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Making the Most of the Hills

So, where I come from there are no hills, and the only good source of elevation change on a ride was going over the bridge to and from A1A. After I moved to Texas, this all changed, and in fact, without knowing it, I moved into what the locals call “Hill Country”. What this means is, from home to work, I descend 1500 feet, and on my normal 15-20 mile route, I have elevation changes that are similar. OUCH!

All of this seems to have been paying off tho, while riding the MS150 this past weekend, I would inadvertently drop the group I was with while spinning up the hills on the route. While bad style for group rides, was a good boost to my ego.

I’ve found that the best way to get better on hills, is to simply ride hills. This is actually quite simple where I’m at, but should not be approached without some type of plan.

Here are some tips for surviving your climb:

1. Keep your eyes down. Look no further than 10 or 15 feet in front of you, and definitely don’t keep looking at the top. Yes, it’s far away. No, it isn’t getting any closer. Yes, you will get there. If you let it, it will beat you up mentally, and you’ll end up walking the bike up.
2. Down shift, often and early. You want to keep your cadence high, and effort low, as best you can. Shifting often and early also prevents you from getting stuck in a situation where you don’t have the momentum to shift, or are mashing too hard.
3. Long Rides: Spin UP, Recover Down. Unless you are doing a time trial where the goal is to go till you puke, keep spinning your way up, and let the hill do the work on the way back down. About 3/4 the way down, start building momentum to head back up the next if you are riding ‘Rollers’.
4. Short Rides: Mash UP, Recover down. Stay seated, spin at a lower cadence, in a bigger gear, and let the hill help you recover going down.
5. Always pedal on the down hill. Even if letting gravity do the work, this will keep your legs from freezing up, and help keep your heart rate and breathing under control.

At least, this is what works for me. If you have any tricks for hills, please leave them in the comments.

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