HILL WEEK

This week is hill week in my training. It started off Monday with a 3,700 yard swim, which always feels uphill, followed by riding Kam III 9 times followed by running it once. Kam III is 1 1/3-mile-long and all up hill. Check out the photo below. It charts the elevation along with my heart rate for the bike portion. Nine fun-filled trips up and down. Fun stuff. As you can see, my effort matched the elevation almost exactly ... weird. As you can see every third trip up was the hardest effort. Below is how I rode it.

(My heart rate nearly matches the elevation gain and loss)

Here's my workout:
I broke it down into 3 sets of 3 trips up the hill. The first trip up was basically a normal hill climb at about 80 percent effort the whole way. The only rules were keep it in the big chain ring, no standing up and stay in the aero position for as long as possible.

The second trip up was in the small chain ring spinning but at about 60 percent effort. No standing up and stay in the aero position the whole way.

The third trip up was the killer. large chain ring and the hardest gear I could muster without falling over and standing up the entire hill. It was like doing single-leg squats for 1 1/3 miles. I used my arms as much as I could to pull the bike over the pedals. It was a total body effort. Well, that was it. I did those three trips three times. I coasted down the hill as part of my recovery then rested less than a minute at the bottom, usually waiting on traffic so I could cross.

It's a tough ride and I'm grateful that Rob joined me, otherwise I probably wouldn't have made it nine times.

After the ride it was off the bike and on to an hour run. The first part of the run included once up Kam III which isn't nearly as rough as riding it. Coming down was more painful. Then I ran out to End of the World and back to my vehicle. All-in-all it was a tough day.

Tuesday was just a run up Walua Trail. 3.25 miles up and the same down. Rough on old knees coming down but a good workout. Today was just a 40 miler on the bike hitting the hills on Queen K at race effort and cruising the rest of the route. I still have an hour run and Masters swimming today as well. Again, both will feel uphill even if they aren't.

(Walua Road, a great place to walk, bike or run.)

Thursday will be another trip to Kam III followed by a run and Friday will be swim (3,000-plus yards), bike (4 hours) and run (1 hour). And then on Saturday a nice long, hot 2 hour 15 min. run and a Peaman race on Sunday. Well, that's my week. What's on your schedule?

Next week I start the hard training days. Hitting the Honu bike course and running some golf course type trails afterwards. Now that's going to hurt.

(It must be springtime. Lots of baby chicks with hens watching over them on Walua Road.)