General Discussion Triathlon Talk » Biking Hills! Rss Feed  
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2009-07-15 7:54 PM

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Subject: Biking Hills!

I thought it would be a good idea to haul my bike to work and ride it home on Wednesday evenings, then on Saturday morning, ride it back to work to get my truck and haul it home.  The route measured out to be just shy of 22 miles and I knew it was "hilly."  ha!  Well, it's a bit more than hilly.  Some of these hills just make my 700c bike feel like the rear tire is stuck in a foot of peanut butter. 

IIRC, the elevation climb listed on the route is over 1400 ft in those 22 miles but I've made the trip 3 times now and shaved 24 minutes off my first attempt.  I can feel the hills getting a little easier each time. 

My question.. do these hills improve me for a much more tame route or would I be smarter to simply run the actual OLY route I'll have to run in September?  I know my legs are getting stronger but does that mean I will be able to sustain a faster pace if I continue to do this?  I suppose I could incorporate the actual route into my weekend workout in order to see if that improves.  (sorry for the babble.. just thinking and wondering out loud)



2009-07-17 1:04 PM
in reply to: #2288209

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Subject: RE: Biking Hills!
Personally I think that riding hills is great training, and will have big carry over onto the flats or any course.  However I also believe that only doing one this is not as helpful as mixing it up. so do a bit of each type of riding, when on the flats, try a few sprints/sustained pace for 1-2 minutes, then go back to riding. impromptu interval training.  but never drop hills from your training.
2009-07-17 1:44 PM
in reply to: #2292127

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Subject: RE: Biking Hills!
Hill riding is excellent... !!!!


it will make you a stronger rider..  you can alternate keeping your cadence up and spinning as much as possible,, getting out of the saddle, or an all out attack on the hill.  

I was doing interval type training during the winter where you went so hard for 5 till 10 min..  and I've found a hill that basically lets me do that same type of workout, except I can't quit early on the hills.

you mentioned something about the actual race route... I would definately if you have opportunity to ride it or at least drive it once so you can see where you might have problems,   turns at bottom of hills, bad spots of road.. etc
2009-07-18 9:10 AM
in reply to: #2288209

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Subject: RE: Biking Hills!

One of the reasons I was anxious to try a tri is because it is held about 5 min from my house.  I've already gone up and walked the run route with my family so I plan on practicing that too.  I think that I will run the actual race route for the bike and the run every other week to use it as a measure to see if I'm improving. 

My background is more of a muscle head so the endurance thing is new to me. However, the reason I ask about the hills comes from weight training.  When football players go through a tryout in college, they usually measure how many reps a guy could press 225lbs.  I know that despite being able to bench 380lbs, I was never very good at doing really high reps with 225. 



Edited by Pector55 2009-07-18 9:10 AM
2009-07-18 7:03 PM
in reply to: #2288209

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Subject: RE: Biking Hills!
1400 Ft climb over 22 miles??  We train here in Vegas for Silverman and hit 1600 ft of climb in about 5.75 miles..  Be thankful... 

It is awesome training for your bike leg....
2009-07-18 8:09 PM
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Subject: RE: Biking Hills!
lasvegas99 - 2009-07-18 8:03 PM 1400 Ft climb over 22 miles??  We train here in Vegas for Silverman and hit 1600 ft of climb in about 5.75 miles..  Be thankful... 

It is awesome training for your bike leg....


Yeah, it's not the amount of overall climbing, it's how steep they are on some of these back roads that are brutal.  I got a chance to do the OLY route today. There are only a couple hills but one is a bit steep. My average mph is very slow right now (14.5 mph) so I'm hoping to focus on improving the speed on those hills to work that average up. 


2009-08-15 11:29 PM
in reply to: #2288209

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Subject: RE: Biking Hills!
DId that Red Rock loop today Lasvegas99.  It doesn't seem to get that much easier.  I ride with the Bicycle Club of Las Vegas and we were about 25 riders today.  Out Charleston, up the 13 mile mountain loop, out to Blue Diamond, then up the hill toward Mount Potasi, turn around and back.  About 56 miles, I did it, but my legs were dead after the loop.
2009-08-16 3:50 PM
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Subject: RE: Biking Hills!
I have been riding my home to work route and doing the actual OLY route for training.  I have been tweaking my bike because I've had some problems with my front derailer throwing the chain over top of the big ring.  It seems if I pull it back at all, it won't go onto the big ring when I need it to.  Because of that, I have worked on getting strong enough to do the entire route (except for 2 of the steepest hills) on the big ring so I can just leave it there.  I don't want to change derailers at this point in my training.  I can tell that my legs have definitely become much stronger over the past month.  I only have 1 month until my tri so I'm pushing harder to work on speed now.

When I started training, I really thought that bike would be the easiest, then swimming, and the run scared me.  Now it appears that run has been much less intimidating than the others.  I can swim all day long but I'm slow.  I'm strong as an ox on the bike but like an ox, I'm slow.  As for the run, I think I'll be able to run the 10k in a 10 min/mile pace.
2009-08-16 4:12 PM
in reply to: #2288209

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Subject: RE: Biking Hills!
Hill riding will improve you for hill riding. Period.
In order to get better on the bike do some interval training on the flats, ride hills and ride slower for longer durations.Mix things up and do not do hard intervals more than once a week.
Also lose weight if you can. Biggest improvement on the bike will come from losing weight.
Bike is all about weight to power ratio.
Good Luck
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