Ok, so maybe you're like me and showed up at Rob's sufferfest, got "it" handed to you, and realized you're not quite in hill climbing shape. So what now? Well, in addition to showing up at the next ride, you can do some trainer work!
The biggest climbing appeared to be on that 6-7 mile stretch of 15th street, so I looked at that section to see what sort of power output was being required and to develop a specific hill climbing workout I could do on the trainer. The first step was to find all the climbs where I had to go above my threshold power for more than 20 seconds (aka "hills"), and I came up with this:
Clumping all of those together yields the following pattern:
Averaging all of that out:
average duration climbing: 49 seconds
average duration descending: 67 seconds
average wattage: 300 watts
To me, the following distinct patterns emerge:
For the "on" section, an average of 300 watts would be in my vo2 power level. I actually want to bump this up a little, as on several of the climbs I was just hanging on for dear life. Depending on how much you weigh and how fast you're trying to get over the hill, your power level may be higher or lower, but for the workout I'm about to describe that's in the right ballpark.
If you don't know your vo2 power, you can use the following description: Strong to severe sensations of leg effort/fatigue, such that completion of more than 30-40 min total training time is difficult at best. Conversation not possible due to often 'ragged' breathing. A 6-7 Rating of Perceived Exertion (RPE).
A 6-7 level of effort on the Borg Perceived Exertion scale:
RPE - Description
Sample 1hr trainer workouts:
Workout #1:
20 minute warmup: 5 minutes easy, 3 x 1'(1') fast spinning, 5 minutes moderately-hard (4-5 RPE), 4 minutes easy
20 minute main set: alternate 30 seconds very hard (7 RPE) with 30 seconds easy
20 minute cool-down: 15 minutes moderate followed by 5 minutes easy
Workout #2:
10 minute warmup: 5 minutes easy + 5 minutes moderately-hard (4-5 RPE)
40 minute main set: alternate 1 minute very hard (6 RPE) with 1 minute easy
10 minute cooldown: 10 minutes easy
That's it! One hour, once a week, and you'll become a monster hill climber and still have time to play guitar hero. Have any questions?
The biggest climbing appeared to be on that 6-7 mile stretch of 15th street, so I looked at that section to see what sort of power output was being required and to develop a specific hill climbing workout I could do on the trainer. The first step was to find all the climbs where I had to go above my threshold power for more than 20 seconds (aka "hills"), and I came up with this:
Clumping all of those together yields the following pattern:
climbs descents watts 1:36:00 1:01:00 272 1:06:00 1:13:00 295 1:17:00 2:29:00 281 0:25:00 0:30:00 271 0:44:00 0:54:00 299 0:26:00 1:40:00 303 0:44:00 0:30:00 287 1:07:00 0:52:00 307 0:30:00 0:33:00 310 0:43:00 0:38:00 313 0:25:00 1:18:00 282 0:40:00 0:26:00 320 1:07:00 2:25:00 301 0:42:00 1:06:50 350 done!
Averaging all of that out:
average duration climbing: 49 seconds
average duration descending: 67 seconds
average wattage: 300 watts
To me, the following distinct patterns emerge:
30 seconds on / 30 seconds off
and60 seconds on / 60 seconds off
For the "on" section, an average of 300 watts would be in my vo2 power level. I actually want to bump this up a little, as on several of the climbs I was just hanging on for dear life. Depending on how much you weigh and how fast you're trying to get over the hill, your power level may be higher or lower, but for the workout I'm about to describe that's in the right ballpark.
If you don't know your vo2 power, you can use the following description: Strong to severe sensations of leg effort/fatigue, such that completion of more than 30-40 min total training time is difficult at best. Conversation not possible due to often 'ragged' breathing. A 6-7 Rating of Perceived Exertion (RPE).
A 6-7 level of effort on the Borg Perceived Exertion scale:
RPE - Description
0 - Nothing at all 1 - Very light 2 - Fairly light 3 - Moderate 4 - Some what hard 5 - Hard 6 7 - Very hard 8 9 10 - Very, very hardOne possible workout using the previous data would be to alternate 30 seconds going very hard with 30 seconds going easy for a total of 20 minutes. Another possibility would be to alternate 1 minute going slightly less hard with 1 minute going easy. Don't think you'll get a better workout by doubling the total amount of intervals - go hard enough that the amount of intervals done makes you sufficiently tired. Also, try to keep the same gearing/resistance for the last interval that you used for the first. It may take a couple of attempts before you can really start to nail the workout.
Sample 1hr trainer workouts:
Workout #1:
20 minute warmup: 5 minutes easy, 3 x 1'(1') fast spinning, 5 minutes moderately-hard (4-5 RPE), 4 minutes easy
20 minute main set: alternate 30 seconds very hard (7 RPE) with 30 seconds easy
20 minute cool-down: 15 minutes moderate followed by 5 minutes easy
Workout #2:
10 minute warmup: 5 minutes easy + 5 minutes moderately-hard (4-5 RPE)
40 minute main set: alternate 1 minute very hard (6 RPE) with 1 minute easy
10 minute cooldown: 10 minutes easy
That's it! One hour, once a week, and you'll become a monster hill climber and still have time to play guitar hero. Have any questions?
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