Hill training (bike) (Page 2)

Not to start this whole topic up again, but this comment is simply untrue.  Some do.  Some don't.  There's no evidence it helps endurance athletes (like triathlete's, say) in particular.  Do it if you like it.

And note the last statement.  This is the best option, no?  And the gym may have cycling options as well, not just weights.

OK, I'm no cycling expert, as my training logs will attest.  But I have seen some really good improvements in my hill-climbing ability over the last couple of months, and the only thing I can attribute it to is Spin Class at the gym.  Yeah.  Spin Class on a lame-o stationary spin class bike with a fly wheel. 

I've been going twice a week for the last several months.  In class, we usually do some good long-ish intervals, and some fake-o rollers, and then some very hard effort "climbs", and then followed up with some low resistance "sprints".  I don't treat it like riding much except that it's a similar movement.

Low cadence intervals seem to be what's helped the most, imo.  There aren't any "levels" on the bikes, so it's all subjective, and effort is based on RPE.  For the hard climbs, he has us standing up at levels 8, 9 and 10, for 30 seconds each, and the cadence drops from 60-70 rpm to whatever you can hold for level 10 (usually around 40).  That's exactly how I wind up tackling the harder hills I'm faced with anyway, so it's good to know that I can hold that for as long as I need to to get over the hill.  I mean, there are times when the hill is harder than I can deal with and wind up getting into the lowest gear and just spin as much as I can and hope that I can keep pedalling enough to keep myself going fast enough to no turn over.

Maybe I'm wrong.  And if I am, I'm sure Bear, et al, will let me know.   

IMHO, this is a good thing and a bad thing.  You are building the ability to make more power, which is a good thing, but you are targeting it at a low cadence (bad thing).  Cycling involves two things, how much force you can make in one stroke, and how many times you can make that stroke per minute.  Power is cadence indepedant.  You make the same power at low rpm pushing hard as you can at high rpm pushing less.  YOu get stronger by pushing more force with your legs for longer periods of time.  So it makes sense that for a constant resistance, low cadence offers more resistance at the legs.

The issue is what you describe.  You worked at low cadence, and now you climb hills in low cadence, which is a very good way of frying yourself early.  IF instead you could generate that same force on the pedals at a higher cadence, you would be putting out more power and be faster, or if you were comfortable producing less force at higher cadence, you could generate enough power to get up the hill without stressing the legs so much.

so save the gear mashing drills for outside.  On a trainer you should never run out of resistance to the point that you can't spin in your comfort zone or higher while pushing the same force you would be at lower cadence.  SO getting out and mashing is a good thing, but on the trainer, 'mashing' is not less then 60 rpm, more like between 70 and 90.  Also incorperate high cadence-low resistance stuff to help transition that hard effort-low cadence stuff to more useable rpms.