Whatever your cycling goals, you can improve your climbing ability by both improving your technique and focusing your training. Start training with shorter climbs.

Hill repeats

Find a hill that isn’t excessively steep. An ideal hill is one that can be split into three distinct phases. It should start reasonably steep (~ 8-10%) flatten slightly in the middle and then steepen again in the final third (~10-12%). The full climb should not take more than 2 to 3 minutes.

Set a landmark at the bottom and top of the hill to start and stop your tracker. Each hill repeat will consist of 3 phases:

  1. Sprint at the start of the hill
  2. Sit and gear down on the flatter part
  3. Sprint hard out of the saddle to the top

Give yourself time to recover until you can breathe normally again and repeat. Aim for 8 hill repeats and try to keep within the same time for each attempt. If you fade out, simply warm down and try again at your next training session. Record the times for each climb and make a note of the weather and wind direction, so you can compare sessions.

More information soon on training longer hill climbs.