Week 18 riding - flat or hilly rides?

Dawn Cass

Hello Rich, hope you are well! Quick question about next weeks plan. The plan states to pick a flat course for the 112m/6 hr rides....is that the best plan for me? I am racing MT which as you know has a lot of altitude gain. Is there a reason I should do the final big days on the flat? Where I live I can actually pick flat rides or hilly so just want to make sure I make the most of the final 3 big rides.

Can you advise what I should do for the Friday/Sat/Sun rides? Perhaps mix it up?
Thanks!

Mark Maurer

Dawn, I just jumped ahead to week 18 to see what was coming up and watched the video for the week. Take a look at it because Coach Rich talks about this very thing.

Coach Rich

Posted By Dawn Cass on 31 Jul 2016 05:20 AM


Hello Rich, hope you are well! Quick question about next weeks plan. The plan states to pick a flat course for the 112m/6 hr rides....is that the best plan for me? I am racing MT which as you know has a lot of altitude gain. Is there a reason I should do the final big days on the flat? Where I live I can actually pick flat rides or hilly so just want to make sure I make the most of the final 3 big rides.



Can you advise what I should do for the Friday/Sat/Sun rides? Perhaps mix it up?

Thanks!

Short answer is that you want to pick a course that will have you on there for a similar amount of time as what you'll see on race day. So a 7hr monster climbing day isn't the best RR venue if you expect to a 6:15 bike split, for example. Likewise, a 5:50 flat ride isn't the best simulation for a 6:30 bike split. 

Regardless, if you're riding the EN Way of managing the climbs and hills well you don't really "need" to sweat a hilly or flat RR course. For us, the ability to ride hills smoothly is a skill we can turn on or off. 

Good luck!

Dawn Cass

Thanks to you both...all makes sense and will organize the rides accordingly.


Dawn