Hill training

davidhowland14

I live in a fairly flat area and im looking to train for the Mount Washington bike race. I know I can handle the distance and at a fairly fast speed, and I know about the weather, yada yada yada, but im just looking for some tips from people on how to train for serious hills in a flat area.

(The steepest grade for 50 miles around is 9% gradient, and it's only 1/4 mile long)

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07' Trek 1500 - Ultegra/105(Shifters, FD)\

FalSprintTri

cdy291

Ride as hard as you can into head winds.

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davidhowland14

that'll be easy to arrange, but im just wondering if there is anything that can effectively immitate riding up a hill?

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07' Trek 1500 - Ultegra/105(Shifters, FD)\

FalSprintTri

Alex Simmons

Riding on an inclined treadmill can imitate hill climbing. Just lifting your front wheel on a trainer does not.

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http://alex-cycle.blogspot.com/
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fleshbroiler

If you've got an extra wheel and can spare an extra set of brake pads, set up your rear brakes to contact the rim and crank it up on the trainer. Probably safer than taking a 25# plate for a drag.

-fb

KellyT

Go to the hill that's 9% for 1/4 of a mile. Ride it over and over and over. I haven't come across anything that simulates hill climbing as well as just hill climbing.

lanierb

How about more than 50 miles away? It's definitely worth a long drive every couple weeks to try some longer hills, if only for the mental benefit. Besides that, I might suggest a few lower cadence intervals to get used to that too.

mongooseboy

Can you ride up the 9% grade into a 15-20mph headwind? that should improve your hill climbing abilities but i agree, the only way to learn to climb is to go out and climb.

Bailsibub

This might sound strange:

Here's what one famous American pro (if you know racing, you'll know his name) did when he was living in a flat area. He would tie a tire (I'm not sure if it was a truck tire or a car tire though) to a rope and tie that to the bike. He said it really helped him get some resistance.
I also know a guy who was training for track racing where I'm living now (Korea) with the national team. He said they would do that sometimes, too. But they would do 500 meters sprints like that. He told me that it sounds weird, but it really works.

I've never tried it myself. And use it at your own risk of course.

benkoostra

How about moving to Western Montana?

fleshbroiler

I wonder what this would feel like?

http://www.cyclonetraining.com/Cycl...heory_index.htm