Hill riding

Our coach sent this out this morning. For anyone doing a hilly triathlon, have a read, or risk being passed by slow runners like me as you walk the deathmarch :)



"This is an article written on Xtri.com from the guys at Endurance Nation - well worth the read"


We’d like to share with you our double top secret squirrel
race day hill climbing technique. We’ve learned this
method through having training and raced with power for
years, and having guided thousands of athletes through
successful half and full Iron-distance races.

The key is understanding that 90% of the field will be
working too hard on the hills. These aggressive efforts
express themselves on the run as dramatically slowing down
in the second half, usually giving up any of the small
gains made on these hills. If you follow our guidance
below, you’ll find yourself doing the opposite of everyone
else in the hills...and running better at the end of your
day!

But don’t take our word for it. Between now and your next
race we strongly encourage you to ride a hilly course
using our techniques and perspective with your typical
group ride. Pay attention to where they gap you and how it
is easy for you to make that difference up simply by
making better choices about where to spend your effort.

The Problem

If you ride with a powermeter and “just ride” on a hilly
course, you will see how anyone naturally tends to ride a
hill. We unconciously seek to maintain the same,
comfortable cadence at all times on a hill. At the bottom
this creates a sharp, upward power spike. At the crest the
opposite occurs, as we dramatically decrease our power:

1. When you first enter the hill, your natural tendency is
to maintain the same cadence you were holding on the flat.
If you start to climb but maintain the same gear and
cadence, you have dramatically increased your work output.
Even as you shift down through the gears, this work output
remains high. If you ride with a powermeter, you’ll see
your watts spike in this first third of the hill. If you
are riding with heart rate, you won’t initially see this
increased effort, as heart rate lags work output by about
ninety seconds. A Zone 4 effort might take 90 seconds or
more to be reflected as a Zone 4 heart rate. Depending on
the length of the hill, you may only see Zone 3 and think
you’ve properly paced the hill. In most cases, you would
be wrong.

2. In the second third of the hill, you naturally
compensate for this initial spike by backing off the power
quite a bit. You will typically hold more watts than you
were on the flat, but your power drops off considerably
from the spike at the bottom of the hill. In addition,
your heart rate begins to catch up to your effort.
Usually, your HR rises to a level higher than you would
like, as it finally reflects that initial spike at the
bottom of the hill. This high HR is usually taken as a
signal to back off your effort again. Then again, the hill
may be too short for heart rate to rise to reflect your
true effort. If this is the case, the damage has in fact
been done but your heart hasn't had enough time to let you
know it!

3. When you reach the crest, remember that your body wants
to maintain the same, comfortable cadence. As the hill
flattens out and you maintain the same gear and cadence,
your power output drops dramatically. Even if you shift up
through the gears, the tendency is to back off the power
and begin to rest on the crest of the hill, usually
because you worked too hard on the hill and actually need
the rest! However, by reducing your effort and speed at
the crest, you give up the opportunity to accelerate to
your top speed as quickly as possible and fly down the
hill and across the flat into the next hill.

In summary:

* Entrance to hill: power spike, as your body seeks to
maintain a constant cadence. Very little to no tactical
gain achieved.
* Body of hill: after this initial spike, you drop off the
power considerably. Heart rate now begins to catch up to
effort, until it rises above where you would like to see
it. You back off the power again.
* Crest: downward power spike, as your body seeks to
maintain a constant cadence or senses the opportunity to
rest NOW after the hard climbing effort. You start to rest
at the crest and on the initial portion of the downhill.

Three Tools to Fix Your Race Day Climbing

We encourage you to use anyone of three tools to figure
out a better way to climb. The best tool is a powermeter,
such as a Powertap or SRM. These devices tell you exactly
how hard you are working at any point in time and allow
you to smooth out your power application over the hill. If
you don’t have one of these, you can use your feet as a
guide (no joke!). Lastly, you can use your competitors as
a spatial frame of reference.

Let’s climb the hill again, using these three tools...

1. Entrance of the Hill

* With Power Device: Pay attention to your monitor and
stop yourself from spiking your wattage.

* Without Power Device: Feel the pressure on the soles of
your feet and shift down through the gears as this
pressure increases in an effort to maintain a steady,
constant pressure to the pedals. Why? If you have begun to
climb a hill, but are maintaining a constant cadence, you
are now pushing harder on the pedals and will feel this
increased pressure on the soles of your feet. More
importantly, you have begun to increase your power output.
In our years and years of power experience, we can tell
you that this initial power spike is, 98% of the time is
far higher than you should be riding. Therefore, pay
attention to your feet and shift down through the gears as
you feel this pressure (power spike) increase. Your goal
is keep a constant pressure on the soles of your feet, by
shifting through the gears, as you transition from the
flat to the entrance of the hill.

* Visual Cues: The athletes around you will open up a gap
at the start of the hill. You'll see them standing,
grinding a hard gear, you're hear the frame creak or the
tires bite the pavement as they stomp on the gas.
Remember: if you’re not doing what everyone else is doing,
you’re usually doing the right thing! Having people gap
you at the entrance of a climb is almost always a very
good thing: they are working too hard, you’re not. They
will come back to you, either on this hill, the next, or
on a flat, or on the run...or not. What's important is
that you focus on the real game, the last 8 miles of the
run, and don't get caught up in fighting for 3-5 bikes
lengths of real estate on some unnamed hill at mile 65.2
of a 140 mile day. It just. Doesn't. Matter.

2. Body of the Hill:

* With Power Device: Settle into your target wattage. A
good rule is to climb at about 10% above your goal watts
for the race. Please visit the Endurance Nation Store for
a comprehensive Training and Racing with Power Kit, with
over four hours of audio and other tools to help you train
and race more effectively with power.

* Without Power Device: Settle in and expect your heart
rate to rise to your target heart rate, much like the
target wattage above. If you have avoided the spike at the
entrance, you should stay at or below your target heart
rate.

* Visual Cues: The initial gap between you and other
athletes will stabilize or decrease a bit. More
importantly, pay attention to the body language. As their
body realizes their initial effort was too hard you'll see
them come off the gas a bit.

3. Crest of the Hill and Downhill. This is where the fun
starts!


* With Power Device: Watch your power meter and hold your
climbing wattage across the crest and into the first third
of the downhill. Note we didn't say "hammer." You're
simply making the hill a few seconds longer by maintaining
your climbing effort across the crest and into the first
third of the downhill. You will quickly accelerate through
the gears and reach your top speed very quickly. Above
about 34mph, get very aero and just coast. We recommend
taking this opportunity to stretch your hamstrings Put
your pedals at 3 and 9pm, then stand to stretch. Reverse
the pedals, stretch again. Carry this speed across the
intervening flat and into the entrance of the next hill.
In effect, you begin your climb of Hill #2 at the crest of
Hill #1.

* Without Power Device: Listen to your feet again.
Maintain a constant pressure on the soles of your feet,
quickly accelerating through the gears to your top speed,
per above.

* Visual Cues: Watch as others REALLY step off the gas,
while you, simply maintaining your climbing effort across
the crest and into the downhill, quickly accelerate and
coast by them as they continue to pedal.

In summary, your goal is to manage your effort up the hill
without spending it needlessly at the start. Conserve your
energy and then simply maintain it over the crest and into
the first third of the downhill. You will quickly
accelerate to top speed, carrying this speed across the
intervening flat and into the next hill.