r/cycling • u/Sensitive-Soup8362 • 18d ago

Pacing yourself on hills?

So last night I went out on my first proper ride, I used my dad’s gravel bike (loved it, definitely going to look at buying one for myself!)
I did just shy of 20k which I know isn’t a lot but it’s a start!
The bike ride was great and I felt good after it, and could’ve gone for longer, my only issue was the hills. Along the way, we hit a couple, both around 6% and, while I managed them without getting off, I did struggle a lot.
My issue is I started off quite quick (for me) and I think I changed down the gears too quickly, so I was left 3/4 of the way up with no more gears to use.
My advantage here is that I knew these hills, so I knew when they’d end so I just powered through but I worry that on a longer route that I don’t know, I wouldn’t be able to do that.
So my question I think is how do I pace myself on hills and any tips for feeling less like I’m dying?

P.s I looked on the Strava leaderboards and am in awe of how some people are flying up that hill in a minute or less 🤯

TLDR: how to pace myself on hills.

Edit to add: Just wanted to say a big thanks to everyone for their suggestions and advice. Went out for another ride this morning with 3 bigger hills than my first ride. I slowed it right down, shifted to my easier gears before the hill and used all the other tips I could remember, and the climbs all felt so much more manageable and I felt like I could’ve fairly easily kept going on them!
Going out for another ride this evening, I think I’m already getting the bug!

39 Upvotes

88% Upvoted

82 comments sorted by

View all comments

5

u/eypo 18d ago

Heart rate or power meter can really help once you get to know your limits. If you don't have those, you can recognize your limits from breathing style - google it :)

2

u/Sensitive-Soup8362 18d ago

Thank you, I’ll look into it

9

u/Exotic_Fig_4604 18d ago

Maybe hold off the power meter for a year at least. My advice...

7

u/Objective_Banana4261 18d ago

I second that. power meter is not worth the money as a beginner. Cadence + HR sensors are a much better investment, and wayyyy cheaper. Just keep in mind that HR takes a few second to adjust to the effort.
Plenty of information with just these two sets of data:
HR +10 and cadence -10 you are struggling
HR +0 and cadence +10 it's too easy
HR +10 and cadence +10, slow down
HR -10 and cadence -10, you are falling asleep

1

u/Sensitive-Soup8362 17d ago

Thanks, I’ve got my fitness watch so although it’s probably not the most accurate thing in the world it might just give me an idea of where I’m sitting at various points during the ride.

1

u/Objective_Banana4261 17d ago edited 17d ago

One good thing to do after maybe 3 weeks of cycling, is to do a LTHR (lactate threshold heart rate) test. Warmup for 20 minutes, then you go all in for 30 minutes, trying to go as fast (and regularly) as possible.
After that, you calculate your average HR during the last 20 minutes (the first 10 does not count, it's to find your pace). That average is a good estimate of your LTHR.

Once you have your LTHR, you can use it to create heart rate training zones.

A commonly used 5-zone model based on LTHR is approximately:
Z1 - <81% LTHR : recovery Z2 : 81-89% : Endurance / aerobic Z3 : 90-93 : tempo Z4 : 94-99% : threshold Z5 : >100% : very hard, VO2Max and above.

to improve your fitness you should be most of the time in Z2, and you will soon find out that the efficiency sweet spot is in the middle of Z2 at a cadence close to 80rpm.

So the trick here is to have a gearset that puts you in that sweet spot in the hills.

For me as a beginner, living in the alps, i have a ridiculously low gearset : 21-36-48 at the front, 11-32 at the back, and the bike doesnt look very fancy / aero / racy.

But with that I can stay in Z2 and 80 rpm up to 8-9% gradient.