Training for a hilly race

I'm targeting Lago Vista as my first race in the TXBRA series for this
year. It's a hilly SOB, and I've been training with 53/42 and 12-23.
A friend said that is stupid. Is it? Should I be training with gears
that I will actually use in the race, like 53/39 and 13-26?

"LawBoy01" wrote in message
...
I'm targeting Lago Vista as my first race in the TXBRA series for this
year. It's a hilly SOB, and I've been training with 53/42 and 12-23.
A friend said that is stupid. Is it? Should I be training with gears
that I will actually use in the race, like 53/39 and 13-26?

Usually it's best to train with the gears you're planning on racing with. If
you get used to turning slower cadence on a hill when you go to the lower
gear you don't spin faster, you ride slower.

On Feb 2, 2:39*pm, "Tom Kunich" cyclintom@yahoo. com wrote:
"LawBoy01" wrote in message

...

I'm targeting Lago Vista as my first race in the TXBRA series for this
year. *It's a hilly SOB, and I've been training with 53/42 and 12-23.
A friend said that is stupid. *Is it? *Should I be training with gears
that I will actually use in the race, like 53/39 and 13-26?

Usually it's best to train with the gears you're planning on racing with. If
you get used to turning slower cadence on a hill when you go to the lower
gear you don't spin faster, you ride slower.

When I am doing hill repeats, I sometimes force myself to sit and
grind up the climb with no less than 60 rpm while keeping up witht
folks using smaller gears. I just think that I am killing myself
without benefit sometimes. I suspect that your advice is correct.

LawBoy01 wrote:

When I am doing hill repeats, I sometimes force myself to sit and
grind up the climb with no less than 60 rpm while keeping up witht
folks using smaller gears. I just think that I am killing myself
without benefit sometimes. I suspect that your advice is correct.

John Phillip Lawboy:

Use the gears you're going to use. Cadence is a red herring. Focus on power.

"Robert Chung" wrote in message
...
LawBoy01 wrote:

When I am doing hill repeats, I sometimes force myself to sit and
grind up the climb with no less than 60 rpm while keeping up witht
folks using smaller gears. I just think that I am killing myself
without benefit sometimes. I suspect that your advice is correct.

Use the gears you're going to use. Cadence is a red herring. Focus on
power.

Cadence isn't exactly a red herring Robert. You tend to maintain the cadence
you're used to. If you're a big time racer you kick it up a gear and try to
maintain your usual cadence. In the recordings of races you'll see long time
breakaways standing on the pedals trying to maintain a cadence even on flat
roads.

Though of course you're correct that the important factor is power. But
first you have to get the power.

On Feb 2, 2:44*pm, "Robert Chung"
wrote:
LawBoy01 wrote:
When I am doing hill repeats, I sometimes force myself to sit and
grind up the climb with no less than 60 rpm while keeping up witht
folks using smaller gears. *I just think that I am killing myself
without benefit sometimes. *I suspect that your advice is correct.

John Phillip Lawboy:

Use the gears you're going to use. Cadence is a red herring. Focus on power.

Some people do low cadence, high torque climbing intervals to train
leg strength. I've seen Andy Hampsten do this on two separate
occasions (when he was still racing) with his arms resting on the bars
so that he wasn't using any upper body strength.

Bret

Bret wrote:

Some people do low cadence, high torque climbing intervals to train
leg strength. I've seen Andy Hampsten do this on two separate
occasions (when he was still racing) with his arms resting on the bars
so that he wasn't using any upper body strength.

That must've been his secret for winning that stage over the Gavia.

Bret wrote:
Some people do low cadence, high torque climbing intervals to train
leg strength. I've seen Andy Hampsten do this on two separate
occasions (when he was still racing) with his arms resting on the bars
so that he wasn't using any upper body strength.


You may be stepping into a minefield here. Dr. Coggan and his followers will
argue that there is no benefit to those leg-strength intervals because,
primarily, you do not ever race at those cadences with those force high
levels. That's true, but you do a lot of things in training that aren't 100%
specific to racing. I think Andy did a brief ad hoc study to back up his
claims (not sure about that) and if I remember correctly, he said that the
efforts were really no different than climbing stairs. Well, anyone who has
done them over the course of a winter knows that is not the case. I'll bet
that Doc C. didn't do his experiment for a long enough period, nor did he
use high enough force. Anyway, you can point to a lot of very successful
pros for whom low-cadence, high-force intervals are a key element of their
off-season program. I'm sure they're just fine with everybody else thinking
that it's a waste of time.

But, for LawBoy, it's too late for you to do those this year. If you care to
try it, do them once or twice a week next November and December.

Mark
http://marcofanelli.blogspot.com

On Feb 2, 1:44*pm, "Robert Chung"
wrote:
LawBoy01 wrote:
When I am doing hill repeats, I sometimes force myself to sit and
grind up the climb with no less than 60 rpm while keeping up witht
folks using smaller gears. *I just think that I am killing myself
without benefit sometimes. *I suspect that your advice is correct.

John Phillip Lawboy:

Use the gears you're going to use. Cadence is a red herring. Focus on power.




Dumbass -


I don't agree with the gear thing.

No matter how hard you try in training, you'll find yourself doing
stuff in races that you could never do in training.


thanks,

K. Gringioni.

On Mon, 2 Feb 2009 23:03:27 -0800 (PST), Kurgan Gringioni
wrote:

On Feb 2, 1:44*pm, "Robert Chung"
wrote:
LawBoy01 wrote:
When I am doing hill repeats, I sometimes force myself to sit and
grind up the climb with no less than 60 rpm while keeping up witht
folks using smaller gears. *I just think that I am killing myself
without benefit sometimes. *I suspect that your advice is correct.

John Phillip Lawboy:

Use the gears you're going to use. Cadence is a red herring. Focus on power.

I don't agree with the gear thing.

No matter how hard you try in training, you'll find yourself doing
stuff in races that you could never do in training.

Yeah. But sometimes I think the best riders are those who can
occassionally go much deeper/harder/faster in training.