Interval training to prepare for a long hill climb?

[Lewis Moon]

Here's the situation in bulleted form:
a) I'm a 56 year old ex-racer (long ago) who's been back on the bike for ~1.5 years
b) I average ~140 miles per week in 5 days, most of it flat to rolling, some hills, all averaging ~ 18 - 20 mph 99% solo. Because I live in HOT AZ and have a long commute, I crowd most of the big rides in on the weekends
c) I want to ride the AZ hill climb championship on Mount Graham (20 miles, HC) and I'd like to do my best. Not looking to win, I just want to know that I left it all on the hill.
d) I have eight weeks to prepare
e) as of late, I've felt a bit stale, like I can't light the torch

I think I need to do some speed work. Lately I've been concentrating on getting longer, harder workouts in at the expense of my short, fast rides, so it feels like I don't have access to the higher gear. It feels like it's there...I can ride close to redline for a good long time, I am just having trouble getting it to shift up.
I really don't think it's over training, I'm very consious of that, I just think I'm in a rut.
My question is: How would you structure intervals over the next eight weeks? The race is NOT a crit, it'll be at least 1:45 long at a pretty constant pace, so explosive is not what I'm looking for. What I'm looking to do is to raise the red line. I have limited access to long hills. The only one close is about 5 miles long at around 4% grade average. I can drive to an HC (El Capitan) a couple of times too. Bike Ride Profile | 97miles near Superior | Times and Records | Strava
Anyone have any advice?

[Matthew Strongin]

e) as of late, I've felt a bit stale, like I can't light the torch...
<snip>
I really don't think it's over training, I'm very consious of that, I just think I'm in a rut.

I'm not pretending to know your body more than you do, but when was your last break? Like a week without touching your bike? You may not be full on overtrained, but it's pretty easy to get to a point where your body doesn't want to adapt without a break and change in routine. At least in my experience. And since you have 8 weeks, now might be a time to give your body a rest before tackling a structured program.

PS - I suck at taking my own advice and rarely rest enough...but I always feel stronger a couple weeks after I do.

[roseyscot]

I'm not pretending to know your body more than you do, but when was your last break? Like a week without touching your bike? You may not be full on overtrained, but it's pretty easy to get to a point where your body doesn't want to adapt without a break and change in routine. At least in my experience. And since you have 8 weeks, now might be a time to give your body a rest before tackling a structured program.

PS - I suck at taking my own advice and rarely rest enough...but I always feel stronger a couple weeks after I do.

I agree with Matt. I just came from where you are, and after a bad weather, vacation, mild stomach bug induced week off, I'm feeling MUCH better in the last few weeks (now 2.5 weeks removed from the start of that time off the bike). I'm ramping up training for cx and feel like I can actually get the watts up where they need to be to be productive again.

oh, and my riding during the week sounds similar to yours - 150-200 miles while commuting

[Lewis Moon]

I just took a 10 day break in Santa Fe. I fudged a bit and got some solid hikes in at 8000 ft with a lot of climbing, but otherwise it was a lot of watching the humming birds do battle over the feeder. I posted this across the hall too, and after some great questions, I took a look at my training history. I go hard all the time. If you look at a lot of my rides you'll see a pretty flat heart rate curve somewhere around 155-165. I just don't back off...but I don't go much higher, either. Like I said, a rut.

[roseyscot]

I just took a 10 day break in Santa Fe. I fudged a bit and got some solid hikes in at 8000 ft with a lot of climbing, but otherwise it was a lot of watching the humming birds do battle over the feeder. I posted this across the hall too, and after some great questions, I took a look at my training history. I go hard all the time. If you look at a lot of my rides you'll see a pretty flat heart rate curve somewhere around 155-165. I just don't back off...but I don't go much higher, either. Like I said, a rut.

yup, again, i can relate. i can't speak to the best thing to do for climbing, but i would suggest going to the best hills you can in your area and do some mixed pace efforts during the climb. 10-20 second bursts of speed uphill, then back off for 60 seconds, then do it again. think about what the real climbers in the stage races are doing. hard efforts to break the group, then back to tempo, then hard again, repeat.

sounds like you need to do something to train your body on how to go from 120 bpm to 180 bpm, then back down to 120 bpm.*


* I have no idea what i'm doing myself, other than listening to a smarter person than I when it comes to my own training for cx season

[wasfast]

"Intervals" can mean anything in terms of intensity and time. For a 20 mile climb, it's essentially an uphill time trial which means FTP workouts to me. Doing the standard 4 x 10', 3 x 15', 2 x 20' with short recoveries between is often the formula. You can substitute some VO2 max occassionally (105-110% of FTP).

You don't state if you have a power meter, heart rate monitor or just use perceived exertion. A power meter would be nicely applied for a climb like this.