greetings to the video today's video is going to be all about climbing how you can improve
how you can get better and what better day to do it on a day that i'm going up my local climb so
yeah seven different tips because i love climbing i'm pretty good at climbing and yeah i just love
all them hills and very soon i've got a lot of climbing to do in the thing that i'm going to do
actually it's next week now so yeah let's get into the first tip it's just practice practice practice
practice climbing hills you can't get better just by you know spending a lot of money on like a
fancy new bike just practice so what i did when i first started was i went on strava explore found
a climb near me and and that's the key is finding it knee so that you can do it as much as possible
and yeah just basically just ride it as much as you can create routes that are hilly and yeah
just practice so i went understand i just used to keep going back and try and get a better time on
there actually today i'm going to do pretty much just that i'm on ashy valley favorite little loop
perfect little climb so i'm going to head up there now then we'll get onto with a second tip
next tip is get lower gearing don't care what other people gonna say some people
are a bit snobby about it's like oh you've got a granny gear like oh look at the size of that set
don't care about it because if you can get up every single climb that you want to then yeah
whatever i can climb up pretty much any climb that i want because i've got low gearing and it just
means that you're not going to be grinding your legs you're not going to be hurting your knees
and it just means that you're going to have a higher cadence so it just makes climbing i
wouldn't say easy because you still have to put the power in to get up the hills
but it just means that you've not got as much stress on your knees and your legs
so you can then ride all day if you want to in the hills that's what i do and i feel like that's
that's just like a big i guess it's not even a secret it's just get lower gearing
shimano grx is incredible it's 4630 i think it's the grx 600 so it's not the top-end one
i think it's like 105 equivalent i'll leave a link to it below it's amazing if you want to do
hills and you want to make them feel a little bit easier on your legs get lower gearing i've
actually got grx on the front and then i've got a 34 on the back and you can see that i'm pretty
much in my lowest gear and actually i'm glad for a little bit of a rest every time i do this it's
just still so steep at the bottom i have to have a little breather right let's carry on
the next tip is the mental like side of it and i think for me i've always from the start even when
i found heels really hard i was like 100 kilos and it took me hours to get up like even like
the shortest climb like i always told myself but i love hills like i love it i feel like
hills make you fitter hills where the views are hills just i just love it so even when it's hard
even when you're struggling just like this is making me fitter like this is making me a better
cyclist just tell yourself that you love hills just tell yourself even if you don't necessarily
believe at the start tell yourself you love hills i would take hills any day over a flat
ride because i just find flat rides you might be quicker you might get a higher average speed um
but it's just boring and for me anyway and that leads me on to the next tip and is ignore speed
don't worry about speed people get really hung up on like how fast the overall speed was on a ride
and i'm just like just ignore it because hills are going to change that like depending on how steep
they are and yeah just ignore average speed just get out in the hills because that will overall
make you a fitter and faster cyclist i actually one of the metrics i use and it's going to be
different for everyone i don't ever look at speed ever i don't even have it as a metric on my garmin
um but i have elevation that's my my what's the word my indicator of like a good or a tough ride
i'm like how many meters did i climb all right coming up this hill but how beautiful is it this
morning look absolutely blooming stunning i'm not even anywhere near the top yet so let's head
up this is the steep bit coming up actually you can see on here so that is where i currently am
got that little steep bit coming up but so tell myself i love the hills next tip
it's all about pacing the climb well i'm gonna have to chat when i stop because it's steep
you have to learn how to pace on climbs especially if you want to do like a big hilly day and it has
taken me a bit of time to kind of figure that out and what works but one thing that has made
it's just so incredibly simple and easy and just take and it's basically saved me a lot of time
because i used to do this manually is climb pro on garmin it is phenomenal um basically what it is is
when you incorporate a roux or input a route into your garmin you have a little bird it's so sweet
anyway when you um input a route into into the garment it highlights all the climbs within
that route and there's a couple of different criteria so it has to be over 500 meters in length
and above three percent gradient and what that does is then creates like a list on your garmin
so you can have a look at how many climbs are in that particular route when you are riding it will
