# All I have to ride are hills



## krispin (Aug 16, 2010)

I live in a VERY hilly place. I can put in more vertical in a day than some people do in a week. On my 30 km ride today I did 397 Meters.

Problem is I don't get to ride flats very often so I don't get the chance to get my cadence up for an extended period.

I am training for one gran fondo this summer, perhaps two should I find the time. 

I have done multi day charity rides in the past so I can do the distance but I just think all this hill climbing hurts my riding in the flats on long distance rides. 

Any suggestions?


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## PBL450 (Apr 12, 2014)

I'm no coach, so FWIW I'd think it would do the opposite? Riding hills all the time would improve your performance on the flats? You can get your cadence up pretty high depending on your gearing and style?


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## HEMIjer (Oct 18, 2008)

I hate to recommend but a trainer to work on cadence works.


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## MMsRepBike (Apr 1, 2014)

Compact 50/34 crank
11-32 cassette

quit your whining and go ride your bike more.


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## Mr645 (Jun 14, 2013)

Hills and flats are two different skills. I live in a totally flat area, South Florida.






So when I hit the hills I often have trouble. I fall back compared to the locals. But when riders from hilly areas come to me they also have trouble. When it's flat, it's also windy and with hills you push hard going up and get a rest going down. But when it's flat you have to put in an effort continuously. Those in hilly areas often have trouble pedaling for 1-2 hours without a break. They are not just trained for the steady effort over a long period of time.


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## the_gormandizer (May 12, 2006)

I have the worst of both worlds. Very undulating roads but no big climbs. This makes it very hard to do 12-20 min efforts for ftp tests, and also hard to practice climbing. So I do all my intervals indoors on E-motion rollers, including preparation for hill climbs. 

I believe that slightly different muscle groups are recruited for climbing, but even still I improved my hill climb performance from a few years ago when I lived in a more mountainous region.


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## bikerector (Oct 31, 2012)

HEMIjer said:


> I hate to recommend but a trainer to work on cadence works.


Or rollers.

There's really no technique to riding flat ground. You still just pedal the bike along. I'm in the exact opposite situation, I have to ride an hour to find a hill more than a few meters tall. Pretty easy to only get 50 meters or so of climbing over a 3 hour ride. Hellish head winds many days though.


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## 9W9W (Apr 5, 2012)

I follow a guy on Strava who lives in southeast France and does 5,000-8,000 feet (2,666 meters) over 40 kilometers.. at his own pace. Now THAT'S hilly! This is not saying your effort isn't enough or anything about your particular ride, just that the distance/vertical is not that extreme. From personal observation and listening to other folks describe their rides: hilly lies somewhere around 1,000 feet per 10 miles (310 meters over 16km). IMO, if you're clocking 100ft per mile you're climbing! (that's 31meters per 1.6km)

I live in NYC and I can get 1k feet (310m) per 15 miles (24km) just minutes outside of Manhattan (not known to be hilly by any means).


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## Got Time (Jan 23, 2009)

Weird... I'm getting more than 1000m of climbing on 40km and I have no problem to ride with a cadence of over 100...

There's a nice followup of simply using the "right" gear if you want to ride at a certain cadence.


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## tlg (May 11, 2011)

krispin said:


> I live in a VERY hilly place. I can put in more vertical in a day than some people do in a week. On my 30 km ride today I did 397 Meters.


I wouldn't consider that VERY hilly. It's 13.2m/km (70ft/mi)

What kind of hills do you have? How many miles do you ride per week? Unless every hill is 10% grade, I don't see why you can't work on cadence. 

I just did a ride this weekend that was 16.3m/km (86ft/mi). That's just getting into VERY hilly range. My ave cadence was 77
If I look at a flat ride of 8.5m/km (45ft/mi) my ave cadence was the same.

Most of my riding is in the 11-13m/km (60-70ft/mi) range. I wouldn't think twice about my cadence on a long flat ride.


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## ericm979 (Jun 26, 2005)

It's much hillier where I live, and I average around 100'/mile for entire years of riding.

But there's enough flatish riding in there to work on my cadence, to the point where I prefer to be at around 100 when in pacelines on flatish ground. The terrain does not need to be perfectly flat to work on your cadence, even if you prefer to climb at a lower cadence. You can practice higher cadenced on false flats and descents.


