I have to say, I don’t really like flats: My ass gets sore You get no breaks (ie no real coasting) You can’t see what you are working against (wind) The scenery is never as nice as hills
Conversely, I love hills because: I can ride out of the saddle I can see the what I am working against (the hill) You get to really rest on the downhills (ie HR of 65) Downhills can be like riding a roller coaster (Mt. Ventoux descent) My ass does not get sore. The scenery is much nicer
I’d rather do a 100 mile ride with 6000 ft of climbing than one with zero feet of climbing. In fact, I find it easier. A course like Ironman Florida or Esprit would kill me.
Spoken like a true gatineau-ite… Do you think its useful to do some continuous lsd zone 1 b4 hitting the hills or do you do most of your training in hills?
Peter
…unfortunately I have to endure 25K of flats each way before I can get near the 6000 ft of climbing :-). I kid you not, the 25K of flats on the way home fighting a howling headwind after 4 hours in the hills has really killed me more than once !
I prefer flats because I have no hills to train on where I live. The uphills can be manageable with proper gearing and conditioning however sometimes a long or technical downhill can cost me substantial time due to lack of experience. That downhill in Lake Placid going to Keene scares the hell out of me.
I’m fine with a flat course like Ironman Florida, or at least I hope I am. I will find out on November 5.
Kona - let 'er ripe on the Keene downhill there is very little that is technical about it - keep your fear in check, you’ll be just fine. I promise you this.
flats for sure, much more difficult to get a breakaway to stick, unless your team can block and the road is narrow (e.g. centerline rule enforced and you can get out of the view of the peloton)
I know that it is not technical. The main thing on my mind going down that hill are the 2 times that I had high speed wobbles of the front wheel. Both times I experienced this were in Clermont were the hills are nothing like lake placid. I feared another incident with nowhere to go on such a long hill.
Generally I like hills for the same aforementioned reasons. However yesterday I had a ride from hell with hills and a cross/headwind. Those of you familiar withthe IM Kona course know it can be a head wind both directions ( we actually on did 1/2- from Mauna Lani up to Hawai and back, ie the Honu course). I felt beat up after the ride…kj
I have had the same expeience myself on a Zipp 404 no less. The problem here was defect in the rim. Have your bike checkout by a mechanic before a race for this very condition, this should give you more confidence in handling the downhills during the race.
Speed whobles are scary, I think anyone would agreed with that, but don’t let that fear of them keep you from a better race.
Herbert, on that note, I really dislike pancake flat Olympic or half Ironman courses. You basically have your HR pegged at the redline for the whole race. In a hilly course, it goes up to the redline for the hills, and then you have a chance to rest on the downhills ! For example, my times at the Tupper Lake Half Ironman with 2800 ft of climbing on the bike are faster than at the Ottawa Half Ironman with essentially zero feet of vertical on the bike (except for last year, when I was actually biking OK on the flats).
Real climbs that take 30-120 min are definitely ultra cool. You need a trip to Europe to get some serious climbing in. Riding the Alpe d’Huez course on the computrainer just does not do these long climbs any justice (although it is likely tougher than the real thing).
On that note, perhaps we can have the Slowtwitch first annual Whiteface Mountain climb (kinda like the Palomar climb in Jan) for those of us that live in the North East. Whiteface is just outside of Lake Placid overlooking the Ironman LP bike course. We have to be up the mountain before 8:30 am before the park rangers kick us off, or start in the evening after 4:30 pm.
If we do the evening version, the setting sun in the Western sky is an awesome view from the summit. Its around an hour worth of climbing +10 min for most “sport cyclists”. I would rate it at 85% of the difficulty of Alpe d’Huez. Anyone interested ? Should I start a separate thread ?
I find my mind wandering if I stay on the flat too long. I constantly lose about 5 minutes somewhere on the flats where my concentration falters and I drop down to a very pedestrain 15-16 MPH. Definitely need the hills to keep the body and the mind engaged.