Not all hills are created equal. That’s what I’ve learned in the past week. Ever since the monstrous hills on the Oceanside course, I keep thinking to myself why I had so much trouble with them. I’ve trained on hills for the past year, climbing at least 2,000 feet each time I go over 40 miles. I would even venture to say that hill climbing was one of my strengths. So why did those damn hills take so much out of me (and if you know me personally, you know I’m not going to let that happen again)?

Then it hit me yesterday. As I resume my training regimen, I’ve decided to focus a lot on hills for both my bike and run. I figure that hills develop leg strength, and they also push your anaerobic threshold, so when I’m not building my base, why not build my power. I’ve been riding San Joaquin Hills, which is about a 4 mile trek from the back bay to newport coast. The thing about it is that there’s barely zero downhill in the entire climb. It does level out at points, but leveling is very different than going downhill. It’s 4 miles of a fairly stead upgrade, with some serious 10% grades, a lot of gradual 4-6% grades, and very few flat areas.

This is different than Pacific Coast Highway, which is a series of ups and downs, AKA rolling hills. With rollings hills, you build momentum going down a hill and into the upswing, and the real challenge isn’t until you’re about halfway up, sometimes more sometimes less depending on the length of the hills. Well, I realized I’m good on rolling hills. I can attack the upswing and I’ve learned to actually attack the downhill too in order to get a few more MPHs out of it. However, I suck at well, hills.

Hills don’t have the benefit of having significant momentum going into it. Yes, you can ride fast on a flat into an uphill, but it’s different. My guess would be that you have 50% more speed going on a downhill than on a flat. That’s quite a bit more momentum. Plus, what’s killer is that in some hills, it goes up, then flat, then up, then up a little steeper. You never get to chill, so the heart rate stays high, the lactic acid builds, and it hurts. At one point of the 10% grade hill yesterday (into the wind on a windy day), I thought my heart was going to bounce out of my chest. And then how was I rewarded by completing that 10% grade, a 10 meter flat across a street and then an 8% grade.

I’m not complaining, I’m just distinguishing. If you think you’re training on hills and you’re doing rolling hills, then trust me, it’s very different. The challenge is signficantly harder and I recommend finding hills that just go on and on without declines if you want to get better. I was awesome on rolling hills, which I originally thought were hills, but I learned the hard way in Oceanside. When studying elevation charts for a race, keep in mind the descent before an ascent. If you don’t see one, then that climb is going to be much harder. Not all climbs are created equal, so 2500 feet of ascent on one course could be very different than 2500 feet on another. Study what comes before those hills. Also study the length of the incline. Climbing 200 feet in .3 miles versus 1 mile is VERY different. Think grade %. That’s the difference of a 5-7% grade versus a 12-14% grade (roughly).

So back to my workouts…I’ve been ambitious the last two weekends, hoping I could handle San Joaquin, chill down Newport Coast and then PCH to Laguna, then climb back Newport Coast (1.5 miles of 5-7% grade with no give). I haven’t been able to get my psyche up to go back up Newport. In time I guess…I did add hill sprints this past weekend though, which are 30 seconds bursts up a 12-14% grade, then back down and all over again. This was actually great work. It really teaches you power. Now I just need to turn those into 1 minute bursts.

Anyone else hill training? How is it going?

By the way, some random training pics from this week…i’m wearing some SHORT SHORTS, but man they are comfortable.