philbob57

**Some NYC-specific content**

My hat is off to all you riders who ride hills. (I'd say 'mountains', but at this point, I find it impossible to believe anyone rides up or down mountains on a road bike. Give me a while to get used to the concept, and I'll bow down to mountain road bike riders....

I generally ride on Chicago's North Shore. Now I'm visiting Providence and NYC.

Up hill is bad enough, but the downhills scare the **** out of me. I've been using 35 year old Suntour Superbe brake pads, which have been fine on the flats at my 13-15 mph speeds. Not so fine going from Ft. Washington Ave, down 181st St to the Hudson River Greenway. I just got some Kool Stop Continental pads, and I hope they help.

I used to ride in Providence as a kid. IIRC, I once rode up College Hill. I rode from Providence to Newport. Now ... I wouldn't attempt either.

I bought a 28 tooth chainring for my TA Cyclotouriste (shouldn't that be 'Cyclotourist'?), but I couldn't get it shift reliably at home, so I'm in 45/42-13/26. I walked up 157th from the Greenway to Broadway. I can handle Broadway and Ft. Washington fine, but I haven't found a way I can ride from the Greenway to where I'm staying (172nd and Ft. Washington). I'd love to ride in Central Park, but there's a hill there that seems to steep to walk up.

How does anyone get used to the need to work like hell to go up hills and coast going down? How do you build endurance? I never thought I'd say this, but at least with headwinds, all one has to do is to keep spinning, and eventually you'll get where you want to go. The constant off-on cycling seems inhuman.

I found a Friday parking space last Wednesday, though, and my son taught me the double-parking ropes, so I'm good for a parking space until we leave on the 21st. I guess it's churlish to ask for anything more in NYC.

DiabloScott

I like it *because* it's challenging.

Machka 

From a flatlander who had to learn to go up mountains ... climb lots of stairs.

CAT7RDR

The great thing about road cycling is there are limitless challenges. Unless we are an elite uber athlete transferring to cycling, the rest of us have to start near the bottom and work to develop ourselves into proficient amateurs.

The only failure is never trying.

Even if you have to hike a bike up a hill, stay with it.

Take heart, you will get stronger, faster and learn to enjoy your personal mountains.

GadgetGirlIL

I love rollers! Give me hills any day over relentless headwinds. I'm from the western suburbs of Chicago, btw.

Scenes from the 200K brevet I did last weekend near Fond du lac, Wisconsin.

Biker395 

Biker395 

DrIsotope

Man, I would kill for some rollers. We have stuff that looks like this:





It is not friendly to... those of greater mass. Myself included.

DeadGrandpa

I live in the rolling hills area of Carolina. Riding here is a mixed bag of headwinds and moderate hills, and it's a good terrain for general conditioning and endurance building. The bonus part of living here is that two hours of driving gets me to the mountains where I find out how out of shape I really am. A nice 6-8% climb for six unbroken miles of gravel road will build your character, and strengthen your legs, too. Your road bike doesn't have the gearing? Look at this problem as an opportunity to buy another bike.

Or, you can climb stairs in a high rise.

Helderberg

I live in a area that is all hills. If I venture out on to the main roads, where the roads are considerably flatter, but the traffic is very intense where most of the original residents really do not care for the "bikers". What I like about the hills here is that I can roll out of my driveway, hang a right and in 50 yards be heading down a long hill, slow and turn at the bottom and climb back out. Do that three or four times and I have had a good workout. According to Strava in 4.8 miles three days ago I climbed 343ft. in 24 min. at 11.4 average. Not bad for these old 69 year old legs and lungs. I know I have a lot of work to get to even close to what most of you are doing here but I intend to stick with it and improve. My longer rides are slower but in the heat they just suck the life out of me. Still working to get better and the hills here are what I consider a challenge to be won. Sure, that's what I tell myself now, sitting at my computer with the AC working perfectly. When I am on the hill and my lungs and legs are burning what I am saying would get me banned from this Forum.
Frank.

Hondo Gravel

caloso

Machka 

Further to this ... climbing stairs doesn't help with the fear factor of descending, but it certainly seemed to build the leg strength for climbing.

