Hill Training Tips

A long time ago I bookmarked web page “Tips for Climbing to the Top” By Josh Horowitz. With time ticking away until The Ride to Conquer Cancer™ I thought I better buckle down and take advantage of every tip and trick out there.

So I started with number 1 …Cadence.
According to Horowitz, here’s how you do it: Find a flat road and attempt to pedal at 120 rpm for 10 minutes. Try to do it all at once with no breaks. There should be very little resistance on the pedals. Do this once or twice per week, adding five to 10 minutes each week. Over time, build up to a full hour.

At first you will find yourself bouncing around in the saddle and you may even experience cramping and saddle irritations. However, as muscle memory develops, you will become smoother and more efficient.  Click to read more.

Solvang Century tips just in time.

My coach and good pal from my last TNT season, Ramon, sent me an email today with his tips for a fabulous ride this coming Saturday in Solvang.

Ramon’s tips:

The ride starts with small hills that slowly get bigger, leading to a fun descent into Lompoc and SAG 1.

Foxen Canyon (mile 90): False flat, easy to over-do it.  It kicks up at the end, so don’t burn out!  Stay at a comfortable pace and don’t feel like you are “pushing” yourself.

SAG 5 (Firestone Winery @ mile 96): definitely keep your stop short, so your legs don’t get cold–there’s a climb immediately.  It’s not as hard as it looks, but easy to psyche yourself out since it you can see people climb it at the SAG.

Crossing Hwy 54 (mile 101).  Short but steep climb just after the highway.  A couple of downhill curves, then a long, gradual descent (yeah!).  A few short climbs, and then back to town.  Easy to be mentally tired, but watch for traffic.  Cross the finish line and celebrate!

Stay hydrated, stay fueled, be safe, chat and have fun.

What’s working?

•    Training
•    Incremental Goals
•    Nutrition, Hydration
•    Sleep

I once went to a presentation by BNI’s Founder, Dr. Ivan Misner; in it he asked “What’s working?”.  The presentation discussed a business consultant that listened to all the problems in a failing business, but continued to focus on what’s working. While the business owner was aghast, assuming that the consult had gone mad by not addressing the problems, the business started to flourish by putting what was working first. This struck a cord with me during my solo ride on the Pacific Coast Highway last Sunday.

Training  – On that Sunday, I had ridden 3 days in a row, each day just a little more than the last. Team in Training puts us on an awesome training schedule of 4 to 5 months, depending on the season length. The schedule is an incremental one. Every Saturday is an incremental increase over the previous week, getting you ready for your Century Ride, with mid week rides to keep muscle memory. Muscle Memory is important in sports as well as physical therapy. It is based on the premise that the more often you do a certain muscular activity, the more likely you are to do it as needed, when needed.

Incremental Goals - My coach last season, Ramone Ocampo, had taught me to ignore the hill, ignore the total miles, ignore it all and just work baby steps. I hated it. He would ask me if I could get as far as the next intersection, the next driveway, the next whatever, pushing me like a sheep dog. This season, I’ve had to ride alone a great deal and I would hear his voice pointing out little goals as I went along. I have no idea when it changed, but during our week 18 of training for Solvang, I heard myself asking the very same things. By week 19 I was gleefully pointing things out that I had passed, “Driveway! Latigo Cyn Road! Mailbox! Grass Clump!” and so on. Might not be the incremental goals of the typical endurance athlete, but it sure helped during the amazing headwinds we tackled on Los Posas yesterday.

Nutrition, Hydration – This might be a BFO (Blinding Flash of the Obvious), but the better set you are in both nutrition and hydration the better off you are. This is not just carbo loading (which I can’t do btw), but its watching your proteins and water intake before, during and after your rides. Everyone gives you the advice to drink and eat before you are hungry or thirsty. I haven’t been able to figure when that meant, until I recently realized that when is always (another BFO). What I’ve started doing is a little celebration of the miles. Every mile I take a drink, every 5 miles I get the big reward of Clif Bar nibbles.

Sleep - Sleep is the gas your body car needs to be at top performance. I have a terrible habit of napping and having shorter sleep cycles then adding up the days naps/sleep claiming to have had 8 hours rest. That was just not working well. I say well because it seemed to work, until I switched to hitting the hay on a real schedule in hopes of getting to sleep before my husband started snoring. It didn’t work in terms of avoiding the snoring by I did notice that my performance improved and my first 10 minutes of waking didn’t seem so groggy or clumsy. Just to prove my point to myself, I tried this over the last two weeks straight and continued to see that it should go on my list of “what’s working”.

Week 17, just a few more to go ’til Solvang!

(this should have been posted 2 weeks ago)

Training had us back on the PCH, my personal fave. We started at Malibu Bluffs, headed north up the coast, past Leo Carillo, towards Las Posas, over to Freedom Park in Camarillo, winding our way back to the coast by way of Ventura Blvd.

I rode a bit of it alone, after leaving my mentor/ride partner who seemed to want to be alone – not really sure. I spent most of it smiling, knowing how much I love the PCH and enjoying the route, and the hills! I did a little reflecting on how hard this was in the past but mostly just worked my way along the coast. I caught up to Rae who had gone ahead while I was waiting for Kim.

We rode Las Posas to Freedom Park, the wind was kicking our butts and I can honestly tell you it felt great. I got a high five from another rider who was impressed that we had come that far. I took it!

Heading back my leg cramps kicked in but not enough to stop me. I have no idea what is going on, I’ve had cramps for almost two weeks now that move and dance all over my legs at the oddest times. I’m willingly seeking advice on this, btw

The tumour in my hand had been acting up so much that I pretty much rode without holding the handle bar on that side unless I really had to. I hit a bump and smacked it hard right on the bump. I saw stars and squeezed back the tears. Since there was a light I took a moment to pull off my gloves and look at it – I have no idea what I thought I would see but I noticed that it was still attached and human looking so we pressed on.

Unfortunately, I noticed that I had a flat. It had to have happened when I hit that bump, I don’t know. What I also didn’t know is how to change a tire, so I was screwed. Called Dave the SAG man and headed back. I did 50 good miles though and felt great – its good to leave feeling like you can do more.