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What constitutes a 'hilly' ride, and how to handle???

Just finished a HIM RR ride (almost - only 53 miles, but close enough). Just under 4000ft of climb (and most of that occurs on my usual 42mi loop, to which I added another 11mi, mainly flat, for today). Is that a lot? I have no idea. I find that it is very very challenging for me to ride to the training plan. Say you have, I dunno, 2x20 @Z4. Well, with all the ups and downs I can slow to a crawl on a hill, but stay in Z4, but on the backside it is impossible to do better than maybe Z2. Obviously I can't 'average' Z4 'cause that would mean spending a lot of time in Z5. Really messes up the intervals. 

The hills make it hard for me to ride even a steady ride. I was targeting an NP for the ride in my Z3 (which on the trainer is 176-190W, I'm guessing 185-200 on the open road), and ended up with an NP of 181. Thought that was good, 'til I saw my avg W was 161, resulting in a VI of 1.12. Should I have targeted avg W, while keeping an eye on NP to stay within 5-8% of avgP?

Comments

  • You have a hilly ride. By comparison, HIM MT has 1,768 of climb and the full IMLP course has 4,804 feet of climb. I have the same problem with my local rides. All of them are very hilly and make it very hard to hit the targets. My solution is to do the interval work on a trainer and when I am outside I just focus on riding steady.

    If someone else has any thoughts, I would love to hear them also.
  • You absolutely MUST read/watch the power webinar...there is specific protocol for riding hills/flattening the course....and it is CRITICAL for race execution..............you're not supposed to "see" z4 on the down hills....downhill depending on the slope...you keep pedaling...and you may see 10-15% lower...so if you target NP is 140 you will hit 120-125 on downhills...until you spinout/30mph and then you can stay aero and coast.... on the uphills you should target 10-15% above NP depending upon short/long & steepness....

     

  • Yep, I'm working on this, too.

    See the link that Peter added.

    Lots of good tips, including Training Vs. Racing on those hills.
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