Five Climbing Secrets

You've followed the Giro del Trentino and have wondered how to become a better climber. Here are "Five climbing secrets that will have you soaring in 30 days" courtesy of Carmichael Training Systems and BICYCLING.

This climbing regimen, from Carmichael Training Systems coach Andy Applegate, will put so much power into your pedals, your buddies will swear they see wings as you leave them in your wake:


Meditate Uphill
Strap on your heart rate monitor and sit on your sofa. Check your heart rate. Now clench your fists and grit your teeth. Bet your heart rate jumps a few beats. When you're climbing a long hill, you want to direct all your energy to your legs, not your face. To stay relaxed, Applegate swears by "Qigong climbing"--a kind of moving meditation. As you approach the climb, think light thoughts--clouds, birds, angels. While climbing, progressively relax your body from the top down, starting with your eyes, then your mouth, jaw, shoulders, chest, back, arms and hands. "You want your upper body so still that if someone were to watch you from the waist up, they wouldn't be able to tell if you were climbing or casually riding along," says Applegate. Also, stay light on the pedals and keep your legs moving rhythmically. The goal is to erase every ounce of unnecessary tension. "You'll feel better, ride smoother and have more energy to keep riding strong after you've crested the climb," says Applegate.

Find Your Power Position
To pull maximum air into your lungs, keep your back straight and your chest open. Position your hands on the brake hoods and relax your arms so your elbows sit wider than your hips. If you're short, slide back on the saddle to generate more force through the top of the pedal stroke and to encourage your heel to drop through the bottom of the stroke. If you're tall, slide forward, positioning your hips so they come close to lining up with the bottom bracket to generate maximum muscle force.

When you have to stand, click into the next larger gear and stand when one foot reaches the top of the pedal stroke (2 o'clock) to minimize momentum loss. "Avoid leaning forward as you stand, which tosses the bike backward in reaction," advises Applegate. "Stand with your butt over the saddle and keep your weight centered over the bottom bracket." You should feel like you're running on the pedals, allowing the bike to rock gently, but not excessively, from side to side.

 Raise Your LT
"The cornerstone of climbing fitness is being able to generate high speed and power at lactate threshold," says Applegate. To improve yours, slip in LT (or steady state) intervals at least once, and no more than twice, a week. After a good warm-up, ride 10 minutes at a steady effort, keeping your heart rate about three beats below your LT heart rate (just below your average heart rate for a 30-60-minute time trial, or an effort of seven to eight on a scale of one to 10). Recover for 10 minutes. Then repeat two more times. Work up to two 20-minute intervals with 20 minutes recovery, then just one 30-minute interval.

Practice To Perfection
You'll get better just by choosing a hilly route at least once or twice a week. Add these drills (one per climbing-designated day) and you'll improve even faster.

Uphill Sprint 20s: Find a hill that takes 10 to 15 minutes to climb. Start climbing at your lactate threshold. After two minutes, stand up and attack at just below all-out sprint intensity (nine-plus on a one-to-10 scale) for 20 pedal strokes. Sit and go right back to climbing at your LT. Repeat every one to two minutes (depending on your fitness) all the way up the hill. Perform the drill one to two times.

Rock the Rollers: To keep going strong through rolling terrain, practice two-minute attacks. Find a short climb or series of climbs that takes about two minutes to crest. Wind up before you hit the climb so you're at LT as soon as the hill starts. Climb at LT for 90 seconds; then go as fast as you can for the final 30 seconds all the way to the top. Repeat four to six times.

Peak Force Intervals
Climbing in big gears strengthens your legs to put more power in every pedal stroke. By improving your peak pedal force, you help your legs stave off fatigue during long climbs, when you're typically using a smaller gear. To build your pedal force, find a long, gradual hill and start climbing as you normally would. After a minute or two, click into a harder gear and slow your cadence to about 50 to 60 rpm. Maintain a smooth pedal stroke and a low heart rate. Climb this way for one to two minutes. Then shift back into an easier gear and recover for five to 10 minutes. Repeat to the top of the climb.

