Thursday, August 27, 2009

Training for Short HC in Senior Games

The BC Senior Games is in a couple of weeks... and it has a short hill climb, the climb from Spanish Banks up to UBC.


Just long enough to be an HC... about 2km at 3.6% grade. Probably, I think, about 4:00 minutes.

The bigger question is how to train for it.. I'm looking for a similar climb close by. It appears that the best I can find is David Ave. Steeper and shorter. But perhaps close enough to simulate.


Using the bike calculator I get the followingUsing the bike calculator I get the following..

I'm not quite sure I believe the time. The only time I can find in my power files for the SP HC was 4:39 in the Pacific Populaire last year. And that was slightly lower for watts, higher for weight, lower temp etc etc...

But certainly it appears that doing 1.65 along David should give me a reasonable simulation.


I did 3 tests on the David HC today: 4:34-4:25 ... so I think a good test. The 4:25 number was staying up in the sprint position for the entire climb. Almost 10 seconds faster even though more aero.


1 comments:

Mark said...

I think the key to success on Spanish banks is managing average watts as well as figuring out where to push hard. The middle section is the steepest so that is the place to use the watts. Then it gets less steep so the key is to accelerate as hard as you can. The last section is practically a false flat so it is about pushing speed. I did the climb on Monday after a week of no cycling and can push 280 (1.12 IF) without even trying.
Send me your data once you have a few runs and I can help you look at it.