deepakvrao

Hi guys,

Before my wife and I did Mt Ventoux, we had trained by doing 'Nandi' repeats. 'Nandi' is the only hill where we live. It's 7.5km long, overal about 5% with upper 3km being about 6.5 or so, bottom 4 being 5%, and a small downhill between the two. We would do whole climb repeats, upper half repeats, lower half repeats etc.

Much later a couple of friends said that those kind of repeats have not much value, and better to do a single climb at threshold or above. Doesn't make sense to me. How do you get the simulation of a long climb then?

So, suggestions, links, workouts, anything you guys can suggest as training for a long climb when you have no such climb around? By long, I mean 20-25km.

Dalai

Is it regularly windy where you are?

deepakvrao

Windy in this season, yes.

Essex

Namaste. I've used my Kurt Kinetics trainer at an angle. But this is boring, no fun and certainly a fourth-tier effort in training for hills.

Wish I had more to add, other than to say I wish I had bike when I was in Ooty. Lovely hills, too far away though.

Cheers,

Essex

Dalai

Fortunately training for my trip to France last year I was able to get into the hills most weekends (climb an hours drive away - 16.8km climb at 6.4% where I'd ride 3 repeats) plus repeats of shorter climbs one midweek evening similar to your local 'Nandi'.

Supplemented these with rides on windier days into a headwind - riding on the tops and at a cadence and power similar to what I climb at.

rangerdavid

all hill repeats have "value".

dnuzzomueller

I did Tourmalet, Col de Jeux Plan, and Grand Colombier when I went to france. And the best I have is a .8 mile 9% grade around here. I found that the experience of doing my shorter climb at a pace that was just on the cusp of my threshold was fine training for a longer climb. It just is a question of being mentally capable of doing the climb, rather then physically.

jrobe

I live in Wisconsin and travel to the mountains to ride every year. Just do standard interval training. Yesterday was 3 x 10 min hard efforts. I will often do some longer efforts in bigger gears than normal. That, of course, and a good aero base (most important of all).

I have done winter biking trips (10,000 ft Haleakala climb last winter) by doing similiar interval training on the trainer.

guadzilla

I still think general W/kg work, some big chainring workouts and multiple tempo climbs of Nandi will be more than ample.

datlas 

I think Nandi repeats are ok.

One of my club-mates recently did an event where he climbed l'Alpe d'Huez 6 (six!) times.

He did great.

He trained just by riding and doing our local climbs, all of which are 3Km or less.

deepakvrao

Thanks guys. Also posted this on our local forum, and got similar advise.

Essex, when were you in Ooty? Lots of climbs around there. Done the main climb only once though. Its a bit of a drive, 6 hours one way.

hhnngg1

Totally fine. ALthough just going on a trainer at a reasonable pace is more than enough for hill climbing.

AdelaaR

Multiple short repeats should be fine and you can always put your trainer or stationary bike on a semi-hard resistance and ride it for a couple of hours.

ahsposo 

You lucky dog. >jealous<

eja_ bottecchia

Come to SoCal and climb Mt. Baldy, not as "storied" as Ventoux or Tourmalet, but a hell of a lot of fun!

bitingduck

You can do fine by doing a lot of training without long climbs. I live right at the base of a mountain range (and can ride Mt. Baldy any time I feel like it), but the period when I was a really strong climber was when I was doing the least climbing ever. I was doing a ton of track intervals and motorpacing (both 2-3 times/week), and a lot of track racing, leaving little time to spend climbing. But I was about the fittest I've ever been, and could climb with the skinny guys a lot of the time.

gregf83 

This. Climbing is all about power/weight and you don't need a hill to develop power. Look up 2x20 intervals and do these as hard and often as you can.

jsutkeepspining

if i was focusing on long climbs i would honestly just go and do 2x20's or 3x20's in the 53/11. I only have 2-6 minute hills where i live, so i can get short climb work in.

fly:yes/land:no

the point above regarding cadence is on to something. trying to put out power at 60rpm when you are used to 90rpm is going to ruin your day quickly. make sure you are comfortable riding at the cadence that you anticipate you will be riding on ventoux.

gregf83 

And/or get a bike with proper gearing so you can ride at your normal freely chosen cadence.

JMR

You can do strength work on the flat (particularly if it is into the wind), just put it in the biggest gear you can push at 50-60 RPM... start with 20 minute intervals, go to 30, 40, 60 as you get stronger.

JMR

JibberJim

Unquestionably this, if you ever think you're going to be riding at 60rpm you brought the wrong bike and just wasted the money on the trip, don't need to bother training if you're going to go with that attitude it'll be just as tough.

As some others have said, anything that long is just an aerobic workout, so aerobic work is all you need to do, lots of threshold efforts, a 7.5km 5% climb is presumably taking you 20 odd minutes so that would be a pretty good workout - slightly better than the same on the flat, but not really anything that makes any real odds in the grand scheme of things. Some solid 25 and 50 mile TT's would be good too as that's how long you'll be pedalling for potentially...

ahsposo 

Oh, I saw the ATOC. Awesome!

Dalai

Disagree. Everyone has their preferred cadence -hills and on the flats.

I did swap out my rear derailleur for a mid length cage so I could fit a 13-29 and still use my standard cranks (wasn't swapping my SRM for a compact as I wanted the power for pacing) for my month in the French Alps last year. Usually here at home I'll still ride 11-23 or at most 12-25 in the hills and I find it totally adequate.

I don't have my files in front of me so can't confirm what my cadence was on the steeper climbs, but many of the climbs in the French Alps have long stretches hovering around 9-10% (i.e. Mont Ventoux from Bedoin) and more. I used the 39*29 liberally, but at no time felt the need for an easier gear - even though I expect much of this was riding with a cadence even as low as in the 50's.

eja_ bottecchia

It is our own Mt Ventoux!!!