Climbing for Flat landers

The fundamental challenge in doing Everest challenge living in Florida is how to prepare for 29,000 vertical feet of climbing, when the only "hills" are Bridges 60 feet tall.

To start with, I'm really not a good climber, but I'm a surprisingly good climber for a fat old guy from Florida.Doing sustained climbs is all about putting out a lot of power for a long period of time. The only way to climb big mountains better is to increase your power to weight ratio, and/or increase the length of time you can maintain your power at threshold.Losing weight is the obvious side of the equation.

For the other side of the equation, increasing power, the key is lots of riding at threshold(functional threshold power if your training with power, Lactate threshold heart rate if you're training with heart rate.)Thus getting ready for Everest Challenge right now, we're doing a lot of steady states (long intervals right at FTP or LTHR) This week it was 3x15 both last night and tonight.It's easy to do these as hill intervals if you've got sustained climbs, because the hill forces you to pretty much go at a high power output. It's harder to do these on the flats pyschologically, because nothing but your own will is pushing you. You can figure out the power output necessary to do the climb your training for, at your goal pace. (use a calculater such as kruezotter.) Then in your training on the flats, you need to build to the point you can sustain that same power for the requisite time on the flats. Riding hard into headwinds helps. 350 watts at 8mph up L'Alpe de Huez, is the same as 350 watts at 26 mph on the flats in Florida. Only difference is its mentally tougher to push yourself to do it on the flats. (and that's just an illustration, not intended to be accurate mathematically.)So, you really can develop the power without the hills, otherwise you wouldn't have Dutch professional riders doing well in races involving climbing.

However, even if you have the power, there are still some challenges to climbing for which the flats don't prepare you . The position on the bike ends up being a bit different climbing, and stresses different muscles. I found in getting ready for L'Etape, doing some test rides up Hogpen and Brastown in North Georgia that my back hurt.A couple of answers to this problem were 1) core stregthening exercises, 2) riding deep in the drops, to simulate the angles you end up with climbing on the hoods with the front wheel raised by the grade, and 3) spending time on the trainer with the front wheel raised.

Another drill that can help in preparing for climbing is muscle tension intervals. Typically, 10 minutes or so in big gear on a moderate grade at 50-55rpm. In Florida there simply is no hill long enough to allow you do these properly on the road, because you can't get the sustained load given the lengths of the available climbs. I've found with a Fluid2 trianer and a 53/11 gear I get just enough resistence at 55rpm to make these worthwhile.(Typically the Muscle tensions would be done in the base phase of training toward the end.)

One often proposed answer is to bust repeated intervals up the local bridge. While I do some of this, I really believe it should not be a major feature of your preperation for big climbs. The climbs are just too short, and you end up training the wrong energy systems. So while bridge repeats will make you great at doing 1 minute climbs; they do not do as much to help you do 1 hour climbs as doing steady state intervals above.

If a fat old guy from Florida can finish Everest Challenge, get a top 10 finish in the Brasstown Bald Buster Century, and a silver medal in L'Etape de Tour, its shows you really can train for climbing on the flats.That said there is no perfect substitute for climbing big mountains, than big mountains. So we're planing two weekends in North Georgia to test how our training is working, and adapt as necessary, both the training plan,and our equipment (most importantly gearing selections.).

Caeser's Head

The plan from here is to make 3 weekend excursions to the Mountains to get as much climbing training as we can. The first trip was last weekend to Greenville South Carolina. Our daughter was going to the BMW Teen driving expereince. http://www.bmwusa.com/Standard/Content/Experience/Events/PDS/Schools/Default.aspx?enc=/eiUrYOZAxtXbrazY6tfkmnueZmuSV+mTyz9vrTx7NirE7X5FaRwQ2/z/Xmw9HUv3UjYlssDXK6q1yOERxyPjQ== at the BMW Performance Center near Greenville, which gave us an excellent opportunity to go ride in the hills around Greenville.

We chose a loop starting at Table Rock State Park and going up to Caeser's Head, because it had longer sustained climbing than doing the US Pro championship loop up Paris Mountain.

The ride was supposed to be 55 miles, but with a little unintended off route excursion we got 63 miles and 6500 vertical feet.

