Coaches & WSMs - What's your advice on training for this new bike course at IMCDA?
In a nutshell, this new bike course appears to be longer, sustained climbs (sounds like 4-6 of them with 6%-ish grades). No longer a technical bike course or as steep, but one that is expected to be challenging.
The question...how would you train for a course with sustained climbs like this?
Based on experience and terrain available to me I am thinking I would make some of my Zone 3 ABP work on Sat/Sun in climbing mode. Working on staying aero during sustained (not real steep) climbs. RR & Big Day Bikes would involve some sustained climbing as well.
Interested in some advice here...
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Comments
I would encourage you to not overthink it. There's nothing special, no secret adaptations that need to happen when you're doing 4-6% stuff, assuming that you have the right gears on the course and aren't forced to ride at stupid low cadences, stand a lot, etc. Instead, it's mostly a mental, or a game of perspective, when you put these hills into an Ironman.
In my experience, anything other than pancake flat, dead straight, no wind, and 70f for 112 miles tends to freak out about 70% of the field. Instead:
Agree you need to just stay in your box and ride at your correct wattage and not obsess over the particular grades.
This is the sanity check I needed. Thanks for taking the time to respond.