Your favorite hill workout

When is the half Iron?<br><br>
Reason I ask is because if it's a late season half Iron, although you would be good to start on hills now, you could get by and even excel by sticking with base building -- but quality building with bigger gear lower cadence -- and then hitting the hills on the roads when the weather will allow for repeated workouts outdoors. Because if you take one ride per week to do intervals on a hill, you will get stronger and faster.<br><br>
As an example, I don't do any simulated hills in my training. Sort of. I say sort of because I am pushing a rather large gear and increasing resistance, but mine is more time trialing base building with steady ramp ups. Then come spring when I can get out on the roads, I will work on both hills and higher cadence so that I'm peaking by mid-June. And I can peak at that point because I have built the strength and muscle endurance to reap the benefits of those hills and speed play sessions.<br><br>
Not suggesting that you not look for hill workouts, but just giving an alternative view to another training methodology. Because truth is, alll hills are good. They are your friends. Me, they are my friends, too, but I like keeping them away during my base build so that I can have an even better time with them and on them come the right time.<br><br>
And hey, it's nice to see you back again so plugged in to your training and racing goals!<br><br>
And double hey, maybe Jr has some good ideas, too!

Then by all means... start your work!<br><br>
I only brought this up because you are still a ways out from the race, so you are in a position of strength rather than having to do all this last minute crash training. You could conceivably punch onward with a base build and then insert hills, because the truth is, if you're doing quality work on the Trainer -- and I mean quality work (ie no haphazard spinning away) -- then you are already do a very good semblence of hill work. Only that work might better suit you in the long run for top end speed on the bike, which will win you age group. Being strong on the hills is great, but you might be able to have both. And one way to do that is along the lines you're thinking -- and that is to insert hill work on the Trainer with your other work.<br><br>
Just be careful, because if you haven't been on the Trainer in a long time and you stick to the notion that you'll do quality only, then you'll need a ramp up time, which is good enough to start base building but maybe too early for hills. Because that might cause knee pain.<br><br>
So... keep along with your intuition. It has served you well to this point. But be careful with the knees when you get into hill work. The only other thing I'd advocate is to stay seated in the saddle most of the time in your hill session. Getting out of the saddle has a purpose, but one not so much as you'd think for the age grouper triathlete. Just my opinions, but I believe it. You'll build far more sustainable and cross-strength for other aspects of time trialing (ie triathlon races) by working hills while staying seated.

It's here in New England in the form of sloppy sleet and slush.<br><br>
You also mentioned getting the IMLP Spinnerval DVD...<br><br>
Let me preface what I'm about to say by saying that I am familiar with Spinnervals but do not do them as part of my training, nor have I been through many... just that I'm familiar with them and how the workouts are structured.<br><br>
Even though you wish to someday do IMLP ('09!), you might be better served with another Spinnerval for workouts and, for going long, instead of a Spinnerval, get out on the real roads.<br><br>
I got the IMLP course recon-workout from Santa. It is good. But in my opinion it is way too easy a workout. Sure, it's hard because it's long, and sitting on a Trainer for 3 hours is hard, but the sheer amount of work, I would think, should be harder. It is good as the course recon that it provides, but I think you'd be better served training-wise by picking up another type of Spinnerval.<br><br>
However, if you're just looking for a 2.5 to 3 hour workout at easy pace, then it will certainly take you for a fun ride.<br><br>
The premise here is that the Trainer is reserved for quality workouts and quality only. The IMLP, although long, isn't all that much quality. You'll simulate a very long and relaxed ride. I'd much rather see you work up to the point where you can put in a solid 2 hour Trainer session with quality intervals rather than a happy Sunday tour of the Lake Placid valley.<br><br>
But if you have the money, by all means pick it up but also get yourself some other more rigid workout video. Or go static and put together your own workouts. <img alt="smile.gif" src="http://files.kickrunners.com/smilies/smile.gif">