Training for climbing

The Archives Archived: General Discussion
1

 Hi Guys, I am new to ZWIFT. I want to train myself to climb hills. Is there a workout I can try? I have seen posts suggesting 3 sisters on watopia but Watopia is not available and its not a training plan.

Grateful for any suggestions / Advice.

Thank you, Mohan

2

Hi Mohan, you could look at the GCN “Power Climbs” workouts.

As for general riding, if Watopia is not on the current day’s schedule, there are climbs in Richmond with the UCI Worlds course, and in London with Box Hill and Leith Hill.  Plenty of choices to go upwards.

Ride on!

3

Thanks v much Phil. I will look into that.

4

Here’s a convenient way to look through the various workouts and their structures.
https://whatsonzwift.com/workouts/

Best of luck!

5

Thanks again Phill. Real nice of you. I am looking at sustained climbing skills not a power climb as Inplan to cycle Alph d’hue This summer.

6

Best training for long hills is to do sustained long efforts.

Zwift races would be a good place to start, and 20*2s at 95-100% of your FTP. 

With something like Alpe d’Huez you’ll be doing 1-2hrs constant climbing around your FTP, so there’s limited benefit in doing intervals which target shorter efforts.

Don’t worry too much about elevation either indoors or outdoors.

7

That’s good advice Charlie. Thank you. I have never thought of it like that.

8

a few suggestions. pushing 300 watts at 90 RPM in the flats at 25 MPH is not the same as 300 W at 90 RPM doing 12 MPH up a hill. Your pedal stroke will be activated at different points and thus muscle recruitment is different due to rotational momentum differences in the rear wheel at different speeds. 

 

Thus if you are in ERG mode make sure your geared similarly do what you will be climbing at, and if just riding make sure your hill difficulty setting is all the way up to mimic a real climb as much as possible

9

Thanks for the valuable advice Nicholas. I wish I could talk with you a bit more to try and get you to expand on what you are saying. It looks like you know a lot about what muscles need to be trained. Etc. Is there any article I can read to help me understand a bit more and adjust my training?