes

The post Off the beaten tracks appeared first on Cycling uphill.

When he did a similar deep massage on the left glute, it wasn’t painful. So it was reassuring, in the sense that he found something which wasn’t right. The interesting thing is that when cycling, the problem manifested itself near the hip. (sacroiliac joint was mentioned a lot.)

A few years ago, I bought one of these massage foam rollers from Amazon.  Trigger Point Performance Foam Roller (£30)

roller-massage

Initially I bought to work on some tight hamstrings. But, it was recommended by osteopath for working on the glute as well.

It’s fairly easy to use, just roll around and work the muscles you want to give a bit of a massage.

At around £30, it is certainly much cheaper than paying for a daily massage. It was useful to use over Christmas holidays when I was abroad.

Conclusion

For those of us who do not have access to daily sports massage (like the pros) this is a good second-best solution. I feel the massage of glutes has helped to work through the problem. It is still there a little, but I will persevere with steady training and a bit of self-massage.

In retrospect, I wish I had used more massage back in June after big mileage month and the 12 hour.

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