by Rich Strauss and Patrick McCrann, Endurance Nation


We’d like to share with you our double top secret squirrel race day hill climbing technique. We’ve learned this method through having training and raced with power for years, and having guided thousands of athletes through successful half and full Iron-distance races.

The key is understanding that 90% of the field will be working too hard on the hills. These aggressive efforts express themselves on the run as dramatically slowing down in the second half, usually giving up any of the small gains made on these hills. If you follow our guidance below, you’ll find yourself doing the opposite of everyone else in the hills...and running better at the end of your day!


But don’t take our word for it. Between now and your next race we strongly encourage you to ride a hilly course using our techniques and perspective with your typical group ride. Pay attention to where they gap you and how it is easy for you to make that difference up simply by making better choices about where to spend your effort.

The Problem
If you ride with a powermeter and “just ride” on a hilly course, you will see how anyone naturally tends to ride a hill. We unconciously seek to maintain the same, comfortable cadence at all times on a hill. At the bottom this creates a sharp, upward power spike. At the crest the opposite occurs, as we dramatically decrease our power:


When you first enter the hill, your natural tendency is to maintain the same cadence you were holding on the flat. If you start to climb but maintain the same gear and cadence, you have dramatically increased your work output. Even as you shift down through the gears, this work output remains high. If you ride with a powermeter, you’ll see your watts spike in this first third of the hill. If you are riding with heart rate, you won’t initially see this increased effort, as heart rate lags work output by about ninety seconds. A Zone 4 effort might take 90 seconds or more to be reflected as a Zone 4 heart rate. Depending on the length of the hill, you may only see Zone 3 and think you’ve properly paced the hill. In most cases, you would be wrong.


In the second third of the hill, you naturally compensate for this initial spike by backing off the power quite a bit. You will typically hold more watts than you were on the flat, but your power drops off considerably from the spike at the bottom of the hill. In addition, your heart rate begins to catch up to your effort. Usually, your HR rises to a level higher than you would like, as it finally reflects that initial spike at the bottom of the hill. This high HR is usually taken as a signal to back off your effort again. Then again, the hill may be too short for heart rate to rise to reflect your true effort. If this is the case, the damage has in fact been done but your heart hasn't had enough time to let you know it!


When you reach the crest, remember that your body wants to maintain the same, comfortable cadence. As the hill flattens out and you maintain the same gear and cadence, your power output drops dramatically. Even if you shift up through the gears, the tendency is to back off the power and begin to rest on the crest of the hill, usually because you worked too hard on the hill and actually need the rest! However, by reducing your effort and speed at the crest, you give up the opportunity to accelerate to your top speed as quickly as possible and fly down the hill and across the flat into the next hill.


In summary:

• Entrance to hill: power spike, as your body seeks to maintain a constant cadence. Very little to no tactical gain achieved.
• Body of hill: after this initial spike, you drop off the power considerably. Heart rate now begins to catch up to effort, until it rises above where you would like to see it. You back off the power again.
• Crest: downward power spike, as your body seeks to maintain a constant cadence or senses the opportunity to rest NOW after the hard climbing effort. You start to rest at the crest and on the initial portion of the downhill.

Three Tools to Fix Your Race Day Climbing
We encourage you to use anyone of three tools to figure out a better way to climb. The best tool is a powermeter, such as a Powertap or SRM. These devices tell you exactly how hard you are working at any point in time and allow you to smooth out your power application over the hill. If you don’t have one of these, you can use your feet as a guide (no joke!).  Lastly, you can use your competitors as a spatial frame of reference.

Let’s climb the hill again, using these three tools...

1. Entrance of the Hill

With Power Device: Pay attention to your monitor and stop yourself from spiking your wattage.

Without Power Device: Feel the pressure on the soles of your feet and shift down through the gears as this pressure increases in an effort to maintain a steady, constant pressure to the pedals. Why? If you have begun to climb a hill, but are maintaining a constant cadence, you are now pushing harder on the pedals and will feel this increased pressure on the soles of your feet. More importantly, you have begun to increase your power output. In our years and years of power experience, we can tell you that this initial power spike is, 98% of the time is far higher than you should be riding. Therefore, pay attention to your feet and shift down through the gears as you feel this pressure (power spike) increase. Your goal is keep a constant pressure on the soles of your feet, by shifting through the gears, as you transition from the flat to the entrance of the hill.

Visual Cues: The athletes around you will open up a gap at the start of the hill. You'll see them standing, grinding a hard gear, you're hear the frame creak or the tires bite the pavement as they stomp on the gas. Remember: if you’re not doing what everyone else is doing, you’re usually doing the right thing! Having people gap you at the entrance of a climb is almost always a very good thing: they are working too hard, you’re not. They will come back to you, either on this hill, the next, or on a flat, or on the run...or not. What's important is that you focus on the real game, the last 8 miles of the run, and don't get caught up in fighting for 3-5 bikes lengths of real estate on some unnamed hill at mile 65.2 of a 140 mile day. It just. Doesn't. Matter.



2. Body of the Hill:
With Power Device: Settle into your target wattage. A good rule is to climb at about 10% above your goal watts for the race. Please visit the Endurance Nation Store for a comprehensive Training and Racing with Power Kit, with over four hours of audio and other tools to help you train and race more effectively with power.

Without Power Device: Settle in and expect your heart rate to rise to your target heart rate, much like the target wattage above. If you have avoided the spike at the entrance, you should stay at or below your target heart rate.


Visual Cues: The initial gap between you and other athletes will stabilize or decrease a bit. More importantly, pay attention to the body language. As their body realizes their initial effort was too hard you'll see them come off the gas a bit.


3. Crest of the Hill and Downhill. This is where the fun starts!

With Power Device: Watch your power meter and hold your climbing wattage across the crest and into the first third of the downhill. Note we didn't say "hammer." You're simply making the hill a few seconds longer by maintaining your climbing effort across the crest and into the first third of the downhill. You will quickly accelerate through the gears and reach your top speed very quickly. Above about 34mph, get very aero and just coast. We recommend taking this opportunity to stretch your hamstrings Put your pedals at 3 and 9pm, then stand to stretch. Reverse the pedals, stretch again. Carry this speed across the intervening flat and into the entrance of the next hill. In effect, you begin your climb of Hill #2 at the crest of Hill #1.

Without Power Device: Listen to your feet again. Maintain a constant pressure on the soles of your feet, quickly accelerating through the gears to your top speed, per above.

Visual Cues: Watch as others REALLY step off the gas, while you, simply maintaining your climbing effort across the crest and into the downhill, quickly accelerate and coast by them as they continue to pedal.

In summary, your goal is to manage your effort up the hill without spending it needlessly at the start. Conserve your energy and then simply maintain it over the crest and into the first third of the downhill. You will quickly accelerate to top speed, carrying this speed across the intervening flat and into the next hill.  Congrats! You are now privy to the Endurance Nation Double Top Secret Squirrel Hill Climbing Technique! Try it out. It works!


Endurance Nation is the world's only 400 person long course triathlon team, with 25-35 athletes in every US Ironman this season. Check out our 2010 Outseason training plans.