kind of tell you that you are x distance away so actually on that list it will tell you how
far into the ride they are so 25k in or 50k or 75 or whatever that is and then when you're riding
it will give you like a little bit of a count i think it's i think it's 200 meters um it starts
telling you that the climb is approaching when you hit it we'll just say go and then
the screen will come up and it will show you and this is what i love and it's fine it's so useful
is a color coordinated like elevation profile the green section is not to three percent the
yellow section is three to six percent orange six to nine percent red nine to twelve percent
and then when it gets dark red that is when you know you're gonna need all those gears um
because it's more than 12 climbs it also tells you the distance to go and how many meters elevation
there is left and if you've ever ever ridden with me you'll know that i am just one of these people
that's like i want to know like how long the climb is how steep it is and before i had this
i always used to do this like i guess manually with a pen and paper so before a big ride i'd
mark out where all the climbs were write it on a bit of paper and take a photograph of it and then
i would look at that during the ride so i kind of knew where big climbs were going to be
but this just takes all that faff out of it and to have it on the head unit it's it is the best
product or like feature that i think garmin has i just oh i absolutely love it for someone that
loves hills it just makes climbing just so much easier and like better paced because you know
what's coming so i will look at that list the night before um and so i'll know like okay the
first half has got the tougher climbs i did this before all points and also had that in there and
i knew where all the tough climbs were going to be and it's just very very very good and to add like
this this is like even more exciting for me anyway and hopefully for you um garmin are now sponsoring
me and the channel so i'm made up because i've been trying out the 10 30 plus for about a year
all my long rides and i'm so impressed with the battery life climb pro feature there's
just so many different features that i love in it i will do a separate video actually of my favorite
features within that unit but it's just great it's absolutely brilliant for especially for people
that love to climb like me and do long days in the hills so um i'll leave a link to all the details
below for that if you want to go and have a look at it but yeah thank you so much to garmin for
one just created a product that is just awesome and for supporting the channel supporting me
to be able to make videos like this that's hopefully going to help you in your cycling
exactly life i guess right anyway i want to climb up the hill but oh look at this i mean
it's a bit cloudy but look how beautiful that i do not think that just looks pretty
as a picture i mean it'd be lovelier if there were blue skies but i mean oh that's beautiful
do you see those llamas oh my god they're so cute oh my i just want to cuddle them anyway get on to
the next tip and that is eat and drink regularly because when you're climbing more you're just
expending more energy you're sweating more so make sure you have an electrolyte another little thing
that i like to do on the garment is you can set up food and drink alerts so i have a food alert
on long rides or longer rides um to what's the difference i i mean that like if it's like a
few hours i'll i don't necessarily do it but if it's like you know four hours i'll put it on as a
reminder especially on the old axes um food every 30 minutes and water to drink a water bottle when
it's hot anyway um one hour so i have that little alert just to remind me and it was invaluable on
all points north because when you're tied you don't it's almost like you forget and it's not
necessary to stop and have like a whole meal but um sorry my nose is running um classy is there but
just wipe it on the old glove um but what was i saying date or a little bite of a bar um or just
something just to keep that energy going onto the top and onto the last tip you're just so adorable
and the final tip is climb places where you've got beautiful views like i would not really like
climbing if it just was like in really built up areas not my favorite but if you get views at
the top like what better motivation do you need than like stunning view so get up out in the
lakes and the dales and the peaks just travel get some good climbs because you feel like
this is my reward for like doing a tough climb is like the beautiful view and then now i get
to do the descent so this is not what is a tip descending to go your own pace i know i get a lot
of questions about so i do a lot of videos about hill climbing descending don't rush don't feel
like you've got to keep up with anyone just take it steady push on the up not on the down thank
you so much for watching if you've got any other questions about climbing hills long distance leave
them as always in the comments and i will see you all next video thank you again to garmin mega
excited for this and if you've got any products or anything that you want me to test from garmin
um i'm hacked now then let me know in the comments because i'm going to have the ability
to be able to try things out so yeah i'll see you on the next video oh now get the descent
oh you're just so adorable oh wow that's really something