Originally Posted by
LGHT
Ok that sounds good I have a ride planned tonight and I have 2 good sized hills I can test on. When you say pedal hard do you mean out of the saddle trying to sprint like the Gorilla hard or just a good solid effort without blowing myself up in the process?
Don't sprint, stay seated. The hardest effort you can sustain for 5 minutes or so. Don't blow up, but push up against that limit. Don't blast your HR up. Put a heavy stress on your legs and when you HR stops rising, take that leg stress up another level. Keep doing that until your HR simply won't rise any higher. Then hold about that level for as long as you can. You should be panting hard. It's amazing how long you can keep that panting up as long as you don't go too hard and blow up. Feel your way. If you slow down to deep breaths, kick it back up to panting again. Remember, it's not that you lack oxygen. You have plenty of that, more than you need. The panting is just to get rid of the CO2.
On a somber note, I always take a cell phone.