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April 2009 
Climb as I say, not as I do.
Posted on Nov 30th, 2008
by 
onyourleft
onyourleft
Disclosure; I don't climb well. I'm a sit and spin and someday get to the top kind of gal. Climbing on a bike seems like the best example of athletic effort that combines strength and knowledge.
It's not enough to have strength or just technique. Without the combination of the two you will suffer.
The feeling I try for is not rocking the bike but relaxe the hands and you toss it back and forth lightly like tossing a light bean bag from hand to hand. Keep the upper body relaxed, especially hands and wrists.
Sometimes we suffer even WITH both.
Some days you will feel there is not a low enough gear for the hill and some times you feel like you need more resistance from the gears.
Here are a couple ways to get both gears.
Some call this "the magic gear". On a climb where you "run out of gears", you're in the lowest of granniest of granny gears and wish there was a lower one just shift it 1-2 gears higher (this may mean shifting under load and sometimes .... you just can't do that! but if you can with proper technique, that's another blog post...) then climb standing till you've got a little rest then voila!! shift down 1-2.
It's magic, lower gears!
Or if you feel the need for higher gears and more resistance ...let the bike come to you. If you need some resistance to climb standing feather the pedals and let it slow down a little till ... voila!
Some call this "the magic gear". On a climb where you "run out of gears", you're in the lowest of granniest of granny gears and wish there was a lower one just shift it 1-2 gears higher (this may mean shifting under load and sometimes .... you just can't do that! but if you can with proper technique, that's another blog post...) then climb standing till you've got a little rest then voila!! shift down 1-2.
It's magic, lower gears!
Or if you feel the need for higher gears and more resistance ...let the bike come to you. If you need some resistance to climb standing feather the pedals and let it slow down a little till ... voila!
You can stand.
Learn to climb standing in the pedals. It rests the muscles you sit and spin with, stretches your back, hamstrings. You use alternate muscles and get a little rest and stretch on the road.
Watch pro racers climb and you see them rocking the bike as they do. Don't worry, you won't fall over.
Watch pro racers climb and you see them rocking the bike as they do. Don't worry, you won't fall over.
The feeling I try for is not rocking the bike but relaxe the hands and you toss it back and forth lightly like tossing a light bean bag from hand to hand. Keep the upper body relaxed, especially hands and wrists.
Don't forget to breath!
Pictured above I ride Bike Against the Odds, a ride that benefits the Breast Cancer Fund. My smile is twofold. I'd just climbed Old Tunnel Road feeling faster and stronger than ever before and I'd just taken advantage of another tip; using the angle of a banked turn to give a miniature descent just into a climbing turn. It was just enough to get me up that next steep bit.
Photo by Mark Fong, Marc Fong, Jr. and Carol Melanie Galan who provided photographs for the Breast Cancer Fund. Photographs may not be reproduced, copied, televised, digitized or used in any way without permission of the Breast Cancer Fund and/or the photographer.
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