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Need advice for big Hill on upcoming Trinona Olympic Race

stephanbstephanb
in Racing Forum 🏎

Today, after my run, I took a fun recon ride over  in Winona, MN to go up the famous Garvin Heights Trinona climb.  I heard it was one that Greg Lemond used to like training on.    Here is the segment as I rode it today on very tired legs with minimal effort.  

https://www.strava.com/activities/284298241/segments/6667879208

The hill is in the middle of the 24 miles, and is the only really tough climb.  It is 1 mile long. 9% avg grade, and about 511 ft of climbing.

As you can see, I averaged 229NP going about as slow as I can go.  That is close to my Zone3 power output.  

My FTP is 286.  Should I shoot for FTP going up this hill, or a little more, or a little less?  What is the best strategy?  I have actually never even thought about strategy for Olympic distances before. 

Comments

  • Al TruscottAl Truscott
    The shorter the climb, the more you can afford to punch it in an Oly. So a 50 foot hill you can power up and not worry about the consequences. 500 feet? This one will take you 10-12 minutes. Considering you have to run well afterwards, to,say nothing of continuing to bike @ about 90-92% of FTP, I'd say just climb steady @ 250-60 watts, and DONT RACE anybody to the top!
  • stephanbstephanb

    @al:  Thanks again.  Yesterday when I was riding it slow on purpose, it was hard not to want to pick up the pace and pass a guy in front of me who kept looking back at me.  Good practice for the race and pacing myself.   Makes sense to pace it @255.  

  • Coach RichCoach Rich

    For an Oly the advice is to use the powermeter as a whip to basically go as hard as you can for the bike ride. 

    On the one hand, that's a pretty legit climb for an Oly. On the other hand...it's an Oly. 

    If it were me, I think I'd build into the hill over the first couple minutes, pegging it just at or under my FTP, but backing off if I felt this was too hard. You can bet that 90% of your competition will crush this hill way to hard and pay for it in the last 3rd and on the run. So crush it a tick less and reel people in on the last third, but be sure to stay on the gas across the crest and into any downhill on the other side, staying on that climbing effort until you spin out on the downhill. 

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