World’s Toughest Hill Climb: Mt Washington

Your training should now focus on the specific demands of your key event.  I’ve discussed this quite a bit recently, so today let me give you an example.

My key event this summer is the Mt Washington Hill Climb in NH, billed as the toughest hill climb in the world.  (http://www.mtwashingtonbicyclehillclimb.org/mwarbh/page.cfm/About-This-Race)

It’s 7.6 miles long, all of it uphill with an average grade of 12%, extended sections of 18%, with the final section being 22%!  Yikes.  The winning time last year was about 55 minutes, with the last finisher coming across the line in well over 3 hours.  So this is quite a wide gap.

The winner in my age group last year was 1:06, with the average time being about 1:40.  The point is that I’m going to be riding my bike up a steep hill for a long time.  My cadence will likely be relatively low and I’ll be pushing a big gear the entire time.  So my muscular strength and endurance will have to be high.

I’ve spent a fair amount of time climbing, but here in the flatlands of MN, we don’t have any options for long, steep climbs.

We have steep climbs, but short.  The one hill I have that has a similar grade to Mt Washington is only .4 miles long, taking me 3-4 minutes to climb.  And the longest climb I have access to is about 1.25 miles long.  This takes me 5-6 minutes to climb, but the grade is only 4-5%.

So while my climbing practice has been good, it hasn’t been as specific as it could be.  Mt Washington is August 15, so I only have a couple months to fine tune my training in preparation.  I made a slight change to my training today. 

Instead of riding repeats up the 5-6 minute hill, I rode long intervals on my trainer with the front wheel elevated.  In addition, I pushed a big gear (cadence of about 60-70) to mimic the steep climb.   And finally, I rode the intervals at threshold power level.

Well, it didn’t go all that well.  Here are some numbers as an example.  My threshold power is about 270, and my cadence when riding a TT on flat ground is about 90-95.

I rode 2 x 20 minute intervals, then 1 x 10.  My average power on the first interval was 265.  Average power dropped a bit on the second to 255.  The average power for my third and final (and shorter) interval dropped way off to 244.

So today was a nice change of pace in my training and was a real eye-opener.  I’ve got a lot of work to do to prepare for this long climb at a high power level in a big gear.  But 8-9 weeks will give me enough time to do so.  I’ll keep you informed.

The important leave-behind is this:  what are the specific demands of your key race?   And what are you doing to prepare?  And finally, how much time to you have to do so?

Add your comments below, then GET OUT AND RIDE!  When you get home, start planning for your key race TODAY.  And contact me for assistance.