Ever since doing the Over the Mountain bike course – where I learned to go easier down and work a bit harder up – I love hills. I truly love them. I’m so glad that I live in Chapel Hill.
The training plan I am following has hill repeats every week, another factor that has made me strong on hills. I have to confess that the Bandit’s Challenge bike course felt easy to me. My avg HR during the bike leg was 151 bpm.
Last night, as I lay in bed still feeling sore and stiff and tired from Saturday’s race, I wondered if I should even do hill repeats today. I actually made up my mind to just do an easy ride. This morning as I headed out on my bike, I felt okay, but still had every intention to just do an easy ride and skip the hills. But then after spinning for 10 minutes, I felt great, so headed for the hills!
Here was my workout today:
Did six repeats of Mt. Sinai. This is a 1.2 mile stretch of road that starts out with a short steep climb, then a medium climb, then ends with a long gradual climb. At the very end where it starts to flatten out near Friends school road, I accelerate back to race pace and pretend I’m in the final lap of one of those OCS time trial races. It doesn’t look like that bad of a hill in the profile at right. But, believe me, it’s hard work!
Time – avg HR / end HR
1) 5:04 – 156 / 163
2) 5:13 – 155 / 163
3) 5:18 – 160 / 164
4) 5:19 – 153 / 162
5) 5:23 – 151 / 158
6) 5:28 – 150 / 156
I was supposed to do 7 repeats. The 5th & 6th lap, I just didn’t have much left, and my HR didn’t get up high enough. I decided it was best to quit and not train in the grey zone. Actually, repeats 4,5, and 6 were probably grey zone. Need to work harder next time! I don’t feel like a wimp for quitting early this time tho, as the Bandit’s run course took a lot out of me – that definitely did NOT feel easy! I felt completely wiped out for two days.
I love flying down Mt. Sinai at full speed in a tight aero tuck, ala Tour de France breakaway style…
I get into this type of tuck when descending the steepest hills. Before tucking, I look behind me and make sure there are no cars. Then I move to the center of the lane, hogging it for myself, as I don’t want a car passing me. Besides, I’m going almost 45 mph, which is the speed limit anyway. 🙂
I saw this first on the Tour de France. Then I experimented with it on my Mt Sinai hill repeats. I’m not sure if it’s actually faster than being in the aerobars. The reason I like it for the steeper hills, tho, is that I can have my hands on the brake levers, so if I need to slow down, I can. I feel more in control, and thus allow myself to get up to higher speeds without feeling the need to pump the brakes. My aerobottle straw gets in the way a little, but I just deal with it by letting it sit next to my neck. For normal descents, I just get as tightly into my aerobars as possible, focusing on a tight and narrow profile. “Knees to the top tube, tight tight tight”. This is how I handled the descents during Bandit’s.
2 things: 1) The tuck position is definitely more aerodynamic than ‘just’ being in your tri position. Your profile is just as narrow in the tuck and you are about a foot shorter. It also hurts your quads a ton to do that for long periods of time, which is why most people don’t do it. 2) You technically are supposed to spin when going downhill, as it helps clear your muscles of lactic acid built up during the climb. Not attack the downhill mind you, but just keep your legs spinning in an easy gear. Another thing that helps is to shake your quad muscle when your leg is extended with your hands.
Brye – If you let your HR monitor calculate your zones, it is just using the generic 220 – age formula, which is not correct for everyone, and also as your fitness improves, your zones change. So, time trial testing is the best way to find your zones.
For running, I use a treadmill test. I described that in this old post:
http://www.triathlontrainingblog.com/?p=315
For cycling, I use the 8 mile time trial race to determine my zones. I take my cycling time trial avg HR and divide by 1.03. I found that formula on a workout log website. So, my time trial HR was 168bpm, than my cycling LT = 168/1.03 = 163bpm. From that, you can look at the charts and figure your zones. I’m lucky to have a speedway that has time trials on a track, so I don’t have to worry about that. If you don’t have a time trial event you can attend, you can do the heart rate test on a trainer, or flat road with no traffic.
Here’s another link that talks about tests:
http://www.trainingpeaks.com/trainingplans/ericschwartz/trainingintensity.asp
Hope that helps! Carol
Jenni,
Nope, not any more 🙂 I used to go into the highest gear and spin my heart out going down hills. I learned that it was a waste of energy, and it’s better to tuck and coast. Of course, it depends on the hill. If it’s just a gentle hill, I will keep pedalling. But anything big, I’ll coast. I was actually worried during Bandit’s that I was coasting too much and my time would be lousy. But, my time was great!
Do you pedal during your descents?
Did you figure our all our heart rate percentages and zones from your HRM? I have a good HRM but since losing weight it seems like it isn’t as reliable. What do you use?