i have been road riding for quite some time now, maybe close to a year. though, i have never 'trained' nor road consistantly. the best i did was maybe 5-6 days a week for 4 weeks straight. its probably more like 3-4 days a week regularly. time ranges from 1.5-3 hours.

i also dont go out and ride for a purpose, its usually just try to keep a good pace, and hit some good climbs. i wear a HRM but only use it to see where i am, which i usually like to stay above 150bpm at least, and probably stay around 165 most of the time, besides climbs. i believe my max is 208, which i saw two weeks ago trying to keep up going up hill on a fast (race) group ride.

anyways, im 5' 10", 150lbs. so im not that heavy, but most of my mass is upper body as i lifted weights for upper body (stopped that 2 years ago though). my legs

now ive been trying to go on more group rides (very fast) to help me get faster, but i stopped going recently cause i am waiting on my new shoes to ride (mine are too big, hurts real bad when pushing hard).

so the shop i work at has a scott ransom (mtn bike) to test out. i took it out the other night to ride along with a few others that work at the shop. this was really my first time on a mtn bike on trails. we got out there, and i could NOT climb at all. any hills just put me over the edge huffing and puffing. one of the guys was even on a single speed and made it up the hills ok.

i realize part of this is probably me being untrained and needing endurance, but i feel like i just cant put any power down. and when i go on the road group ride, its the hills that put me behind.

so i guess my question is, how do i develop power? i believe doing short hard intervals might help me, but what about weightlifting? i think it'd help if i had a powertap, but i cant afford one right now.

right now i almost feel like i need to solely work on power. please help me on how i do that so when i finally get new shoes soon ill be able to work towards gaining more power.

Riding with a faster group is a great way to get faster! Keep doing that. I don't think weightlifting is a good idea. Weights may help if you're trying to improve your short fast accelerations and sprinting, but to get faster at climbing you just have to climb more. You could try some long hill intervals to build threshold power. Find a long hill and climb for 15 min at the hardest pace you can sustain for the whole time. Then ride really easy for 5 min and repeat.

Riding with a faster group is a great way to get faster! Keep doing that. I don't think weightlifting is a good idea. Weights may help if you're trying to improve your short fast accelerations and sprinting, but to get faster at climbing you just have to climb more. You could try some long hill intervals to build threshold power. Find a long hill and climb for 15 min at the hardest pace you can sustain for the whole time. Then ride really easy for 5 min and repeat.

only problem with training by hills like that is theres no way you can find a series of climbs that allow that. there is one big climb i do that takes about 8 minutes (est), which i do the whole climb in first gear and small ring, at close to max HR. i have to work so hard teh entire climb cause my bike has a very large small ring and i think a 25t in the back. i used to not even get all the way up till recently i made it up without taking a quick break. going back down this hill i easily hit 44mph where i cant pedal any faster due to cadence.

im just looking for, and hoping, theres a sure fire way to focus on just building power. its frustrating to not be able to climb well. my legs really are very skinny. if my upper body was proportionate to my legs, i'd probably weigh not more than 140lbs. thats why i think weightlifting may help me.

hmmm, i just got a private message from 'mavicwheels' given me some useful information about power. im not gonna repost it here since they pm'ed me, but i dont know why it didnt end up in the forum discussion.

Per Joe Friel, weight lifting is okay durning the off season. Concentrate on cycling specific work during the season. The idea behind hill repeats is that you are pushing a hard effort at a slow cadence. You can simulate that on flatter ground by just shifting into a hard gear and push hard for 10-20 minutes at 40-60 rpm. Rest 5 minutes then repeat 4 times. I did that this last winter on a trainer. It seemed to help me.

Do yourself a favor and pick up Joe Friel's "The Cyclist's Training Bible". It is geared for racing, but the concepts can be applied to avid recreatational riding as well.

Sounds like you should use that hill a lot. 8min is a hill that mostly works the aerobic system...it's a highly VO2max dependent interval if done "at close to max HR." Sounds like solid hill with which you should keep working. If you need to do shorter hill repeats, do only part of the hill at a harder effort.

Skip lifting weights.

[QUOTE=99trek5200]The idea behind hill repeats is that you are pushing a hard effort at a slow cadence.

That's not the idea behind hill repeats. But that is a good workout to occasionally do.