Whats on the menu? HILLS!

In anticipation of the monster hills of Mooseman, I have gone into full-on hill training mode. Tonight I did a 30 mile ride that had a little bit of everything: fast flats, and HILLS. There is a hill on one of my TT courses that is 0.35 miles long, but has a really nice consistent 8% grade, so its steep and it will make you work! I hit that sucker 5 times after a 10 mile warm up, then did another 15 miles of smooth time trialing, trying to hold about 23 mph on the flats. It was a hard ride, but man, I felt SO accomplished!

The 5 intervals shown in watts, cadence, speed, and torque. I was pretty consistent!

I sat down for hill intervals 1-4 trying to maintain a smooth cadence while not spiking my wattage over 300. I felt smooth, yet I could feel the burn and I was breathing hard by the end. For #5, I let it loose and put it into the 23 tooth cog and stood up for most of it. Notice the yellow wattage spike is a bit bigger?

To put this hill into perspective (Regina, listen up!), this hill is 0.35 miles long. Mooseman's big hill is 3.5 miles long. I would have to do this a total of 10X to simulate the beast of a hill @ Mooseman. Oh, it gets better! This is just for round 1. Add another 10X up this sucker and there is round #2 @ Mooseman! Basically, its all about getting into that easiest climbing gear and maintaining composure and gritting out the climb.

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I also haven't done a post about a swim in a loooooooong time. After New Orleans I went into "blah" mode in the pool and subsequently lost all of my speed in the water. Today's swim workout wasn't anywhere near Earth shattering, but it was a good effort at least:

500 WU
4 x 200 (averaged 3:25 for each)
4 x 25 EZ
50 sprint
4 x 25 EZ
50 sprint
100 EZ
900 straight (14:50/ 1:39 pace)
50 Warmdown
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2650 total

The 4 x 200 was soooo frustrating! I used to belt out a 3:15/200 without blinking, and in the 3:07 range for a fast 200. Today it was like scraping nails on a chalkboard to get that 3:25 (1:43 pace). I made up for it though. After sprint sets and a 100 yard recovery, I did 900 yards straight and finished with a 14:50 for a 1:39 pace. So I finished a heck of a lot stronger than I started. Phew! Still a lot of work left to do in the pool in the next 5 weeks to get that speed back...

Now just give me a smooth water OWS in a race and I'll be happy since I am seeking revenge on that New Orleans swim!