Two Things...TT and Century

[tomb]

Just a couple of questions for the more those guys with intelligence.

Firstly during a time trial I ride at about 90% of my max HR (Max HR is 204 so around 184+ bpm). The query being when riding on the flats with my heart doing 190bpm, breathing controlled just! and legs burning I come to a hill, not a steep hill but enough to sap your energy takes about 30-40 seconds to cycle up. What happens to me is this: I die near the top and go into the small ring. Take about 1 min to recover and then shift back to the big ring. Any tips on staying in the big ring and powering my way through without my heart going to 300bpm!

My first century I did took 5 and 3/4 hrs on predominantly flat land, averaging 17.2 mph Just wondering the level of performance that you other guys are on? What sort of bike etc...
Do you take all your food and drink with you? Or stop off on the way.

Cheers guys.


Tom

 

[2LAP]

Originally posted by tomb
Just a couple of questions for the more those guys with intelligence.

Firstly during a time trial I ride at about 90% of my max HR (Max HR is 204 so around 184+ bpm). The query being when riding on the flats with my heart doing 190bpm, breathing controlled just! and legs burning I come to a hill, not a steep hill but enough to sap your energy takes about 30-40 seconds to cycle up. What happens to me is this: I die near the top and go into the small ring. Take about 1 min to recover and then shift back to the big ring. Any tips on staying in the big ring and powering my way through without my heart going to 300bpm!

Just back off a little up the hill and over the top; then you can just turn the power on. When riding in a TT try to keep the intensity or the power output the same rather than keeping the speed the same. When using HR (lots of people like to race on 'feel') in a race remember that it has a time delay; effort at the bottom of the hill won't be showing until the top of the hill when its too late!!!

Originally posted by tomb
My first century I did took 5 and 3/4 hrs on predominantly flat land, averaging 17.2 mph Just wondering the level of performance that you other guys are on? What sort of bike etc...
Do you take all your food and drink with you? Or stop off on the way.

Cheers guys.
Tom

I have done quite a few 100 mile rides in less than 5 hours, taking food and drink on the bike. My old club would do club runs of 100+ miles every week. If you eat and drink on the bike there is no need to stop if you don't want or need too.

 

[stowerider]

Originally posted by tomb
Just a couple of questions for the more those guys with intelligence.

Firstly during a time trial I ride at about 90% of my max HR (Max HR is 204 so around 184+ bpm). The query being when riding on the flats with my heart doing 190bpm, breathing controlled just! and legs burning I come to a hill, not a steep hill but enough to sap your energy takes about 30-40 seconds to cycle up. What happens to me is this: I die near the top and go into the small ring. Take about 1 min to recover and then shift back to the big ring. Any tips on staying in the big ring and powering my way through without my heart going to 300bpm!

My first century I did took 5 and 3/4 hrs on predominantly flat land, averaging 17.2 mph Just wondering the level of performance that you other guys are on? What sort of bike etc...
Do you take all your food and drink with you? Or stop off on the way.

. Cheers guys.


Tom

Hi,

re TT question

One possibility is that you're starting the climb too hard/too fast ( this is a common mistake) - so you run out of gas before you get to the top of the hill. Try easing up going into the climb and for the first half of the climb. Then in the second half of the climb, get out of the saddle and pick it up to power over the top. As you power up try increasing your gearing.

Another problem might be that you're trying to climb the hill in your big ring. Sometimes this can just exhaust you and trash your legs (this is another common mistake where cyclists churn away on a climb in their big ring). You might be better off climbing in your small ring - so you're in better shape at the top of the hill to pick it up for the downhill. Take a look at your gear chart to see how gear combinations on your small ring compare against combis on your large ring. Then go out find your small hill and try different combis of climbing in your small and large ring and see what works best (defined as how fast can you climb and what shape you're in when you get to the top) for you.

The previous two possibilities look at technique - a third possibility is that you need to add a little more power training to your program.

Good luck.

SR

 

[tomdavis80]

Originally posted by stowerider
Hi,

re TT question

One possibility is that you're starting the climb too hard/too fast ( this is a common mistake) - so you run out of gas before you get to the top of the hill. Try easing up going into the climb and for the first half of the climb. Then in the second half of the climb, get out of the saddle and pick it up to power over the top. As you power up try increasing your gearing.

Another problem might be that you're trying to climb the hill in your big ring. Sometimes this can just exhaust you and trash your legs (this is another common mistake where cyclists churn away on a climb in their big ring). You might be better off climbing in your small ring - so you're in better shape at the top of the hill to pick it up for the downhill. Take a look at your gear chart to see how gear combinations on your small ring compare against combis on your large ring. Then go out find your small hill and try different combis of climbing in your small and large ring and see what works best (defined as how fast can you climb and what shape you're in when you get to the top) for you.

The previous two possibilities look at technique - a third possibility is that you need to add a little more power training to your program.

Good luck.

SR

No way, you don't want to slow down too much when you hit the hill because you lose momentum and once you lose that speed you can NOT get that speed back until you're over that hill. If you're talking of a climb of more than half a mile, then sure slow down a little and pace yourself but if you're talking about a little hill that's shorter than half a mile, just storm up it and continue to shift down as you start accumulating lactic acid.

Thomas Davis