Other advice: be tiny, shrink if you need to, and lightweight like Domenico Pozzovivo, winner of the 2012 Giro del Trentino (center, below).

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Tips On Coping With Those Long, Hard, Passes

You read yesterday's entry and have decided to sell your car or house to go cycling in Italy. If you are going to ride across some of the passes you will want to read these tips from Thomson Bike Tours, http://www.thomsonbiketours.com/. They discuss the proper taper period before a tour, and a strategy for success:

1) Tapering:

Taper before your trip. Trying to get in a last minute 100 mile ride to boost your endurance in the week leading up won't help. You'll be better off tapering to make sure that you are rested for seven days of challenging cycling.

How best to taper?

• Do your last endurance workout 7-10 days before Day One of your trip.


• Avoid "big gear" workouts for 2-3 weeks before Day One.


• Avoid exhaustive aerobic workouts for the three days prior to leaving for your trip (roughly 5 days prior to Day One).


• Intervals (LT) are okay in the last week, but should be avoided in final 2 or 3 days before your departure.


• Active recovery ride (very, very easy) in the days prior to departure. Or simply rest, if riding isn't an option.


• Treat the first warm-up day of your trip as a Warm-Up, not a race!

If you're looking to peak for your trip, you'll want to reduce volume in the week before but maintain your intensity. High volume makes recovery more difficult, and lower volume allows the rest required for replacing glycogen stores, while giving you time to psych yourself up for the hard efforts ahead. To the degree your schedule allows, you'll want to continue to ride, but keep in mind that you'll benefit most from decreasing the duration of your intervals while maintaining intensity. (E.g., take the following hypothetical TT interval schedule, counting down to Day 1 of your trip: Day 7 = 5x3 minutes at or above LT; Day 6 = 4x3 minutes; Day 5 = 3x3 minutes; Day 4 = 2x3 minutes; Day 3 = Recovery Ride [Easy!]; Day 2 = travel; Day One = Warm-up Ride) Notice! — these are not long endurance rides.

A Caveat: Avoid the mistake of too many/too high intensity intervals in this taper period. Your legs should remember to work hard, but not be fatigued going in.

2) Recovery on the bike:

• Proper gear selection helps recovery even while on the bike, so let us remind you once more: heed the recommendations for gearing!


• Don't go "gang-busters" every day. Consider the Grand Tour riders. Each rider has a role. No one is the first up the mountain everyday from day one, and no one is on the front of the peloton all the time. There's a reason for this...! Hold back a little (5% here, and 10% there) by choice, not just because your fatigue level demands it. Choose your battles, and aim to ride best on your preferred stages/routes. If you're one of the slower climbers in your group, don't tow everyone to the base of the climb(s). If there are rollers or shorter climbs leading up to the big Cols, start each small climb in a gear you know you can ride in, and shift to a harder gear if you are feeling up to the task. Start the short climbs near the front, then drift back if necessary so that you won't have to chase on the descents, wasting energy before the big climbs. When you hit the big climbs, ride your ride--not someone else's.


• Food is an essential part of recovery, both post-ride and during the ride itself. This means you must eat (even when you don't really want to eat). However, it can be a mistake to wave the van driver over and/or stop for a snack each time the van is nearby. Such stops at the van may seem like a nice rest, but remember: your metabolism is running hot, and you're consuming calories almost as quickly as you're ingesting them, and standing around by the van chatting is just wasting precious energy, even if it's just for 5 or 10 minutes (four or five of these kinds of stops add an hour to your ride, and that hour can make a difference!). Consider, too, that each stop requires getting the blood and your muscles moving again. So, plan for a nice lunch stop, and otherwise stop rarely and briefly, carrying some food with you (yes... even on a fully supported ride!!) to refuel as you go. Similarly, if the weather calls for a wind/rain-jacket or vest, carry it with you instead of flagging the van and stopping to shed, then don, then shed, then don... (you get the picture, right?) your wind or rain-cape. These stops take energy that you will need for the next climb or the next day.

