- When you get to a climb the first thing you might
ask yourself is what is the aim?
Is it to get your fastest time,
as in a time trial for example?
Is it simply to survive the climb as part of a longer ride
or is it to win the climb, to solo to victory?
- Now whatever your goal, you're gonna need
a metric for pacing your climb.
That could be a powermeter or a heart rate monitor
or you could go on perceived exertion.
They're all a bit different to use but our advice
is that you're able to pace a climb purely on feel
for the days when technology fails you.
- Optimizing your time on a climb, for a hill climb
or an uphill time trial you're going to need to ride
at a pace that you get to stay in
for the entire climb itself.
Now to get the best time you're gonna need
to be completely empty at the top.
- Depending on the length of the climb
this will be around your FTP.
Set off at that pace going a little bit over
at the start is okay but more than five percent
over will put you into trouble later.
Aim for constant effort over the
whole climb and be disciplined.
It will pay off.
If you're riding with a bunch of others
notice that many people will set off too fast and blow up.
All right mate, I thought you went
a bit fast at the start, eh?
- Wait!
- You can take a bit of pleasure in
passing them later on in the climb.
Now the problem with this kind of effort
is that it is painful and if it's a decent length climb
it's gonna go on for a long time.
It's also, to be honest, a bit lonely unless you've got
a riding buddy who's a very similar pace to you.
- Now with that in mind here are some tips on pacing.
- Now setting the pace is the tricky thing.
If you have a powermeter or a heart rate monitor
and you know your FTP then stick to that.
If not you could guess it but guess
on the conservative side and if you're riding
purely on feel then it should be painful and you should be
breathing hard and definitely not able to chat
but you shouldn't feel a buildup of lactic acid.
- Yeah, at this steady, sustainable, sub-threshold pace
you should be able to process lactate
at the same rate you produce it.
Is this steady for you?
- Yeah, but we're still chatting so
we're not going hard enough.
- I know.
- Better speed up I guess.
- Be disciplined in sticking to your pace.
Now if you haven't got a powermeter then you should
be riding as much as you can purely on feel
but also trying to use cadence as well.
So if the climb has a constant gradient then your cadence
should reflect that and be the same as well.
- Now you should beware if you're using a heart rate monitor
to judge your pace because as you get fatigued your
heart rate will actually drift up.
Also if it's very hot your heart rate will be
higher than normal as well.
Feeling bored?
Try counting off the kilometers, or even the hairpins.
Breaking a climb down into smaller chunks is a great way
to pace it and can make the idea of a daunting hour long,
painful effort much less frightening.
- Although five minutes is far more achievable.
- Yeah, definitely.
- Make sure that when you're climbing
you keep eating and drinking.
Just ensure that it's only in small doses.
The last thing you want to do is fill up on a whole bidon
or a whole large gel ulpa and make your stomach
feel bloated whilst you're riding at threshold.
- [Woman] Quick release energy sources like
energy drink, gels, or jelly sweets are your best bet.
Wash down with sips of water.
The maximum most people can absorb is 60 grams
of carbohydrate per hour so try to aim for about
10 grams of carbs every 10 minutes.
You'll need the energy replacement
if you're riding at this pace.
Control your breathing.
This is similar to when facing a time trial.
Obviously you need the fastest rate of oxygen delivery
to your body that you can get but that doesn't mean
increasing your breathing rate.
Ironically, breathing faster, as in more breaths per minute
doesn't mean you completely empty your lungs
and this is less efficient for gas transfer.
- [Man] Try to breath slowly and deeply from your diaphragm.
This is also calming and will help your body stay relaxed.
A tense upper body is just a waste of energy.
Being able to relax through deep breathing is also
a handy technique for all kinds of
other stressful life situations.
- Now if the climb comes as part of a longer sportive or
road race then it's a totally different situation
and in fact it's quite rare that you get to choose
the pace at all because other people will be setting
the pace or even trying to drop you.
So what might happen is that you're actually
just in survival mode on the climb.
- Which basically means you want to hit the top of the climb
with a little bit left in the tank for the rest of
the race or ride and not be totally wiped out and fatigued.
- Yeah.
- Well I think we paced that climb pretty well,
thanks for waiting for me as well.
- Stop fluffing that.
Anyway for some tips on how to make it tough
for people you're climbing with you can check out
our earlier video, How to Climb Nasty, down here.
- That is a pretty nasty video,
and don't forget to like and share too.