How to prepare for a week of climbing
You don't need to be a pro for a mountain week — but six weeks of focused training makes the difference between enjoying it and surviving it.
Ise Flo
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The real shock of a mountain week isn't one long climb, it's stacking them: day after day, 1,500 to 2,500 m of climbing. Your legs adapt faster than you'd think — as long as you put in a bit of groundwork at home.
Six weeks out, in brief
- Volume over intensity: build your longest ride up to 3–4 hours.
- Two "stacked" weekends in a row: long on Saturday, then another solid ride on Sunday with tired legs from the start.
- Simulate long climbs at low cadence: find the hardest hill nearby and ride up it five times.
- Recover in between: at least two genuine rest days a week.
Just as important: practise eating and drinking on the bike. Anyone who never eats a bar on a training ride will run into trouble on day three in the mountains. And drop to easy enough gearing in good time — more on that in a separate post.