In my last blog I talked about scouting out the courses for IM WA 70.3. I mentioned that it was a hilly bike course and that my training focus for the next couple months needed to be on hills......
WELL - you get what you asked for.... my coach - Matt - took that to heart and every bike ride since then has had some type of hill workout in it. :) YAY! I am already feeling stronger with the past couple weeks of hill workouts. Somebody asked me what it means to do "hill workouts". Here ya go...
Hill repeats - These can be short or long. I have done both types in the past couple weeks. The short hill repeats were about 1.5 miles uphill and repeated 3 times and were incorporated into a long bike ride day (about 50 miles). The long hill repeats were about 4.2 miles uphill. I did this last week - repeated 5 times. It was about a 42 mile bike ride day. And you might think the 4.2 miles going down is "easy"... it's not! By my 5th repeat that day - I was definitely feeling the hill work in my legs. I have that same workout again this week but it's only 4 repeats - should be easier right? Doubt it - challenge is to make every uphill repeat be the same time - I'm looking forward to that challenge - 4th needs to be as fast as the 1st. I LOVE challenges built into my workouts - makes them fun and gives me something to think about/concentrate on/figure out how to accomplish as I am riding.
Long climbs - These are incorporated into the overall miles for a bike day and may be done multiple times during the ride. I will be doing a 10 mile climb this week as part of my long bike day (about 50 miles total). I am looking forward to this day - the long climb is up to Hyalite and I have not been up there on my bike yet this year.
Another important part of my training is nutrition. I have been focusing a lot on my nutrition and hydration during my bike rides. I need to consume about 200 calories per hour in food and drink. I have come up with this number after a lot of trial and error. This amount gets me through the bike rides, and then allows me to start the run without feeling depleted. During the run, I continue to drink some sort of electrolyte drink and if I think I need something more substantial I will eat some gummi bears or a "Waffle Stinger".
Here is a photo and a couple videos from my bike ride last week:
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| Long Hilly Ride Complete |
This is so good! I love being able to learn about a competitor’s day. Have you ever rode with added weight? During a surgery recovery in my high school years I remember this. I don’t hear much about building muscle this way now.
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