Originally Posted by MIN
For people with insight on this, whether from experience or via a wattage meter, etc....
Background
I am training for the one-day Seattle-To-Portland (STP). The STP doesn't have much hills. I heard it's like 2500 or 3300 ft total gain over 210 miles. No biggie. I am in good shape, have done centuries before. Rode 120 miles last week but
freshly back into road biking after 2-hiatus,DH racing, XC racing, CX and road racing (in recent order.)
Scenario
Where I live and ride, there are monster hills that cannot be avoided. About 2000 ft over 10 miles stretches with grades to 9 - 12%. For instance, I rode 21 miles yesterday and it took 1:20 because of all the hills. I map my route on toporoute.com for elevation gain information.
Question
From a training perspective, are my hills a substitute for mileage? Or, seeing that the STP itself is flat, should I drive to a flatter area to train there? My training guide gives mileage guidance but I'm concerned that doesn't translate with my hills. For example, I know I burn more calories on a 20 mile ride with 2000 vertical feet versus 30 miles with no climbs.
I know I'm definitely getting a better workout than a flat course but I want to make sure I'm training appropriately for my event.
The answer is "yes". I think that the STP training guides aren't particularly good in that realm - that have you riding a huge amount of mileage, but don't really address intensity (that you get from hills). That's very old school training.
I did STP last year, and the longest ride I did before it was flying wheels. And most of my other training rides were less than 50 miles long, with a lot of 20-30 milers. Now, it would be unfair to say that I finished STP strong - since I got sick at about 120 miles - but I did finish in 11:45 (ride time), despite having to ride in the wind (ie no drafting) for the last 80 miles. And I recovered pretty quick.
My one caveat for you is that you have to be careful with training intensity. If you're riding a lot of hills, it's really really easy to ride them to hard, which gives you anaerobic training but doesn't do jack for your aerobic training. A heart rate monitor is really good to help keep from riding too hard too often (generally, more than once a week is probably too much).
Hope that helps.