Devil's Lake Tri

T.I.T.S.







(that's triathlete-speak for Time In The Saddle)

The only way to get good at hills is to....ride hills.

BTW, welcome to this crazy world of triathlons!!!!!





Edited by tall_tri_dad 2009-08-24 3:17 PM

See if there's any weight on the bike that you can part with, and then part with it before the race. I used to dump out all my water bottles right before big climbs. I don't really recommend that, but the less weight you have to lug up the hills the easier they will be. So, like, if you have 4 bottles, 6 powerbars, front and rear lights and a full Park toolkit on your bike, you might be able to leave a lot of that behind.

In the race, try to stay sitting for as long as you can when you climb. That way you always have that "extra" gear from standing if you need it. If you have some easy gears, sometimes keeping a high cadence in a very easy gear is faster than having a moderate cadence in a moderate gear. Practice and see what works best for you.

And yeah, climb more hills in training. Don't dawdle up the hills in training though. Use a harder gear and you'll get better at climbing faster.

Edited by skavoovie 2009-08-24 3:33 PM

Devil's Lake is going to be my second tri....so don't worry you aren't the only newbie.  I haven't ran through the course yet ---but going on Friday.  Good luck!

The first hill is horrid - the last hill (getting to the entrance of the park) is also a tough one!!! There were four that I had a hard time with - the first one as you enter onto DL, the looooooooong climb once you're on Tower Road, the first big one on Newman Rd (before the glorious downhill for the whole stretch), and the last 20% incline as you enter the park.

Other than those...LOL

I'm going to try and get on the bike later this week - my husband travels a lot for work and we have a 2yo, so getting out when he's out of town is beyond difficult!!

Hmmm....this sounds like a fun tri. Is it this weekend?

Good luck to everyone!!

Some may disagree with this, but it works for me...

I used to keep in medium or high gear starting up the hill and then shift to easier gear when I absolutely had to. I don't do that anymore. I see a hill coming up, I shift right away at the bottom to an easy gear and spin at a faster cadence up the hill (staying in the saddle as much as possible).

Good luck at Devil's Lake! I'll be there jockstrapping for some friends. They're non-BTers, but I like 'em anyway.

That was my first tri too, in 2007, and it hooked me.  Yep, I needed more hill work too, but I also didn't ride the course that year.  Last year I rode the course twice and did some local hill repeats twice in the two weeks leading up to the race (right before the taper week) and did much better getting up the first and last hill.

As for the bike - don't worry about it - you're most of the engine.

Good luck, and most importantly - Have Fun!

Yeah, I swam and then biked back from Devils Lake to Madison on Sunday and found the hill out of the park TOUGH, especially after swimming!  Do you have a triple on your hybrid?  Just get in the easy gears and slowly spin up the hill and make sure you breathe deeply (no shallow hyperventilating allowed!).  Don't worry about everybody else passing you.  You will pass some of those people on the run when they are totally gassed from having pushed the bike too hard.

Have fun.

Suzy