Good Uphill fast
I can honestly say I suck going up hills and any reasonable speed. So my challenge for the next few weeks is to change that before timberman. I know bringing up my FTP is always best as well as losing more weight. But the question I have is does hammering up hills help at all during training. Today I rode into work and I tried my best to go hard up the hills even the smaller ones, am I doing harm or is good training.
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Mentally, though, it may be beneficial.
Remember what we are training to do as long course triathletes. We are not concerned about being able to put out a massive burst of power for 10 seconds - 2 minutes, uphill following a breakaway or something, as a roadie in a bike race wants to be able to do. We are training to hold a relatively constant power for 2.5/6 hours, without going into the anaerobic bank account which would jeopardize our ability to run well. Intervals of 5-20 minutes at FTP levels, whether going 8 mph up a hill or 22 mph on the flats, are a good way to build towards that goal. But you should not measure success by how "well" you climb hills, and especially don't compare yourself to roadies. We're doing a different sport. As Dave says, you can use those hills for your interval workout, but don't lose sight of why you are doing that workout.
What Al said, but...
I think that until you are 8-10wks out from your goal race, if an IM, or even closer if a HIM, you should use the terrain to ride as hard as you can as often as you can.
No doubt that with the intervals and long rides we have you do, you're going to develop that diesel kind of fitness. Very apparent when I ride with pure roadies that I can do some things much better than they can, others...less so. One of these is sitting at 90-95% for a long time, recover 2-3', go again and again and again. But riding their style (going as hard as I can up a hill of any length) just puts more tools in my tool kit. Not that I would ever use those tools on race day, but I think of every session as a muscle recruitment excercise. Riding whack vs riding sane recruits those fibers that I wouldn't touch otherwise. That will pay off somewhere down the road.
Whats bringing this up is during the B2B ride I had no problem hanging with groups on the flats and rollers, like Rich said able to go long time recover for a few and then back at it. Then we would hit a moderate hill and I am waiting for the next group as I get spit out the back. My plan is to ride up hills harder than the workout calls for (not to crazy) and see if I can develop a bigger engine when it comes time.
I also just ordered the primal blue print and I will read it and see if maybe after timberman to give it a whirl.
Michelle, I also have that experience. There's a hill I encounter during warm-up and I get flogged all the time. Then I hit the downhill, zip past, and lose them for good. Except for that one time when one of them decided to hang on my wheel. I didn't find him until five miles later when I turned my head to check traffic. Scared the out of me.
I think we are talking about two separate, but related things:
The former is a tool for building fitness. You can turn it on or off, depending on whether you want to put some strong hill climbing fu in your tool kit (it's also just a fun way to ride) or if you want to build your steady/go all day/diesel-fu
The later is a tactical way to use your power efficiently to stay with a group, beat non-power peeps, etc. You can turn this off and on as well.
Tonight I'm doing my club's Wed night brick workout (I only do the bike
). It's two "social laps" of the Bowl, then a selection up an 8% hill, into a steady grade and then a fun course with sharp hills, fast descents, etc.
They always put me in the front for the social laps because I ride steady, don't surge, etc. Idea is to keep everyone on. However, I won't go crazy on the first selection hill, because I know who to mark, ie, who the real players are for later in the ride. As long as I'm near them at the top, I know I have x distance at y% grade to get back on. Basically, when I see 340w on the dial and see Billy, Timmy, and Tommy around me, I instantly know if they are holding back, are killing themselves, this guy is gonna blow in 3, 2, 1...etc. I use it as a tactical tool to keep me in check in and to guage what others are doing.