3) Long climbs can trump grade:

In Italy, the Mortirollo is feared for its steep gradients, but the Stelvio is 25 km long and sufficiently steep to tax your energy. The mountains in France are long and unrelenting--e.g., the Col du Galibier from the northern approach (including the Col du Télégraphe) is 34.8 km — yikes! And the actual climb to the summit (starting in Valloire) is 18 km with an average grade of about 7%, with a max 10.1% coming towards the top.

These kinds of climbs must be respected (often wind is a factor), even though they don't elicit the drama of extreme elevation profiles (16% +) in the nightly rider meetings. These climbs can fatigue a rider as much or more than steep ones.

To conserve energy it can be very helpful to work as a group up to and even throughout the climb, and, as before, pace yourself. Settle into a climbing rhythm that is comfortable for you. Focus on relaxing your upper body (loose grip on the bars, relaxed arms and shoulders) and putting all of your energy into your legs. Remember! You only get so many "fun tickets", so you have to spend them wisely. On a trip, you want to start the tour with a maximum number of tickets, and ride efficiently and smartly such that you still have a few to spend on the last climb of the final day!

Photo: Stelvio

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5 Ways to Become a Better Climber

Unless you purposefully seek out flat routes you will find that in Italy you are invariably climbing. It might be to the hilltop towns in Tuscany or Umbria, or the long climbs of the Dolomites, or the epic climbs such as the Stelvio, Gavia or Zoncolan. Here are 5 tips that you might find helpful with improving your climbing before traveling to Italy.

5 Ways to Become a Better Climber

By Richard Cunningham, Road Bike Action

What do I need to do in order to improve my climbing abilities?

Once a week I ride a 15-kilometer climb with an 8- to 14 percent incline. Although I started this two years ago, I've never noticed a real improvement, even when I replaced my old ride (a stock Scott Speedster S2) with a lightweight (7.5kg) Specialized Roubaix Pro with DT Swiss 1450 wheels.

I also mountain bike, which includes pedaling to the top of the same mountain on a 34-pound rig. I expected that climbing on a heavy bike would give a boost to my leg-power.

I climb at a very slow cadence (40 to 55 rpm) on my road bike. I stay in the lowest gear during long climbs while my friends ride two to three cogs higher. I've also noticed that since I started road biking my legs have become skinnier. I was expecting my leg muscles to grow bigger.

Sometimes I feel pain on my knees too. A friend told me to try a compact crankset or a triple chainring setup, but I'm not sure if this is the solution. I am 1.80 meters tall, weigh 72kg and am in good shape with a low fat percentage, and I also swim and weight-lift to prevent injuries. Do I do something wrong?

— George, Greece

Climbing is an art form that requires more of a mindset from a rider than it does strength and leg power. If superior climbing was simply a power-to-weight ratio, then big men, like Miguel Indurain could not have made their marks on the infamous European ascents of the Grand Tours.

Your letter and its mention of the mountain bike lead me to believe that your fitness is not the problem—nor do you need lower gearing. You do, however, need to abandon your mountain bike pedaling mentality and develop proper road bike climbing technique.

As far as your legs getting skinnier; it is natural for unneeded muscles to atrophy as a cyclist reaches peak fitness, especially in the calf area. The following five techniques have been helpful to me.

1. Lose the Mountain Bike Mentality

Rough ground and uncertain traction require a mountain biker to ride much lower gears than a road rider to remain efficient. Mountain bikers need to remain slightly below, not right at, their anaerobic threshold because they must conserve energy and recover from intense maximum-output bursts of power needed to cope with technical sections of the climbs.

