Learning how to climb

Last year I started road biking with zero skill or knowledge. Since then I've been learning stuff from friends. One particular lesson I learned from my friend dave, is how to climb. Now, it may seem like a "no brainer", but there's more to it. When I first started riding, I would pick a middle gear and grind through it. After a few months of riding and going up to Wachusett, I switched to low and slow.

There's nothing wrong with low and slow, but it didn't really help me get better at climbing. This summer I bought a Giant Avail Advanced 2 and finally started to apply the lessons dave shared with me last year. At the time, I didn't really get it and couldn't really absorb it. This was due to several factors. The first one is lack of skill on a road bike. Knowing when to shift and how to pedal is not a natural skill. In fact, it's quite hard to develop. The second is conditioning. It is much easier to work on new skills when the body cooperates. When I was just starting out, my conditioning was "ok" at best. Just getting up a hill was a challenge. I couldn't even begin to think about the best way to get up the hill, until my conditioning was good enough. The third thing is having a regular route with enough hills to challenge you.

So what is the right right way to get good at climbing hills? At the bottom of the hill, you want to pick a gear that challenges you, but not so high you're burned before the top. As you get close to the top, you want to get out of the saddle and try to sprint the last bit. This means going up to the next higher gear. Once you crest the hill, go up another gear and push for another dozen strokes before sitting down.
Having a regular route with good hills makes it easier to practice this. The reason is simple, if you don't know where the hill ends, you won't know when to push. Around Holden, there's lot of good hills to practice climbing.