Hills and Bike training..

When training for hilly races (for all you bike guru's out there, I think someone did grafton to inverell didn't they??), did you log things like Elevation metres etc for any given week and aim for a certain total? Or did you just get out there and ride hills as often as you could?
Racing up Hotham in 5 weeks kinda has me a bit scared, because I hate that climb!! I just want to do it a bit quicker than the last time..

Compared to cyclists I suck at going up hills so take my advice based on that. Hills arre about two things. The ability to hold tempo pace for sustained periods and weight. Not that you have the problem but the less you weigh the better. To complement that, longer intervals of 6-8 minutes at/just above threshold and also 20-30 minutes at tempo effort will see you do OK. You can do these going up or on the flat, it is same same.

Amy B wrote:
Racing up Hotham in 5 weeks kinda has me a bit scared, because I hate that climb!! I just want to do it a bit quicker than the last time..

I've done Grafton to Inverell sportif so maybe can contribute something here. I honestly think attitude has something to do with it so if you say you hate that climb you're setting yourself up. Sounds silly I know but turn that around and kinda convince yourself that you LOVE that climb

If I were to be try bike racing I would look to drop 8-10kgs. I'm currently 70-71, I was only just saying today that I feel heavy at this weight, but you need strength for triathlon.

make use of the hills you have too, by varying the intensities

One of my favourite sessions was to do 90sec standing, 90sec seated in 1-2 gears harder than normal, 90sec normal cadence, repeat, repeat

6 sets of 30sec efforts while climbing are good too. You get out of the saddle and really hit it, but then settle back in normal climbing tempo.

Variety works to break the cycle of getting into a "comfortably hard" pace on a hill

Above all ride hills a lot and find steep hills

fluro

Glenn C wrote:If I were to be try bike racing I would look to drop 8-10kgs. I'm currently 70-71, I was only just saying today that I feel heavy at this weight, but you need strength for triathlon.

2 pounds per inch used to be the guide for the pure climber.

I am around 200lbs (90-92ish) right now at 6'4" = 152lbs or somewhere in the low 70 kilos. hah. makes Stillman look like a burger chain. I have been down to 79 kilos in my life time as an 18 year old when playing basket ball and that was crazy skinny. Shame I was not riding bikes back then. The profile pic to the left saw me at 92 kilos the Wednesday before so about what I weigh now.

In the lead up to Grafton I rode Macquarie Pass approx 10ks at 6% as a part of my long ride at least once a week and added a couple of repeats in there as well. When I raced up Hotham I had ridden heaps of hills and got more elevation during rides but nothing as long as the Pass.
The sustained climbs are much more effective for these races.
Good luck and enjoy the scenery that's a awsome ride up there.

Alex R wrote:

Glenn C wrote:If I were to be try bike racing I would look to drop 8-10kgs. I'm currently 70-71, I was only just saying today that I feel heavy at this weight, but you need strength for triathlon.

2 pounds per inch used to be the guide for the pure climber.

So at 5' 7 I can be 134 pounds.
I'm currently on about 124.5ish Pounds.. And that's heavy for me at the moment, I'm carrying more fat than normal due to being in a good paddock post worlds.. I'm rectifying that at the moment, and I should be down to ~120-1 by the time the race comes around.. So maybe I should be good at these Hill things!

Thanks Harris.. Starting yesterday I spent some time in the Dandenong's, up the 1:20(6.5k @5%, followed by the few k uphill to olinda and then down to Monbulk to come back up The Wall(6k @ 6% with 9% sections), being the first serious hill ride I did, I tempo'd up them at around what I think would have been threshold HR. By the time I was half way up the wall, when the steeper pinches came I had to do the sitting/standing thing coz I was barely moving! These hills will feature regularly in my training, as I can get to them after work during the week
I'm not sure of any 10k climbs around here, but planning a Donna Buang climb (17k) 2 weeks prior to Bright, and to get used to doing the climbing on already fatigued legs, I'll be doing a hard bunch ride the day before and racing a crit the morning I do the climb.. I think it being the 2nd day will also be a factor, so I need to be used to that!

Andrew K - Good point.. I guess I worded it wrongly, the hill beat me last time, and this time I want to beat it Will have to work a bit to get to the point of loving it, but i'll try!