rsbob 

When the hills are covered in snow and ice or they are shaded and slippery with wet and downed limbs, how do you keep you climbing legs climbing in shape?

I back-off hills in the winter (my choice) due to inherent danger. That doesn’t mean I don’t want to keep that skill intact for Spring. Other than moving to Calif or Ariz, how do you do it?

Is doing out of the saddle efforts on a trainer the only answer?

6thElement

Climb lots on Rouvy, anywhere in the world I feel like riding.

terrymorse 

The Northern California wet season also makes descents pretty risky, so I stay out of the hills for the most part. Unless it's really dry. My worst crashes occurred when descending wet roads.

I can't tell if out of the saddle intervals do much. So what else do I do for the legs? Um, well, I think riding climbing routes on the smart trainer help. Maybe. It's something I'm trying this year. I joined a gym but have yet to visit (waiting until flu/COVID/RSV cases drop).

Last year, I did lots of lower body strength workouts at home. They seemed to help somewhat. Legs weren't as wimpy in the early season.

genejockey 

Last month Zwift had Old La Honda as one of their Climb Portal climbs, so I did that for grins. Very similar to the real thing, in terms of gradients and turns, but the "Climb Portal" graphics are distinctly strange....



Other than that, if I feel up to it, I'll toss in a route with a climb maybe ever week or so. Innsbruck is good for that.

datlas 

Don't get fat

terrymorse 

Medium to long tempo climbs (indoors) are becoming my preferred winter ride. More than once a week, though.

I just started using Rouvy -- it's is a nice change from the Zwift grind. There are so many Rouvy routes to choose from. I rode Cortina on Saturday, 2910 feet, quite realistic and enjoyable. Very few other riders on the route, much like roads IRL:

seypat

Go to the gym and crank up the resistance on a stationary bike. But to be honest, hill climbing is meh to me. So, not a lot of that actually goes on.

sced

I mostly hike with hiking poles in the winter. I think you use a lot of the same muscles - legs, core, upper body.

MoAlpha

Squats, deadlifts, and threshold and VO2 max intervals on Zwift. Better training than the real thing, for me.

Koyote

And the weight training is pretty important for endurance athletes who otherwise might eventually suffer low bone density.

MoAlpha

…or terminal roadie bod.

Koyote

That, too.

Sierra_rider

It's pretty much all hills, all the time, for me...although the big 1 hourish climbs are all snowed in for me, so most of my winter climbing is a series of <20 minute hills strung together. Even those often have ice/moisture and sand on them...it's virtually impossible for me to not do a climb-heavy route without driving somewhere.

One difference from summer, is I do a lot of zone 2 rides on the trainer. Zone 2 is hard to stick to on local roads and everything from my aerobic base to threshold and repeatability of efforts, has improved since working on that. The other thing I work heavily on in the winter, is strength training. It's not just for better all-around fitness, but to also improve endurance on the bike.

There is a mental aspect of climbing that is hard to replicate outside of just doing it, but it mostly comes down to watts per kg. So simply, I just try to build my FTP and avoid putting on weight.

rm -rf

I'm guessing that just getting in enough hours on a trainer is good. With a mix of long Zone 2 and either simulated hill climbs and/or interval workouts. It doesn't have to be specifically targeted at hill climbing watts and climbing times.
Any "real life" exercise outdoors is nice too.

ls01

pshh! Now you tell me...

6thElement

I'm at 19k ft of vert this past week all on Rouvy due to the weather. Trying to avoid the final ride I need to do to complete the GCN challenge as it's 10% most of the way up. I tend to use all the long climbs as zone 2.

SpedFast

I give up, what is terminal roadie bod?

Edit: I ride for longevity and now I'm being told that could be terminal>?

spelger

like terrymorse, i do a lot of climbing in rouvy. the routes in the alps are really fantastic.

indyfabz

If you back off hills in winter why would you need to keep you legs in shape for hill climbing in winter?

rsbob 

Do some of the mega climbs on ZWIFT but found out last year, they don’t translate well to IRL. Besides doing core work, primarily do squats, lunges and some one legged stationary lunge with one foot back behind on the coffee table. No gym work - none near by

rsbob 

I see that people feel that doing hill climbing really does translate into climbing IRL. Not my experience, but maybe going out too hard or not hard enough??? Have done some the interval work on ZWIFT as well, but usually high cadence, high aerobic.

terrymorse 

Because it takes a long time to develop climbing legs, you don’t want to lose them over the winter.

SoSmellyAir

Find a taller office building with a well-lit and well-ventilated stairwell, and carefully walk quickly up the stairs two steps at a time?

indyfabz

Oh. So we’re not talking about hill climbing in winter but rather maintaining strength or whatever over the winter for hill climbing later. I must have misread the thread title.

I recommend giving up sex. “Women weaken legs.”

PeteHski

I do a lot of indoor climbing on Zwift and Rouvy and find it translates very well into real life climbs. For example I’ve climbed the Galibier half a dozen times in both Rouvy and IRL and it felt much the same. Just lost a bit of power IRL with altitude as expected. I’m using a Kickr Bike with the climb tilt function, so it feels very realistic. Alpe du Zwift feels pretty realistic too with Trainer Difficulty set to 100%.