Originally Posted by
lmzimmer
All of the above is very good , but one question? do you ride hills often? If not a weekly training session where you pick one of the worst local hills (long and steep is best) and go up it 3 or 4 times in succession as a workout can make a tremendous difference. My wife and I ride one 1/2 mile long hill that gets steeper at the end- we used to be forced into walking at the end. After a couple of months of repeats we now spin up (albeit slowly). You might give this a try.
By far the best-If you qualify for the ride hills often bit.
Training for Ventoux last year involved hill repeats. 15% hill for one mile and just repeat riding it. First time of trying and I did not make the 2nd attempt- Within a few weeks I stopped doing repeats as I was getting bored doing the same hill 5 times.