Training cycle climbing when all you have is flat roads

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Continued from Training for the Stelvio 2019 Adventure while on Chemo.

So 7 months to go, out of which 3 will be on chemotherapy. Trying to think of ways to train cycle climbing with what I have at the moment as the trip will contain a couple of long climbs.

• Stelvio Pass (from Prato) – HC / 24km / 8%
• Gavia Pass (from Bormio) – HC / 25km / 5%

Where I live, the highest hill-climb is 4 km long and 240 meter elevation gain at Kinnekulle. And that is 50 km from where I live and that is a little too long way for me at the moment (need to get the distance in my legs as well but that is probably another post)

The key difference between my goals and the normal cycling sites covering the topic is that I will have 1400 km in my legs when I reach the Alps and I am also currently undergoing a chemotherapy treatment for liver-cancer, so yeah that will be interesting! : )

So this is a detailed post on how I am currently training to reach my goal of biking to and over the Alps.

On the bike

So what can be done on the bike to get better at hill-climbing when there are no hills around you?

High-power, low-cadence sessions

One way to build up cycling specific leg strength is to actually do strength training on the bike. How to do it? Put your trainer on highest resistance and pedal away at very low cadence, i.e. around 50 rpm. This will give you a strength training session on your bike that will allow you to become more powerful in climbing. Just be mindful to warm-up before going all in as this could easily be hard on you knees.

Low-intensity training

This one builds up your muscles with new infrastructure needed for power and endurance, specifically capillary density. I.e. more small blood vessels that help supply your muscle cells with blood. Another boost will be that this builds up mitochondrial volume, that are used by the body to generate energy. So a combination of more mitochondria volume and capillary density will yield you greater resources to draw from.

• How to Boost Performance and Recovery by Increasing Capillary Density

Strength training

I don't really feel comfortable on the bike during my chemo cycles so I decided to pick up strength training at the office gym again.

Not all training needs to be done on the bike to be effective. Lets mix up some traditional strength training that will help building up the body for the mountains.

Deadlifts

In my opinion, if you want just one exercise, chose the deadlifts. This activates all major muscle groups in your body

• Grip strength
• Lower back stability
• Gluteus maximus
• Hamstrings
• Quadriceps
• Adductor magnus
• Core musculature
• And more.. for a full list look over at wikipedia.

Just be sure if you are just starting out, have someone more experienced with you who can spot common errors. Don't get hurt, start with low weight and just get the correct form before moving to higher loads.

Suspension Training

For full body exercising, I ended up buying one of these straps to use at home. Started out by using a apple tree branch in the garden as anchor but it felt a little unstable so I moved over to the pergola instead.

Really nice core training, a lot of exercises that can be done. How does this work towards the climbing you might ask? Core strength is key on the bike as well, if you have good core stability then you will be able to sit in the saddle for longer periods of time with correct posture and use the leg power in a more effective way. Core is key.

Lunges and squats are also nice, the idea is to get good overall strength in your body. Don't focus specifically on your legs as you will not have any use of that strength if you don't have core stability to use that power on the bike. The idea is not to build bulky muscles either so lets not focus on that bit either, it will just be more weight to carry up the hills : )

Running

Running is something that I am able to do even when on chemo, not for long periods of time but more sweet sessions 10-20 minutes.
Give your hearth a workout session, you won't regret it.

Conclusions

My plan is to continue with these sessions even after the chemo is over in January. Hopefully a combination of these will get me prepared for the Alps in June. Only planned change is to add more cycling sessions outdoor when spring comes around and my Kona Sutra arrives. Now I just have to execute the plan, even when my body wants other things!


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