Mark B
Zen MBB Master
The one thing I have noticed help me improve the most is hills. It seems like a natural progression, when you think about it. Hills make you stronger, which will inevitably translate to speed on the flats. Going up hills requires you to spin more, which makes you breathe harder, which improves your aerobic capacity Also, going up hills gives you the opportunity to work on high speed handling during the descents. So, I've been making a point to find hills to ride up, starting out with easier hills and working my way up to harder hills as my aerobic capacity increases. My riding has improved pretty dramatically since I've been doing this and I can really tell about the upper body thing because I feel sore in the arms and shoulders after a tough climbing ride.
We're pretty lucky around here because we have a little bit of everything. If you want to stay relatively flat, we have that. If you want moderate hills, check. We even have mountains to torture ourselves on. In the summer, we can go to the beach and stay cooler. In the winter, we can go to the desert. I'm looking forward to doing a long ride with Jack down in San Diego. Talk about your beautiful part of the country!
But seriously, if you want to get stronger faster, don't avoid the hills. Hills are your friend!
Mark
We're pretty lucky around here because we have a little bit of everything. If you want to stay relatively flat, we have that. If you want moderate hills, check. We even have mountains to torture ourselves on. In the summer, we can go to the beach and stay cooler. In the winter, we can go to the desert. I'm looking forward to doing a long ride with Jack down in San Diego. Talk about your beautiful part of the country!
But seriously, if you want to get stronger faster, don't avoid the hills. Hills are your friend!
Mark
