UKC

So my question to all the experienced trainers out there is how can i maximise the training effort of all the hills i have on my doorstep for a flat 112 miles race later in the year.

Essentially i have hills in all directions around my house and very little flat stuff apart from one 15-18 mile stretch which is quite a busy road which i don't necessarily want to just cycle up and down due to boredom/danger.

I am a bit rubbish at hills anyway but i could do with some tips to help out with making the most of my 2-4 hr rides.

My flat 40 mile has about the same elevation change as the 112 mile race distance.

The longer routes i do have around 1400-1600m of climbing over 65-70 miles which is probably not very specific to my race later in the year but the roads are much quieter/safer and the scenery is much nicer.

SO

Should i spin up the hills
use a higher gear and grind it out
or just attack each hill out of the saddle and give it max till my legs give up.

I thought spinning might be closest to the long sustained effort i will have to give in the race but is that me just wimping out for the easiest session

Any advice is most welcome

nick

In reply to misterb:

if you want to race late in the season, I suggest that a flat route is probably easy as long as you've got the legs, so what i'd do is race hard till mid season, then take a break from the scene and maybe do lands end john o groats in that time for fun, then do some very hard sessions on a turbo trainer or track a month before the event and then hang on to every single wheel I could till I could move forwards in the race.

hth

In reply to johnj:

no drafting as its the bike leg of an ironman triathlon and i won't be racing at all till this event in july. It's just going to be a trainathon from now till then.

In reply to misterb:

Well what can you do then maybe spend every living hour you can working towards your event, just to find you could have gone a lot further and faster than you did with the retrospective view of the event itself. When all you can ever really do is your best. Good luck X