Rev3Tri Branson - Advice to handle hills

I don't know if you're still looking for advice, but here's my suggestions:

First, just go to Madison, Wisconsin to live and/or race Ironman Wisconsin. Madison is the greatest place in the history of the world. Don't knock it until you've tried it...plenty of hills, plenty of specators, plenty of other tri (and every kind of) athletes.

If you must remain in TX, let me give you a few recomendations for training and racing on hills. The main thing is to know the types of hills you're riding for trainiing and racing...and whether they are different. Wisconsin, at least in the driftless area (west of I-94, where the gaciers didn't drift), is very hilly with short, steep hills. The best way to tackle short, steep hills is to shift down early, spin at higher cadence, and stay in the saddle. The repetition of constant hills will kill your legs if you go hard or stand. For longer hills, most of the same applies. Keep a higher cadence and stay in the saddle, except for very sort sections where shifting down and then up again momentarily, wouldn't be worth it (going around a hairpin corner for instance). Also, standing to give your legs a rest or change your body position a bit is fine too, but not if it becomes your mode of climbing.

I don't know what the terrain is like around DFW, but there are some ways you can train for hills without having them (or many) around. I went to college near Fargo, and there is absoltely no natral hills (and barely any other hill) in the area. For hill training, we would use highway overpasses and the wind (of which there was always plenty). Practice gearing down and riding over the overpasses for medium hills. If Branson will have many short hills, find a good hill similar to what you'd find in Branson and go up and down it 5-20 times (seriously, for IM WI, there are several sets of smaller hills with 5-10 short hills in a row with no flats), or do sets of 5 climbs, riding elsewhere for ten minutes before you do another set. If you'll be racing on course with one or more long climbs (a mile or more in length), go out on a windy day and ride into the wind for ten minutes. Keep an upright position like when you're climbing and gear down to simulate climbing. Do it two or three times to simulate climbing when your legs are tired.

For racing, I don't attack the hills. Even though I'm a very fast cyclist and great on the hills (5:18 IMWI bike split this year, 49 of 2700 overall, 21.05 mph average), I stay calm and spin up the hills. I rarely stand, usually just to loosen my legs or gain a little more speed cresting a hill. The best thing to do is ride effeciently and keep your legs for the run. Most people go too fast on the bike and aren't significantly fast on the bike to be able to do so without impacting their run.

Hope that helps. Let me know if you have any more questions.

-Peter

Edited by pnelson 2013-10-09 2:03 PM