choddo

35 miles from central London and over 2 hours by car! We've managed to keep it pretty unspoilt so far but who knows how long that will last.

You should come over! I did go to Palo Alto a few times the last couple of years

PeteHski

This is one of my favourite routes in Zwift. I live about 50 miles North of London in Buckinghamshire, but have only ridden off-road mtb in the Surrey Hills. The mtb climb up Leith Hill is brutal!

Zwift effectively teleports you into the Surrey Hills when you go through the tube station in Central London.

PeteHski

Do you mean that Rouvy mapped route grades are more accurate and granular? I presume the trainer applies resistance from App broadcast grade, regardless of what App is used. Avatar speed would be App dependent based on their physics model, but I don’t see much difference between them on climbs.

II’ve ridden Alpe d’Huez in Zwift, Rouvy, Fulgaz and IRL and they all feel much the same to me. The scenery seems a bit different in Zwift lol!

Trakhak

Don't know if I'm missing something, but given that my objective is to maintain (or improve) my hill-climbing shape, I would guess that doing smart trainer workouts specifically designed for climbers is a more efficient use of my time than simply grinding away at simulations of L'Alpe de Huez and the like would be.

That's why I use such workouts, anyway. The software I use has me doing, per week, 1 day of (post-warmup) intervals for about an hour or an hour and a half, followed by an easy day (zones 1 and 2), another day of intervals, and 4 easy days. The intervals are tough but tolerable, with the software occasionally subtly adjusting the resistance mid-interval in accordance with my current heart rate and cadence.

That workout regimen is what it is because I chose (using the software's terminology) "Climber" as my "focus" and an improvement rate of "Slow."

I'm about 2 months in, and my threshold power (which the software recalculates after each workout; no more FTP test torture!) has begun going up by about 1 watt per week.

At that rate, in 5 years my FTP will be . . . !

Edit:

Stole that joke from a book named something like "The Drinker's Cookbook (Lose A Pound A Day For A Year!)" (illustrations by Edward Gorey). I used to own that book but foolishly gave it away at least 40 years ago. The initial recipes in the book used normal-sized type and were complicated; the later recipes were printed in increasingly larger type and became simpler and simpler, with the last few pages being foldouts that used banner-headline fonts.

I used to do searches for the book years ago, but with no success.

New search result: I don't think it's this, but it might be. Might be a sequel, given the name of this version.

spelger

its this bit in the top left corner. it is much easier to see the grade that is about to beat me up. i find it very difficult to judge grade by video or simulation world alone.

i know the other apps have this too but i think rouvy really got this right.

Steve B.

The phrasing of the title is driving me crazy. Presumably the OP wants to train in the winter so as to maintain fitness for hill climbing later in the season, so should state it as "Keeping in shape in the winter for hill climbing ?. The way it's written currently he wants to train for winter hill climbing.

terrymorse 

Confusing title, but it may not matter. Whether OP wants to stay strong for climbing in winter or during the season, the workouts to do today ought to be mostly the same.

Here's my contribution about winter climbing workouts:

Today I did the Rouvy col d'Izoard climb. 19 miles, ~4500 feet, 2:03. My legs are very tired, which I guess is a good thing.

rsbob 

Yeah, it’s driving me crazy too. No way to go back to edit it unfortunately. So in the meanwhile, we can all go crazy as the world around us suffers from incalculable horrors and suffering. Put in perspective a bit?

spelger

that's what i'm looking for. was wanting about 25 miles/3000+ feet. i try this tomorrow asn dee how it goes. thanks fo th efind.

Steve B.

Im the type that sweats the small stuff. Drives my wife nuts

rsbob 

Completely understand. For many years, I wrote software training manuals and then user, technical and test specs. Accuracy, succinctness and comprehensibility were expected. My wife says I am way too literal. This can run into issues when she says something and I expect that she means what she says, and when she doesn’t, I quote back what she said. Am learning to hold my tongue.

Looks like I am slacking these days.

spelger

just finished this. i actually recall doing this when i saw that guy that i thought was going to flap his arms like a bird (and the blond too). i did this in a workout maybe a week ago but never got to the top until today. i was surprised to see someone else riding but they were only a mile or two before the end so no rabbit to chase. about 5 miles in another joined in the pain. he kept closing in on me and was only doing 2.8 w/kg max while i was around 3.2. guess i'm a heavier rider and that is hard to do, i'm only 68kg. i was finally able to increase the gap once he got to the 14% bit.

here is another to try when yo have time. has one steep bit in it. never did i think there was anything like this in Norway.

noticed that the link only works for me.
hoping this works for all:
Virtual route - Lysevegen from Lysebotn | Norway (rouvy.com)

Fredo76

One winter, when my brother lived at the bottom of Queen Anne hill and I lived at the top, I would walk down to his place and we would hike up the hill with packs on, maybe 30 lbs, two or sometimes three times, most days. It worked. On a spring climb, I found myself running downhill in snowshoes with a big pack on during the descent, with my bad knee seemingly a thing of the past.

