Hills, Hills and More Hills!

I have taken the liberty on most of my outdoor rides this year to make sure I am cycling through very hilly terrain. It isn’t easy, but it is critical for Ironman Wisconsin training because of all the long, steep climbs on its bike course. Yesterday’s workout was no exception while getting out with the Tri Wisconsin’s weekly bike ride. It’s a great route through the hills surrounding the Holy Hill area (you definitely notice the “hill” part of Holy Hill while on a bike). On a couple of the declines my speed was well over 40mph and on some of the climbs it was closer to about 4mph. There were about 30 riders and I was fortunate to link up with a two-time Ironman Wisconsin finisher who was a very good cyclist herself. The weather was perfect, the route fun and challenging and the group has a bunch of great people. No matter how you carve it up, it was a great day and I look forward to Pasta Night (after the ride) next week. Simply awesome.

In the spirit of cycling and hills, I suppose I should also mention in less than two weeks I am doing a crazy endurance event called the Horribly Hilly Hundreds (http://www.horriblyhilly.com/). This a cyclists dream ride featuring some of the most absurdly difficult hills anywhere in the state. It isn’t necessarily the size of them (although some of them are quite massive), but more the frequency of them. I am doing the 100K route (62 miles) and there is close to 6,000 feet of climbing. That basically translates to being in a situation where you are either going up a hill or down a hill for the full 62 miles (ie no flat sections). I am told from several others who have done both this event and Ironman Wisconsin, that the 62 miles at Horribly Hillies is more difficult than the Ironman course and that those 62 miles feel much more like 100+ miles of a normal century ride. On June 16th I will get to find out myself just how difficult it is. I may not be quite where I need to be training wise, but I also have confidence to know that I will be able to push myself through this torturous event! All of this will help me in the bigger goal of completing Ironman in September!

Stay tuned for an update and race report for my Horrible Hilly adventure sometime after June 16th!