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## krispin (Aug 16, 2010)

Holy Smokes! Who knew this would become a good old cyclo donnybrook, but it would seem the issue is settled. 

Thanks for your input.


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## BikeLayne (Apr 4, 2014)

I just ride what's in front of me. Usually about 1000ft per 20miles. It's windy here but I kind of like the wind as it cools the place in the summer and keeps the air clean. I am riding more miles right now (up from 60 to 125 a week) as I am going to ride the Tierra Bella in Gilroy Calif. It will be the 100K and there is 3500 ft of climbing which is about average for the area. It will be fun. I was looking at my patches from the Tierra Bella today and realized I have patches that are older then many of the people that will be out there riding. My first Tierra Bella patch is from 1981. I like my patches because they have the Calif Poppies in the design. One of my favorite wild flowers.


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## jajichan (Jul 9, 2014)

krispin said:


> I live in a VERY hilly place. I can put in more vertical in a day than some people do in a week. On my 30 km ride today I did 397 Meters.
> 
> Problem is I don't get to ride flats very often so I don't get the chance to get my cadence up for an extended period.
> 
> ...


Cadence is simply a result of gearing. Higher gears allow you to ride at a higher cadence. But I wouldn't worry about that. Flats are quite easy compared to hills. Most people fear the hills, not the flats.


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## krispin (Aug 16, 2010)

Thanks again for all the responses. even the "Oh yah!!! Well mine is bigger than yours" contributions.


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## mambo (Jul 29, 2012)

How about a holiday house swap with somebody in the Netherlands


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## krispin (Aug 16, 2010)

Don't tempt me!... I started a two month Europe tour in Amsterdam when I was just 18. Rode Amsterdam, Germany, Austria, Italy, France, Belgium and then back to Holland. 

My hope is to go back on my 50th Birthday to ride the Stelvio Pass. 

Ya Ya Ya, I know I am whining about hills here, how am I going to ride the Stelvio? 

Thanks for idea!

Cheers,
Keith


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## jajichan (Jul 9, 2014)

krispin said:


> Thanks again for all the responses. even the "Oh yah!!! Well mine is bigger than yours" contributions.


If you don't understand how fitness on hills will relate to the flats (or vice versa), then you've got a lot of thinking to do. 

If anything, "most" people suffer more on hills than flats, as I initially stated, due to the discrepancy in their weight versus the power they can produce. If you can already produce the power, you'll go along quite well on the flats. Not that complicated.


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## krispin (Aug 16, 2010)

Not much to understand. Climbing is a different type of fitness than riding flats for long periods of time plain and simple. 

My only conclusion is, I need to seek out flats to train the way I would like. Plain and simple, not complicated at all.


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## ziscwg (Apr 19, 2010)

bikerector said:


> Or rollers.
> 
> There's really no technique to riding flat ground. You still just pedal the bike along. I'm in the exact opposite situation, I have to ride an hour to find a hill more than a few meters tall. Pretty easy to only get 50 meters or so of climbing over a 3 hour ride. Hellish head winds many days though.


I 2nd rollers

They will work your pedal stroke and cadence. You cannot stay on rollers if you pedal stroke is all jacked up.


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## SwiftSolo (Jun 7, 2008)

You are quite right about long steady flat rides with the same cadence being very different than rollers. Doing 8000' feet of vertical spread over several climbs and descents is very different than doing the 6000' of virtually unbroken climbing of the Stelvio from Prato. I wouldn't worry as much about getting your cadence up as I would about finding a place where you can work on steady climbing loads of over two hours.

Where do you live?


krispin said:


> Not much to understand. Climbing is a different type of fitness than riding flats for long periods of time plain and simple.
> 
> My only conclusion is, I need to seek out flats to train the way I would like. Plain and simple, not complicated at all.


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## MMsRepBike (Apr 1, 2014)

Got a velodrome near you?


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## krispin (Aug 16, 2010)

I live in Mountain Bike Mecca (North Vancouver)


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## SwiftSolo (Jun 7, 2008)

I'd start riding Grouse Mountain regularly if I were getting ready to do the Stelvio. Right before leaving on your trip, consider looking for doing some training with more altitude where you can rent a room at 6000 feet or above for a week or so. That last 1500 feet of the Stelvio is a bassturd for us low landers without altitude work/sleep.


krispin said:


> I live in Mountain Bike Mecca (North Vancouver)


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