SpedFast

All this chatter about hill climbing motivated me to actually go out in the rain today and tackle a real hill. Aprox. 3 miles of grade averaging between 8 and 14%. My 36chainring/28cassette gearing had me out of the saddle at times, something I haven't had to do for quite a while and I got so far over the handle bars that I stuck my face right in front of my flashing forward facing light. 850L right in the old eyeballs. I couldn't see anything for quite a while. Won't do that again. Despite the rain, it was a really good ride. Never went over 35 coming down for fear of sliding out on the hairpins. Been there, still have the scars on my shoulder. Swapped out my waxed chain for a fresh one and am ready to go again tomorrow. Life is grand!

PeteHski

I do a bit of both. This week I did a few virtual climbs in Zwift and a climb oriented interval workout in Wahoo SYSTM. The intervals had a low target cadence (60 rpm) at relatively high power {just under FTP). Quite challenging to pedal smoothly while seated.

I also find Rouvy very useful for real life climb recons. My Kickr Bike simulates grades pretty accurately up to around 20%, including tilting the bike into the correct attitude.

PeteHski

Ah I see, you were talking about the grade display. It doesn’t bother me that much. I find the Zwift display ok too and the colour coding on the climb portal is quite useful. Maybe it helps that my Kickr Bike tilts with the gradient changes.

Jughed

All roads lead to Rome right...??

Dedicated climbing sessions or dedicated workout sessions - both have to have some benefits.

Now with things like Zwift/Rouvy... - those of us with winter weather can be light years ahead coming out of the winter when compared to the dumb trainer days of old.

Do the workouts to train the body for the specific events, do efforts mimicking doing the specific events... that's what I'm doing along with intervals.

I did the 4 Horsemen route on Zwift yesterday - 7k' of climbing in the first 30+/- miles. For me it was a brutal workout - took me to my limits and beyond... I have to think there is positive benefit to workouts like this. That it will absolutely help in real life.

I start my interval sessions in a couple of weeks - I can't see a downside in throwing in a weekend "climbing" session every so often.

PeteHski

I totally agree and this strategy has worked very well for me in preparation for major climbing events. I won’t pedal outdoors until March, but I’ll be ready to climb big mountain cols right out of the box.

Jughed

Coming out of winter used to be the time to rebuild fitness/endurance - now coming out of winter = ready for the Alps.

spelger

exactly what i've been doing this year and last. today is my last workout in a training program and am quite glad becasue they get boring after a while. been saving saturday for hard rides. now i'll be turning it upside down and saving mondays for a workout like an occasional VO2 session. i'm not training for anything but do like to get out in the spring and not dread a hill. it is so cool to just go and bang out a big real climb so early in teh season.

Sierra_rider

I'm in better shape with the smart trainer than before, but I think it's because I'm able to actually get low-intensity workouts/base training in. It does snow here, but I just ride further down the mountains and still end up riding over the golden elevation ratio of 100'/mile on almost every ride. While I get year-round climbing, it's virtually impossible to get consistent zone 2 time on the road. At least with the smart trainer, I can supplement my road miles with 4-6 hours a week of zone 2 indoors. Which means more total hours a week, and coupled with less perceived stress, allows me to be more consistent with my strength training. All this adds up to me being near my best when the big, hour+ long, Sierra passes open up in the spring/summer.

terrymorse 

I tentatively concur. I've been doing long indoor climbing routes every few days for a couple of weeks, riding until my legs were good and spent.

The weather cleared last Wednesday, so I took a social ride up Mt. Hamilton. It felt super easy.

rsbob 

Thanks to the brain-trust, I adjusted my trainer effort level on ZWIFT to Max. Little did I know that the default setting only represented 50% of the actual gradient. Now I be working as evident on the tower climb at 14%. Did the Three Sisters today, 3000’ and 30 miles. I can see that with the adjustment made today, it just may translate well IRL. Thanks guys

choddo

Yeah if you want accuracy and force yourself to drive low cadence high torque without the temptation to just shift to an easier gear, that’s a good idea, but I run mine at 40% simply to minimise shifting. Probably means my cassette will be at most 3/10ths worn when I have to replace it

and speaking of accuracy, I have to raise the issue, on behalf of my Gallic neighbours, of the spelling of “ L’Alpe de Huez”. It does look a tricky name to spell but the reasons it’s Alpe d’Huez are;
1. It’s French for “The pasture of the (commune of) Huez which in full is Le Alpe de le Huez. Yes it’s named after a field not a mountain. I only just found that out. Where they still take cattle to graze in the summer apparently.
2. The French don’t like the inelegance of having the repeated verbal pattern of “de le” for masculine nouns (de la is fine which is why De la Soul is allowable) so they shorten it to “du”
3. Any end/start vowel pairs, including silent H, are intolerable so it gets shortened to d’Huez
4. We have a lot fewer “the”s tacked on to the start of things in English than they do, so dropping the official leading Le (or L’) is more natural for us.
5 (addendum) and Zwft doesn’t start with a vowel so that has the full “Alpe du Zwift”

Sometimes I wish I didn’t wake up in the middle of the night and now so does everyone else.

Jughed

It's not 50% of the gradient - what essentially changes are the gear ratios.

It still takes the same power/work to go the same speed regardless of trainer setting, you just have the ability to spin more, or less.

I run 1:1 gearing for climbing, 85%+/- trainer effort level equals real life conditions for me.