How to – Hill climbing, tips to reach the top.

How to – Hill climbing, tips to reach the top.

Having spoken to some friends and followers I am going to write cycling tips every other week (I may put in some newbie mountaineering and kitesurfing tips to mix it up a little as well) Follow along my subscribing to my blog (link at bottom of home page). I hope you enjoy, comment with any questions about cycling.

To kick it off here are my top tips for better hill climbing.

Long steady hill climbs can be really tough that feeling like the hill may never end is one I have felt many times before. But don’t fear most hills end, eventually and the reward of the view and a well-earned drink stop from the top can be well worth your achy legs and perspiration on the way up.

Tip one – When reaching the bottom of a climb don’t change down into your lowest gear, not only will your legs be spinning like crazy and you will lose the speed you have gained in the previous flat or downhill but you then have nowhere to go should the climb get steeper or more tricky. Instead if you need to change down one gear lower and work on a basis of when your cadence drops counting to 10 and then changing down, that way you get the most out of each gear change.

Tip two – Breath, as it starts to get harder doesn’t forget to breath, try breathing in and out in time with your pedal strokes in through your nose and out through you mouth if you can. Try not to breath too quickly as this will psyche you out.

Tip three – Look ahead and focus on breaking the hill down into milestones. Once it starts to get hard if the climb in lasting over 10/15 minutes break it down into manageable chunks and see every chunk as a mini goal that way you don’t think of the climb as one mega beast but several small beasts joined together, much more manageable!

Tip four – To stretch out your back and also work other muscles, if the hill is not too steep stand up on the pedals for sections of the climb this will allow you to put more power through the pedals.  If the surface is loose don’t stand up as your weight on the back wheel will spin/slip out.

Tip five – Steady cadence, try and keep your pedals going round at a smooth & consistent pace. If you feeling like your pushing really hard on your pedals go down a gear or two, likewise if you feel your feet are spinning then you can probably go up a gear.

So these are my five top tips to improve your hill climbing if you would like more tips and coaching please get in touch.

Exciting times as my local club grows

Exciting times as my local club grows

Four years ago I started Pedal 2 Pedal to help the next generation of mountain bikers have access to coaching in my local area, Petersfield. There was no cycling club within about 40 minutes of Petersfield and I wanted to help give back to the sport which had given me so much. So after doing my coaching qualifications Pedal 2 Pedal was born. I advertised in local schools in the Hampshire area and soon enough had my first six week cycling course off the ground.

Four years on and the club has expanded to a mountain bike academy of 20 riders and in 2017 a new Saturday club which aims to give young people the opportunity to get into cycling whatever their age or ability.

The Saturday club sessions have run once a month with the help of two parents who have done their coaching qualifications, some Saturday’s between the three of us there has been 27 children aged between 4 and 10. The first round of Saturday’s has just finished and the feedback has been fantastic.  New dates available now.

My aim is to build the Saturday cycling club so that it can be sustainable and help more young riders get into and try cycle sport. With the aim of becoming a Go Ride cycling club once the structure and support is in place.

One parent said: “Sam has attended the Saturday camps Hannah has set up at Petersfield School. They have been well organised and are teaching him basic skills in a safe and fun environment. He has loved every moment of the classes and it’s been great to see him grow in confidence on his bike and apply what he has learnt when cycling elsewhere.”

Cycling is a great sport for young people as its non-weight bearing and helps get kids outdoors and active.

Some of the general benefits provided by cycling are:

  • It helps kids understand their local environment and feel part of it sustaining and looking after the area in which they live
  • It helps build independence
  • It develops muscle strength
  • It has also been reported by many teachers that kids who walk or cycle to school are more alert and ready to learn than those arriving by car
  • A good healthy habit that lasts a lifetime
  • Cyclists breathe in less pollution from traffic as compared to car drivers
  • Being part of a team and learning good social skills with other people

I hope my cycle coaching can go on to encourage more young riders on to their bikes. My next goal run some women’s cycling sessions both on and off-road. Message me if you’re interested

Thanks for reading x

 

 

Level Two Road Cycling Course

Level Two Road Cycling Course

Last weekend I travelled to Cyclopark in Kent to take part in my Level Two Road Cycling Course with British Cycling.

The two day course started with a development day and then assessment on the Sunday. Before the course start date we had an online learning platform where I completed a online assessment on road cycling (86% yay!) and also has to plan for a 10 minute coaching session on development day. This was also an opportunity to meet the other participants which was very helpful.

I chose countering an attack as my technique and worked on a 10 minute session which included seated and standing attacks as well as countering attacks from a bunch.

On development day we each had a chance to learn as a participant in sessions and to coach our own session. When it came to my turn I decided to leave out my first activity worried that I had packed in too much content. I started my session with an introduction which in hindsight was probably too long and then set my riders off. Sadly my session over ran as I tried to pack in far too much content. My session needed a clearer goal and refining for assessment day but I understood where I could improve it to make a more active.

The rest of the morning was spent being a participant in other people’s sessions this was really valuable as being a rider in a coaching session you can learn different ways of being coached and also look at coaching from a rider’s perspective which helps me to improve my own sessions. It was very wet and cold but the learning experience was so valuable.

In the afternoon we went through how to really drill down and create specific goals that related to types of road races and the components of fitness. This really helped me think about my own sessions and how I can create better coaching sessions with specific goals to be reached by riders by the ends of sessions.

My brain active and full of ideas I went back to my hotel Saturday ready to adapt my session plan ready for the 15 minute assessment on Sunday.

Sunday arrived and luckily the rain didn’t! My assessment went well instead of my goal being around countering an attack I looked more specifically at how riders can gain free speed. I focused on keeping my riders doing the same type of activity with subtle changes and adding in coaching points and checking for understanding as I went along.

My session went very well and I got good feedback from Richard and also lots of ideas on how I could adapt and progress my session further.

In the afternoon we did coach led racing which is different from ‘normal’ coaching sessions as you set up scenarios which could happen in a race, let it play out and then come in and discuss tactics and get feedback from the riders on what they did and how they would improve their performance. This was a really interesting way of coaching and I think with older kids and adults could work very well for coaching road and mountain bike sessions as it puts learning into practise in a more realistic setting.

I am really glad that I passed my Level two Road qualification it was a good weekend and I learnt so much and have loads of ideas for road racing sessions, now all I have to do is put some times in the diary to run some.

If you are interested in road racing coaching sessions in Hampshire and West Sussex please contact me.