The road rider has the benefit of a smooth surface and gradually changing gradients, so it is not necessary (nor wise) to exceed the anaerobic threshold. The road climber combines powerful, rhythmic breathing with an unyielding focus on power output at every degree of the crank revolution, so that pedaling pressure never exceeds (or drops below) the anaerobic threshold.

Tip: The regulation of power is more important than a specific cadence RPM for a road climber.

2. Good Pain/Bad Pain

The key to climbing is the same one that time-trialists use on the flat—putting the maximum amount of pressure on the pedals, while remaining just below the anaerobic threshold. To simplify this: a burning feeling in your legs means you have exceeded your threshold and are accumulating lactic acid in your muscles This accumulation causes intense pain and acts to short-circuit the nerve impulses that tell your muscles to move—both of which will defeat you before the summit.

Soreness and dull pain are normal effects of high-level efforts and are ignored by top climbers because the sweet spot, the place were a climber knows he or she is pedaling at peak performance, lies at the threshold between dull pain and the lactic-acid burn. Once you discover it, this place will be your new mental home on the bike.

3. Mental and Emotional Preparation

There is a French saying that roughly translates to: "Put a frog into boiling water and he will hop out and dash away. Put the frog into cool water and heat it slowly, and he will swim around happily until he is cooked." Arrive at the climb as fresh as you can. Stay relaxed as you begin ascending and work on establishing your breathing and pedaling synchronized into a smooth, relaxed cadence.

Watch ProTour climbers in action and you will discover that most climb at about 70 to 85 rpm. Don't stress on a particular cadence, instead, pedal at the rpm that allows you to meter out power as smoothly and efficiently as possible throughout the pedal circle.

Minimize your suffering by remaining seated as long as possible, and when you stand, relax your body and use your weight to turn the cranks so that the out-of-the-saddle interval is actually a resting period for your lungs and heart to catch up with your legs.

Never attack a mountain, instead, let the climb come to you. The key is to add pressure slowly, know that suffering is inevitable, but it is best served in increasing increments. Pile on the pain one tablespoon at a time as the climb progresses. It will be a lot easier to overlook intense suffering when the summit is within sight—and the top of the mountain is where a maximum effort cannot defeat you.

Tip: Remember that you must always climb alone—it is a dance between your will and your body's power threshold. Be prepared to let rival climbers go ahead. Most often, the early leaders are reeled in and crushed well before the summit.

And do not doubt yourself if you leave riders with powerful reputations behind. You can only be sure of your own output on a given day, so don't waste precious concentration and energy second-guessing the fitness of others.

4. Your Secret Weapon

Twice a year; once as you ride in to your fitness in late spring and another time near your peak in mid-summer, climb a mountain or pass that is twice as long and hard as anything you will see throughout the year. One of the reasons that professional road racers can motor over mountain passes in big gears is that they are completely confident that they can top the climb and recover in time for the next ascent—they have all survived worse on many occasions.

One way to achieve such confidence is to pick a couple of days each year to climb harder and higher—to push yourself so far beyond what you have led yourself to believe is your limit. The end result after your massive effort is that all lesser climbs will seem well within the realm of possibility, regardless of your perceived fitness or pain threshold on a given day. Absolutely knowing that you can bust out a big climb is far more empowering than most cyclists would believe.

5. Serve It Up

Last but not least; if there is going to be suffering involved, it is always better to give than to receive. Keep the pressure on when you are climbing with a group and, often, superior athletes will crack.

Always keep in mind that, regardless of the façade, everyone suffers on a climb—so find that place within yourself where you can block out everything and everyone around you, keep your effort steady and balance your power output on the edge of your pain threshold.

Resist the urge to back off the pressure when your rivals relax and sit up. Why prolong the effort by taking a break? The sooner you can reach the summit, the less you will hurt.

Photos: climbing Passo Gardena in the Dolomites

Stories, including cycling trip stories, for the Italian Cycling Journal welcome; contact veronaman@gmail.com