The Subaru Ironman 70.3 Muskoka is a course that presents the added challenge of a lot of hills! Some athletes find that a hilly bike course works to their strengths and other athletes have more trouble tackling hilly bike courses. If Muskoka is your “A” race, your training plan should be putting a good amount of focus on getting both your body and your mind ready to handle those hills. A couple of training challenges that athletes might face are: 1. The weather in Canada in winter isn’t conducive to be outside riding hills 2. You may live somewhere like the mid or south-eastern USA where hills aren’t found easily! Rest assured, there are ways you can train to get strong, regardless of where you live.
Hill Simulation workouts on your bike trainer
Workouts can be designed to be done indoors to work on both strength on long steady climbs and high end power for shorter durations for short steep climbs. On race day the goal should be to ride as steady as possible – but in training, we can do interval training and push the efforts on “hills” or simulated hills in order to bring our overall average race watts up as well as to help improve our recovery after some of the shorter and higher power efforts that may be unavoidable at some points of the course.
A couple of examples of workouts you can do on your trainer are:
A/ Warm up: 10 minutes easy spin; 5 x (20 second acceleration / 40 seconds easy)
Main set:
3 x (5-10 minute “hill” efforts in aero position at 60-70rpm and 88-92% effort with 5 minutes easy spin after each one). Focus on smooth even pedalling, strengthening the hip muscles throughout the pedal stroke in aero position.
6 x (30 second big standing efforts at 70rpm with 90 seconds easy seated spinning after each one)
Cool Down: 10 minutes easy spin
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B/ Warm up: 10 minutes easy spin; 5 x (20 second acceleration / 40 second easy)
Main set: 10 x (20 second high power interval seated in heavy gear at 60-70rpm / 1 minute 40 seconds easy spin seated)
Cool down: 10-15 minutes easy spin
Outdoor workouts if you live somewhere with hills accessible
A/ Overgear workouts:
Warm up: 15-30 minutes at zone 2 and 90rpm. Near the end of this 30 minutes find a gear that puts you in the top of zone 2 at 90rpm.
Main set: Then STAY IN THAT GEAR for the rest of the ride. And ride a HILLY route. So you can grind the gears and build strength on the uphills and you can increase cadence to maintain power as best you can on the downs. This entire ride should be done in aero position.
B/ Hill repeats or push the hills workouts
Warm up: 15 minutes easy spin. 4 x (30 seconds at Zone 4-5 standing/90 seconds easy seated).
Main set: 5 x (90 seconds Z4-5 reps of a moderate steep climb at 60+rpm / 3 minutes easy spin).
Cool down: 15 minutes easy spin
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Warm up: 15 minutes easy spin.
Main set: Ride a hilly route – really pushing the effort on the uphills and over the top of the hills (zone 4), and take it easy on the downhills and flats. Practice gearing so you can keep your cadence up for as long as possible as you approach and start the hill climbs. On short steep climbs (10-15 seconds) you can stand, on longer more gradual climbs try and stay seated.
C/ Hilly endurance rides
These may be shorter weekday rides or your longer weekend rides or a combination of both. These are rides where you choose a hilly route but you ride the entire thing in your aerobic zone 2, practicing gearing to keeping a steady effort regardless of whether you are on a flat, uphill or downhill.
Outdoor workouts if you live somewhere flat
A/ Standing or seated intervals in big gears
Warm up: 10 minutes easy spin; 5 x (20 second acceleration / 40 seconds easy)
Main set: 5 x (2 minutes in heaviest gear (60-70rpm) seated aero position / 2 minutes spinning in easy gear 95-100rpm); 5 x (1 minute standing in heaviest gear (60-70rpm) / 1-2 minutes seated spinning in easy gear 95-100rpm)
Main set: 10 minutes easy spinning
B/ Short duration big gear accelerations
Warm up: 10 minutes easy spin; 5 x (20 second acceleration / 40 second easy)
Main set: 10 x (30 second acceleration to high power seated in heavy gear starting at 60-70rpm / 1 minute 40 seconds easy spin seated)
Cool down: 10-15 minutes easy spin
C/ Long big gear sets
During your longer aerobic rides insert 1-3 x 20-30 minutes in a heavy gear and lower cadence, riding in aero position. Maintain your goal heart rate and power, just increase your gear to lower your cadence at that effort.
Consider a winter training camp
Regardless of where you live and what your training situation is, a winter or spring training camp is a good thing to consider to get out and get some focused training time in on the swim, bike and run. A week away without the business and distractions of the rest of life can lead to significant gains in your fitness. CLPT offers a training camp in Clermont, Florida from March 29 – April 5, 2020.
No matter where you live and what terrain you are faced with, it is possible to get you mentally and physically ready to handle a course like the Subaru Ironman 70.3 Muskoka by building a training plan that is focused on you and your own personal strengths and weaknesses.
