Stop obsessing about your weight. You don’t need to lose weight to climb faster.
I believe too many people are fixating on their power-to-weight ratio and spending too much time under fueled and missing important riding concepts that have a much greater impact on their climbing.
Here are three climbing strategies that the pro’s use to fly lightening fast uphill that will make you ten times a better climber without even losing a pound.
1. Set your breathing to a rate in which you are able to deeply exhale at the end of each breathe.
Use your breathing rate and depth as your guide all the way up the climb on how hard to go. If your respiration rate gets short, slow your pace slightly and reset with deep exhales. Once you find control in your breathe again try and regain your pace. The pace in which you can hold on a climb is like walking a balance beam, it’s all fine until it’s suddenly not. Use your breathing as a guide along the way.
2. Look ahead.
Don’t be a victim to the climb! Instead, look in advance and take control by “driving” the climb like you would in a car by proactively planning your actions around what’s coming up. This strategy will also help you stay present on the climb and away from all the mental traps that will try and self sabotage you to give up or slow your pace.
3. Shift and rotate your pelvis forward on the seat.
With your bike in a more vertical position, your pelvis is now in a very inefficient position for an effective pedal stroke. In this new forced position you are pedaling down into the climb behind the pedals. To overcome this, move yourself forward on your saddle and then rotate your pelvis down. Now you are position over the top of the pedals where you can push down powerfully in front of the first part of the pedal stroke (most efficient place).