How to Improve Your Climbing with this MyWhoosh Workout
By Zach Nehr
Thousands of cyclists have fallen in love with the sport through climbing. They imagine themselves climbing one of the most famous mountains in the Tour de France, such as Alpe d’Huez or Mont Ventoux. We see ourselves climbing out of the saddle through a sea of cycling fanatics, ears deafened by the crowd, our legs dancing on the pedals as we climb to the summit.
But climbing is also one of the hardest and most painful aspects of cycling. Climbing up a hill can be the best feeling in the world, or it can be the worst. When you’ve bonked and run out of energy, a hill is the last thing that you want to see in front of you.
Thus, climbing encapsulates the paradoxical beauty of cycling: equal amounts of suffering and bliss.
In this article, we’ll take a closer look at one of the best climbing workouts in the MyWhoosh app. This session stands out among the 770+ workouts on MyWhoosh, and it’s easy to see why.
The Mental Side of Climbing
Before we dig into the workout, we must talk about the mental aspect of climbing. One of the reasons that climbing is so difficult is because there is little to no respite. When you’re sitting in a bunch or riding on a flat road, you can ease off the pedals and coast for a few seconds. You won’t lose much speed, especially if you are in the draft or enjoying a tailwind.
But as soon as you coast on a climb, you come to a complete stop. So, no matter how tired you are, you must keep pedaling on the climb. Sometimes, they are incredibly steep, like the slopes of Jebel Hafeet in the UAE with 12% gradient. Other times, the slopes are more forgiving, like the 5% gradients on Jabel Jais.
When it comes to improving your climbing, the improvements are equal part mental and physical. Even if you gain 5w on your FTP, you must increase your mental game at the same time. If you don’t improve your mentality, you could hit the same mental wall over and over again, despite putting out good numbers in training.
The #1 rule in cycling, and especially when it comes to climbing, is to never give up. Regardless of fatigue, just keep the pedals turning, one foot at a time. Sometimes, you will move at a snail’s pace, but that is okay. You are pushing yourself further than ever before, and you can always be proud of your effort. Now, let’s get into the workout.
Climbing Threshold #4
There are more than 770 workouts to choose from in MyWhoosh, but you can find the Climbing Threshold #4 workout in the Threshold folder. Lasting just longer than an hour, this is the perfect session to train your climbing abilities.
Instead of a traditional but boring 2×20-minute FTP session, Climbing Threshold #4 includes Anaerobic surges, Tempo efforts, and sustained periods at Threshold. After a few minutes in Zone 1, the workout includes a thorough warmup with periods in Zones 2 and 3, plus 2×10-second accelerations. Then, it’s time to begin the key intervals.
3×9.5-minute blocks [30sec at 130% FTP into 3min at 85% FTP into 5min at 93% FTP into 1min at 130% FTP] with 5min recovery at 50% FTP.
The key to this session is pacing yourself throughout each interval. The 30-second surge to start each block is not all-out—instead, it is a controlled effort that helps you roll into the bottom of a climb carrying significant speed.
After the 30-second surge, you will go straight into a 3-minute effort at Tempo. While the power target is significantly under FTP, it is not a complete recovery (at 50% FTP) like you will get in between each set. Remember, when you are training for climbing, you will need to keep the pressure on the pedals to simulate the climbing gradients.
Once you begin the 5-minute portion of the interval block, you will be pushing quite hard to the top of the climb. This sustained effort will allow you to find a rhythm, even at a high power output. Just like in a race, you will accelerate to the top of the climb with a 1-minute surge at 130% FTP. This will be a very hard effort, but then you have five minutes to recover at 50% FTP.
At the end of the third set, the 1-minute surge will be in Free Ride mode instead of 130% FTP. This gives you the freedom to choose your own pace to the top of the final climb. Are you going to ease off, aim for your FTP, or finish the workout with a big attack? The choice is yours.
Climbing Threshold #4 ends with a 5-minute cool down, where you can catch your breath and reflect on the workout. A high-intensity interval training (HIIT) session like this should be performed once or twice per week to maximize fitness gains. This will give you ample time to rest and recover in between the workouts.
You can find 87 other workouts in the Threshold folder, and more than 770 workouts in the MyWhoosh app. There are even some workouts designed in collaboration with Tadej Pogačar and his coach, Javier Sola. Tadej’s workouts include 15-second sprints, 3-minute VO2 Max intervals, 15-minute Tempo blocks, pre-race sessions, and more. You can find them all in the MyWhoosh app via the Workouts → UAE Team Emirates folder.
—
About the Author
Zach is a freelance writer, professional cyclist, and the owner of ZNehr Coaching. He writes about everything related to bikes and endurance sports, from product reviews and advertorials to feature articles and pro data analytics. You can find Zach racing the Sunday Race Club on MyWhoosh every weekend.