Cycling training for a climb

A number of factors are preliminar in your climbing training. Some are obvious, others are less known, but no less important.

Your weight:

If you have the objective to climb f.i. the Ventoux, Tourmalet or Galibier, then you'll certainly have to fight against gravity. So, first of all, try to get your weight under control. It is not for nothing that the best climbers are (often small) light weights.

Start by calculating your (BMI = Body Mass Index) . To calculate your BMI, you have to divide your weight in kilograms by the square of your height in meters.

For example:
Your weight is 80 kilograms and you are 1.80 meters tall:
80: (1.8 x 1.8) = 80: 3.24 = 24.7 kg.
A normal BMI is between 18.5 and 24.9.

As you know, loss of weight goes very gradually. To effectively lose weight, you should adjust your diet, do exercises and change your lifestyle.
A few pounds less can quickly give you the benefit a few watts more. Details can be found further in this article.

There are specific sports diets , to prepare you in an ideal way for a climb.

Training, rest and super compensation :

Training means that the more you work out, the better and stronger your body becomes. This is due to the physical mechanism of the super-compensation. Perhaps this word doesn't say too much, but you've undoubtedly experienced it.
This is in fact the phenomenon that, after a workout, the body has the tendency to recover above the initial physical level.
When you get a training stimulus, your body gets tired and the physical abilities decrease. After the recovery, your physical condition will not only return to the original level, but slightly above.
But if you are not working out again in a short term, your condition will go back to your original level.

During your preparation, you will not have to workout on a daily basis. On the contrary. Especially for the starting cyclist it is best to alternate a training with a day of rest. During these days of rest, you can also improve your general condition. And if you start to workout before you have recovered, you will even start to perform worse.
However, if you work out just at the moment when you're on top of the super compensation, you will always perform better. Keep this in mind when you are training. A perfect interplay between activity and rest is necessary.

The big question is: when should I go for the next training and how intense can it be to improve my physical condition? However, this is not a fixed underlying principle, so your own experience and knowledge of your body can help you with this. There are a few tools, such as the measurement of your morning pulse, if it is too high, then you probably will not have recovered from your training. Sleep is also very important when you're following a training schedule.

A good workout schedule also includes a planning period. Usually it is based on a period of four weeks, containing 3 weeks of building (in volume and intensity) and a quiet week without strenuous exercise. You can do this several times after each other.

Aerobic and anaerobic threshold:

Your transfer pulse
Your transfer pulse is the pulse corresponding to the acidification threshold of your body. Below your transfer pulse, the efforts you make can be sustained much longer and you'll be able to achieve your climb with success. Above this transfer pulse, you'll burn your energy too quickly. The solution is to cycle at a pulse under transfer pulse.
Because at an intensive effort (= high heart rate), your energy reserves will be exhausted after 90 minutes. For a difficult climb 90 minutes may be insufficient for many.

Your aerobic threshold
In order to know your aerobic treshold, you must first calculate your maximum heart rate:
- 220 minus your age (men)
- 230 minus your age (women)
Your aerobic threshold is about 75% of your maximum heart rate f.i.: a man of 30 years has a maximum heart rate of 190, so is his aerobic threshold lies at a heart rate of 142 (75%). This often corresponds to the "talking border".

Your anaerobic threshold
Your anaerobic threshold, is the maximum heart rate you can maintain for a long time without acidification. When, during your exercise, the production of wastes through your muscles becomes bigger than their discharge, the anaerobic metabolism kicks in.
How can you determine this? Warm up with changing gears. Next, drive a race for 10 minutes at your maximum pace. Your average heart rate during your trial is normally just below your transfer pulse. Of course there are more scientific ways to calculate your transfer pulse more accurately, such as the lactic acid test, but it can yet be a good indication.

Recovery training is situated under your aerobic threshold. Duration training is situated between your aerobic and anaerobic thresholds. Resistance Training is above your anaerobic threshold. So, do not incorporate Resistance training in your schedule !