Subject: Prepping for hills. Yesterday, in Michigan it was in the 40's, so I threw the bike in the truck and went to the race site for my first Tri coming up in June (Ann Arbor Sprint ). It is 14 miles of very hilly riding! Maybe 2 out of the 14 miles are flat.
I am doing the BT 20 week Sprint - 3X Balanced. Because of the hills, I thought I would make my short bike sessions all hill work, with a little hill work put in the medium sessions also. For the weekly long session, I will pretty much stay with the slow and level, working on fast spinning. I will just be building base up until the race, but with all of the hill requirements, I thought I had better take it into account in my training.
The run is going to be the same, but 5 miles. I have a bad knee problem so I can't do hill work. I am just going to have to do some walking during the race. Where I can, I will try to make it up on the flat sections.
Any input would be appreciated. It was a little demoralizing seeing the course in advance! It is going to be very tough for my first race, but our options here for racing are pretty slim.
p.s. Where you come out of the water, it is a 1/4 mile 10% grade up to level ground. I think we are going to have to ride up that grade right out of the water! Ouch. |