The 6 mile climb up Caeser's Head is a good steady climb. My math indicates that it averages 6% grade, with a few spots being above that, but the climb never got brutally hard. But hey if it's good enough for Hincapie to train on, it has to be somewhat difficult right?

After we climbed Caeser's Head, we came upon a thunderstorm, and got dumped on for the next hour. Descending in a pouring rainstorm took some of the fun off the descents, but the Dura Ace brakes on the tandem worked fine, even in the wet conditions.

The day's ride was 35 miles, and 8,000 vertical feet short of one day of Everest Challenge. So progress, but still a long way to go.

Riding in West Virginia

A vacation in West Virginia around a family wedding at the first of June gave us the first chance to ride hills with the Robusta.

First stop was Berkely County in the Eastern Panhandle of West Viriginia. The Shenandoa Valley runs through the Eastern Panhandle, and the riding there is spectacular; beucolic scenery, lightly trafficed back country roads, low humidity, and lots of climbing from relatively short, steep, climbs, to extended climbs in the 1000-1500 foot vertical range.

Our first big climb was over Sleepy Creek Mountain with almost 1500 feet vertical, and a section of 15% grade. Shaving 21 lbs off the Burley's weight with the Robusta certainly made a difference. Made it up without too much distress, as part of 4 hour ride with 6,000 vertical feet of climbing. (or a little less than 1/2 of one day of Everest Challenge.)

Then on to Kumbrabow State Forest (pictured above.) http://www.kumbrabow.com/ located on the Western edge of the Alleghany Highlands, atop Rich Mountain. Kumbrabow is very remote (nice to be out of cell phone range), with rustic cabins, powered by wood stoves, and gas lights.

Riding from our cabin entailed 6 miles of dirt road. Rather than take the time to drive to the pavement, we used the dirt road to test out the durability of the Rolf Tandem wheels. With 28c tires, the bike, and wheels performed fine on the dirt roads which included 3 miles of climbing and 3 miles of descending.

Next stop was the Greenbrier, http://www.grenbrier.com/ where were able to ride the backroads of Greenbrier county, and then recover in style.

Last day of the trip, we White Water rafted down the Gauley river. The Upper Gauley, with 30 named rapids, 5 Class V rapids, and the technical challenges of running summer Gauley, provided a workout in its own right.

Our First Century!

Today we completed our first century together on the Tandem, and Deb's first century ever.

Did the Velobrew ride, http://www.velobrew.com/ (Velobrew is the team we are on.) Started early at 6:30am which made for good riding conditions, not too hot, and not much traffic.

We had a strong, steady group of about 35 riders.

We finished the century in 4 hours 35 minutes, with a riding time of 4 hours 19 minutes, and an average of 23.1mph.

Best part was we finished strong, and it was by no means a death march.

Not where we need to be yet, but progress. Step 1 accomplished, 4 more to knock out.

Tour de Forts Century

The progression we need to accomplish is 1) complete our first century together on the Tandem, 2) complete a hard century with lots of climbing, 3) complete back to back centuries on consecutive days, 4) complete hard back to back centuries on consecutive days 5) complete step 4, at race paace.

We had hoped to knock off step 1 at the end of April on The Tour de Forts Century. Tour de Forts is a century organized by the North Florida Bicycle Club running from Jacksonville through Amelia Island and back.It's mostly flat, but often subject to signifcant wind.

Given our setback in training it was clear we weren't ready for the 100miles, and elected the 75mile option. We started out with the fast guys, but after the first hour, with the pace in the mid to high 20's, we knew we didn't have 75 miles of that and dropped back to the second group.

Ended up completing 76 miles, with an average a little over 20mph. Our longest tandem ride to that date. Not where we had hoped to be by this point, and far from where we need to be, but progress nonetheless.

getting back

By mid march, things were coming along. Deb had some base miles in, and I was beginning to see some form (doing time trial intervals in the 350 watt range.)

Now, by mid April almost a month with no real riding, I was fat, weak, and depressed. To get going again, my Coach (I work with Carmichael Training systems, www.trainright.com) prescribed a fair amount of tempo work. (7/10ths on the perceived exertion scale, a notch below lactate threshold.)

It's amazing how fast fitness goes away.Even trying to hold a tempo level of work was very hard.
Fortunately, it also comes back reasonably quickly if you have a good base to start. After 2 weeks of tempo intervals, I was starting to get back to normal.