Shop ride Sundays: Hill Climbing redux

We had a fabulous inaugural climbing clinic a couple of weekends back, and as promised Tammy has send along the follow tips as promised

Remember to get out there and continue to practice these skills! In Austin, the hills must be searched out… don’t fear them, OWN THEM!

Climbing - long, steady climbs

• Weight in the saddle, relaxed upper body w/hands loose on the tops of your bars. If it’s not working to get you up that hill, it should be relaxed.
• Open your chest, and take deep full breaths to fuel your working muscles with all the oxygen they need.
• Engage glutes & hamstrings to power your climbing. Scrape that Texas clay off the bottoms of your shoes.

Climbing – short, power climbs

• Ride into the hill, then stand to attack the short climb.
• Hands on the brake hoods (fingers off the brake levers!).
• Use your upper body to PULL on the brake hoods, and allowing the bike to move beneath you.
• Adjust your center of mass depending on the grade of the climb; steeper hills will require you to shift more forward to maintain balance of weight distribution.

Descending

• Feet/pedals parallel to the ground, with body weight in feet, slightly hovering on saddle.
• Hands IN THE DROPS! Practice on the flats if this is not comfortable for you, and make sure your fit allows you to comfortably reach the brakes in this position (If not, make an appt at Jack & Adam’s to have your fit checked. A good fit is imperative to good handling skills and safety!).
• Bend arms to keep upper body low and increase ability to absorb any shock from the road.
• Shift body weight toward back of saddle.

Thank you to all of you joined us for this clinic. This was our first of many clinic offerings for the Jack & Adam’s Bicycles shop ride. Let us know what you most enjoyed about this clinic, and what we could do to improve it in future sessions. If you have any questions about anything you learned last week, feel free to email me.

Tammy Metzger, B.Sc.

Coach | Owner, Tempo Multisport LLC

http://trainwithtempo.com

tammy@trainwithtempo.com

Shop ride Sundays: Hill Climbing redux