I went from walking everything in sight, to being able to cycle up Mt Wellington.

This is a pretty good description of the climb up Mt Wellington ... not my description, but I can relate.
https://www.lavelocita.cc/guides-pag...-mt-wellington

rando_couche

To be able to climb and descend well, you have to do a lot of climbing and descending. Fitness, skills and confidence are all vital.

SP
OC, OR
"It's a hill. Get over it."

Biker395 

I guess rather than just wax poetic about climbing, I should offer some advice ... here it is.

1. Low gears first: Get some low gears so you can spin up most hills. They'll give you confidence to tackle them. I personally like gears as low as 27 inches, but go even lower if you prefer. I use a triple and on long climbs, shift into the inner ring and leave it there, doing all my shifting on the rear cassette from that point.

2. Learn how to stand: Click up 2-3 gears and stand on the pedals once in a while. This allows you to breathe better, and rests the muscles that you use when you're sitting and spinning. Your cadence should be fairly slow ... and your motion should be like a stair stepper. Don't stomp on the pedals. Let your weight do the work. If done properly, you'll eventually be able to stand long periods without tiring of it.

3. Pedaling technique: It is very easy to find yourself pedaling against yourself when you're tired. Concentrate on pedaling in circles, and watch your speed go up 1-2 MPH for no extra effort.

4. Take your time: It's not a race. Go up at a pace you are comfortable with. If others are faster, let 'em go. If it is an especially long climb, settle into a comfortable speed. You are going to go slower, so enjoy the stuff that you don't see when breezing by at 20 MPH.

5. Keep your weight down: It is all about power/weight. Losing 10 pounds or so does make a difference. Do enough climbing and the weight will take care of itself.

caloso

It's possible to train for climbing on flat land: long intervals near threshold (2x20' @ 95% FTP), into the wind, sitting up with hands on the tops or hoods, big gear. Gets you used to the grind.

Oh, yeah. And what Biker395 said: lose weight. I'm going to guess that means cutting out pizza, dogs, Italian beef, Old Style, etc.

DiabloScott

That's probably true for rolling hills, even long hills, the kind the OP is complaining about.

But riding up mountains requires a psychological element and knowledge of the required pacing, that you just have to learn from experience doing actual mountains. I always laugh at the suggestion to begin the climb at the front of the pack and then you can drift back if everyone is faster so you might still be at the back of the pack at the top of the climb. That's just not going to happen on a 2-hour climb... you have to know your pace and ride it.

They don't call it a suffer-fest because it's so much fun.

caloso

That was my bread-and-butter workout training for the Mount Diablo Challenge, so yeah, the point was to make it a 59 minute climb. :-)

indyfabz

Prepare to bow.

Last year I rode this:



Around this:

https://ridewithgps.com/routes/23235312

The year before that I rode it around this:

https://ridewithgps.com/routes/14890942

Just two examples. Flat tours are usually boring.

CreakingCrank

That's good to know as I prepare for a hilly tour in September. I was wondering if stairs would help significantly. I have hills where I live but its so hot here its difficult to get to them, up them, down them and back home before the sun cooks me. I work on the fifth floor ... obvious what I need to do.

OldTryGuy

Don't forget the highest gear while standing for extended distances. Last Tuesday was 169 miles with 190' of gain here in SW FL. To prepare for Six Gap Century's 103 miles with 11,000' climbing I ride 2 to 3 mile distances standing in high gear numerous times holding 15mph to 17mph on 100 mile rides. My knees WILL NOT PUT UP WITH INTERVALS so I do not do them. I have another "longer distance ride" next Thursday weather permitting and in every 100 miles there will be AT MOST a few hundred feet of coasting.

Wildwood 

rutan74

Hills, mountains? The suffering somehow makes it worth it. Profile of Mt. Mitchell in NC from Marion, NC. 25 miles of pure hell. But the scenery is nice!

caloso

I hate to break it to you, but these are intervals.

livedarklions

Elliptical machine with a lot of resistance also works.