How to increase anaerobic capacity

dkhuff1

Hi,
I have bee mountain biking for about 6 weeks now. Before that I did some lifting and some cardio. Now I am doing high intensity interval training, weights, and riding my mountain bike, and some moderate intensity cardio.. I find that I have a lot of trouble on long climbs, I just run out of air and my legs are on fire. I have pretty strong legs for a woman and from 20 plus years of skiing.

I have been told by several mountain bikers that mountain biking is very different that road cycling and you spend a lot more time working anaerobilcally. This seems to fit my experience as I am in decent shape cardiovascularly. What exercises or workouts can I do to increase my anaerobic capacity? I really want to be able to do some of these climbs without having to get off and walk part of the way.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Azdak

There are several factors involved in hill climbing.

1. Aerobic fitness level--on a long, sustained climb, your aerobic fitness capacity is the "base" for your efforts. If you don't have the basic fitness level then the "running out of air/legs on fire" can easily be due to the fact that the aerobic demand of the climb is beyond your ability.

2. Weight. Every ounce of excess weight hinders your ability to climb. This is one of the most significant factors to performance. If you are heavy, you will struggle on climbs.

Nos 1 and 2 account for the issues that most recreational riders face. However, sport-specific training can also help.

1. Threshold training: After 10-15 min of warmup, try to ride 10 min at a "threshold pace". This is a pace that is the fastest and hardest you could sustain for 20 min or so. Ride at a 'recovery" pace for 10 min and try another interval. Do this once or twice per week.

2. Ride more hills: Find some hilly routes. On a climb that might take 10 min to climb, alternate 1-2 min of focused climbing with intervals of standing on the pedals, all out sprinting for 20 pedal strokes.

3. Finding a long, gradual hill, alternate pedaling slower in a higher gear with your regular cadence. Click into a higher gear so that cadence drops to 50 or so and maintain that for 1-2 min, then go back to regular gear/cadence for 5 min.

4. Work on stroke mechanics. Climbing up off-road hills requires good pedaling technique, as often the changes can be abrupt or you are required to pedal up very short, steep pitches. Being able to maintain a good "circular" pedaling style will be helpful.

bluetrumpet01

Mountain biking is definitely a different beast than road cycling, but the fundamentals of improving performance are the same, and even line up with what people have noticed with running. Azdak is correct when he says that you anaerobic fitness level depends on your aerobic "base", but what does that mean?

You need to build your legs' infrastructure to better support lactic acid management, nutrient delivery, and adequate blood supply. The best way to build your base is to train at much lower intensities for several weeks (8-12) where you don't go over 80% of your maximum heart rate. This promotes the development of the capillary systems in the muscles that you're working that enable all of the things I mentioned at the beginning of this paragraph.

It's tough to stay consistently at that low of a level of training, but it pays off huge! Once you finish your set amount of time in base training, you can move on to the threshold training that azdak suggested, and finally on to race pace where you focus on intervals and hill workouts.

This sort of system is called periodization and is followed by cyclists, runners, swimmers, triathletes, you name it. A small amount of research can go a long way, just start with base training.

lenkearney

I ride road bikes, and being overweight- hills are a real killer to me also. This is probably obvious but better safe....

Riding on the flats I try to maintain a 90+ rpm- so I need to use lower gears to get that rate. As I approach a hill I drop gears to try to maintain an 80 to 90 rpm. I find it is much better for me to stay in the saddle and drop the gears than to stand up and really mash the pedals.

My bike does have a triple chain ring - so I do have the "granny" gears and on long climbs I aint afraid to use them.

I assume you already have bike shoes and clips- which are also really helpful.

Lastly, and I apologize if this is too basic, spend some training time working on your pedal stroke. An earlier poster talked about pedaling "circular"- I really struggled with this idea.

Basically it means learn to use all four muscle groups when you pedal. Glutes for the downstroke, hamstrings for the bottom pull through (the scraping your shoe scenario), hip flexors for the upstroke in the back and thigh muscles for the push through over the top.

to practice, find a quiet street, switch to moderate hi gear, clip one foot in - and pedal with that one foot. the high gear means a slow rotation and high force so you can really feel the muscles you are using. For me, I got most improvement from thinking "light foot" on the upstroke. I was letting my non-driving leg rest on the pedal during the upward part of the cycle. so my driving foot not only had to move me forward, it had to lift me other leg.

switch sides and do the other leg.

now days when I climb a hill, I focus on drawing back with my hamstring- takes some practice but makes a difference.

godspeed
Len

dkhuff1

Thanks for all the tips. I do not yet ride clip less, as I want to get more confident and comfortable with my bike first. I take clinics with a downhiller and he is not a fan of clip less pedals , but I do intend to get them in the next few months. I have bad knees and several have told me that clip less pedals can make knees hurt more than flat pedals. But you trade off a lot of efficiency going up hills.

I know my extra weight is hurting me on the hills. I'm down 16#s so far which I am sure helps but I have around 30-40#s to go. I attend these social rides in Wednesday and I am so slow they have to assign someone to stay with me. Each week the rides get harder with more climbing and more technical stuff. Maybe I need to bag these for the rest of the year till I'm a lighter and fitter. The first 3 rides were challenging but doable. Now they are pretty darn hard.

As far as the base training where I don't go above 80% of my max heart rate for 8-12 weeks, I don't think think there are any mountain bike rails where that is possible for me. I live in Colorado and every trail has some climbs, and I egt way over 80% on them. I could totally see doing that in the winter. I hate to do that when is so gorgeous outside.

I have not yet focused on my pedal stroke and this is something that I really should do now to make sure I dont build a bunch of d habits. I assume I can do that with regular pedals too.

I am doing some hill intervals and some longish climbs, so I will keep working n those too. Thanks for the tips.

bluetrumpet01

Most relegate the base training to the winter because you're right, nobody wants to do the boring base stuff when it's so nice outside. When you get to it though, it'll pay huge dividends!