Z4 Threshold Bike Intervals on Hills

imc1792

I am sure the general feedback will be similar to 'everything in moderation' but I gotta ask.

How much of the bike threshold intervals (even z5 Vo2) being done exclusively on hill is too much?

For example, let's say my workout is:

10'(3')@95-100%/z4/Hard

12'(4')@95-100%/z4/Hard

10'(3')@95-100%/z4/Hard

That is a total of 32min. I live on an island and have been blessed with ooddles of hills. I can do intervals uphill from 2-22min on a single climb. In 2010, my first year training for Ironman Canada with EN, I did 90% of my wed/sat z4 intervals climbing (no power, HR). I felt like a million dollars going into the race and unfortunately crashed at mile 70. Getting to mile 70 has the hardest part of the ride behind and I never got to really ascertain how my approach would have panned out.

So here I am 12 weeks out from Ironman Canada wondering about this. I do have power this year and that is super cool. I do know one for certain, I can do 36-46 min of climbing intervals (min 8' long 16') let's say easily 15% past my FTP without a worry, but when doing flats it is a struggle to hold 98-100% for 3-5 intervals. So up to this point outdoors I have been doing a couple intervals on flats and 2-3 on hills each time out.

Thoughts? Is there such a thing as too much hill work? I do mix up the cadence. I totally do flat all out ABP rides Sunday working on cadence and steady power.

[Deleted User]

I do most of my Z4 intervals on hills, as does Coach Rich. It's much easier to hold higher watts on hills. Don't worry about the structure of the intervals as written in the workout too much. Just get the total number of minutes done.

Coach Rich

What Anson said. However:

• As I got closer to IMWI I would 2 x my intervals on my hill (takes me 18-20' to climb) and then ride 30' ~admin to a flat area where I could do another ~15-20' interval on flat ground.
• I basically have different climbing and flat FTP numbers, if that made sense, I dialed these in for each

However, bottomline, is that we make our money as triathletes by being about to put out watts in the aerobars at steady state. I'm not saying that you need to give up your climbing intervals, but you do need to do more and more of riding, of all flavors in the aerobars first, steady to flat ground second.

That said, despite my best intentions to do these climbing intervals in my aerobars, climbing in the bars just sucks at grades and speeds that combine to give you less than about 10mph. So I did these intervals in the hoods...but I got plenty of time across my other rides in the aerobars.

jhbinsc

I also agree hills are great and do lots of my intervals on hills. As long as you get used to pushing ABP on flats, don't see a big problem.

jwpicciotto

I will disagree with some of the the others just a little bit here because of something that you said in your post. In the post you said, "but when doing flats it is a struggle to hold 98-100% for 3-5 intervals." That identifies that you have a weakness in your riding. You are riding your intervals on hills, because you can post big numbers. That is different than being able to consistently output a particular wattage. I find that I can push higher watts when I ride with the wind than into the wind due to my riding style. Does that mean that I should only ride with the wind so I can post bigger numbers? No, I need to do both to be able to handle all situations. You need to do the same with your training. If you are having problems with the flats, then be sure an mix them in so that you can build up your ability here.

Good luck going into Canado.