Anyone have a preference for the type of terrain to ride on? In my N=1 experience, I have to say riding in a relatively flat area is tougher and makes for a stronger rider than in an area with hills. Today I went out for a 100 miler that just whipped me, and this was in the flats. It’s the second time I’ve experienced being completely spent from a 5 hour ride after coming back from a trip where I was riding hills. The first was in Japan where I’d go out for a 7 hour ride with some significant 8-10% climbs (4-7 km in length). I was in France the last couple of weeks and last Saturday did a 6 hour ride that while it did tire me out, I wasn’t nearly as fatigued from 6 hours on the hills (shorter 2-3 km climbs at 5% typically).
Fast forward to today and 5 hours of constant pedaling took its toll. Absolutely no breaks from pedaling. In the hills you get that nice downhill portion to rest, which is not insignificant. Normalized powers for such rides are fairly close, but the key difference is average power for flat rides is higher (i.e., higher variability index for hilly rides). It always seems to take me a week or so to get back to form after a few weeks in the hills (mind you, I was doing 800+ TSS weeks, so I was definitely putting in time and intensity).
