Going uphill

I am feeling so validated and unexpectedly happy upon hearing that I am not alone in falling over sideways while trying to climb a hill. :smile:

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For some reason, your happiness brought me a huge smile and laugh. :smile:

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You are climbing for a bit before you hit Hardknott .The first time I tried it my legs were toast at the bottom. There is a wooded area, and as you clear that there are some big stones. This is the point I climbed off.I saw someone with a full dura race set up climb off , that motivated me to get back on. Most of the climb was OK after this until you hit the silly steep bits near the top. It is cruel when climbs steepen near the top. On the steep hairpins people were trying to push their bikes up, but sliding back.There was a photographer taking pics, so I put on my β€œcool” look as I cycled past. I am glad he did not turn round and see my sideways dive to the floor as soon as I got past him.

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If I remember Honister right, there is a sharp bend right at the bottom so there is no chance of getting any speed up first.The descent was really hairy because once over the top you pick up speed so fast it is already too late to start braking. I followed someone reasoning that if he got round the bends, so would I, but then I found he had a lot of lemming in his genes and certainly had a death wish

I found this, which was the direction I took Honnister

He had a bit more power and control on his β€œbike”, but his β€œman! This is steep!” makes the point

Same direction I took.Looks too easy on a motorbike

Hey Al,

Sorry for the late reply here. As RPM gets slower at higher intensities it becomes a lot harder as the oxygen demands increases significantly more when working at MAP. Muscles become sore very quickly.
It sounds like for you, cadence drills would be very helpful, in generating more power at lower RPMs but also working specifically on maintaining a higher RPM on climbs, starting on some lighter gradient ones as I have a similar issue to you in always finding the RPM dropping and it’s worse on steeper ones. Another big thing would be to focus on some strength work. This will help with muscular endurance and ideally delay the onset of muscle soreness when doing this type of work/riding/climbing. It also helps with generating more strength and power, which of course will make the climbing easier, or at least faster for the same effort perception.

Hope that helps

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I have just done the 2 hour MAP 10*2. As the workout progressed it was hard to pedal the recoveries at any power, and I think this is what represents me trying to climb.Perhaps the workout told me that I start climbs going into MAP power to stay with a group, blowing and having to slow, then find myself incapable of getting out any power at all, even 80 watts.I am thinking 18 hammers and a better pacing control when climbing on the road.If I change down too early and pace myself, everyone disappears over the horizon and my pace slows to 4mph.Keeping a harder gear, is 3-4 times faster but I blow after a few minutes. There is a middle ground to find.

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Did you do that workout outdooors or indoors?

indoors, I did the 2 hour 2*5 2 min MAP efforts indoors not so long ago also. There was a long easy spell between the two sets but my legs were toast. I am learning a lot about myself that are so obvious now but a mystery a few weeks back.Given that the efforts were so short, with a good 2 min recovery, I could knock those out and keep going, but struggle with the sustained effort at half the power that follows

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