Hills, "Pull-Up/Pushup Challenge," and More Hills

The Trinona Time Trial is this weekend, and I'll be racing straight up Garvin Heights, named one of Bicycling Magazine's "Top 100 Climbs in the US." Fun, right? I've been working on some hills to prepare myself....


HILLS:

Last Wednesday morning (when I saw the turkey on my ride), I did some hill repeats. I only did 3 with an extra hill after that, but I had hoped to do 5+1. However, near the middle of the ride, I wasn't sure if I'd have enough time, so I had to cut it short. Here's what it looked like biking up Ohio Hill 3 times followed by heading up Ramsey Hill to get home:

Speed: the first 3 red areas are going up Ohio, and the final one is going up Ramsey.
The extra speed before the final hill is from going down across the Smith High Bridge.


Elevation chart: Ohio, Ohio, Ohio, and Ramsey.

So my splits from my 3 trips up Ohio looked like this (0.41 miles each):

2:19.3, 10.5 mph
2:20.8, 10.5 mph
2:31.1, 9.7 mph

And then I made it up Ramsey in 1:40.5 (for 0.24 mile) which is 8.5 mph


Pull-Up / Pushup Challenge:

On Saturday, Henry and I stopped by the Y for a quick workout. (Pharmie stayed home because she was doing the MPLS Marathon the next day.) I saw someone I knew counting pushups for someone else. I had stumbled across the "Pull-Up / Pushup Challenge" that they do every 3 months. It's a competition only with yourself - they will keep track of your numbers for as long as you do it. The guy who I saw doing his pushups had done this for years, and they had it all written down right there in front of him.

The person I knew asked "Steve, wanna try this?" That was all the convincing I needed.

I jumped up to the pull-up bar and went to town. I remember doing 10 in college about 11 years ago, but that was the last time I went for QUANTITY over QUALITY. (I'll do pull-ups about once a month during a workout, but I'll do them a bit slower with decent form - during this challenge, I just unleashed to do as many as possible without worrying about how fast I was doing them or how much I was swaying.) I managed to do 12.

After a few minute break, I hit the floor for some pushups. I did these similarly: FAST, but still with the full range. My chest either hit or nearly-hit the floor every time, and my elbows nearly locked at the top every time. I was shooting for 50 but got stuck at 48. I'll take it. So my June 1st pull-up / pushup numbers are 12 / 48. We'll see if I can improve that in 3 months. (Don't hold your breath.)


MORE HILLS:

Finally, on Monday I went out for a longer ride that ended with some hill repeats. Last Wednesday's hilly ride was just 11 miles before the hills (19.4 miles total), but this ride was a bit more endurance-based nearly hitting 30 miles. After holding a 19.6 mph average over the first 20 miles riding every other hill in St. Paul, I rolled up to the base of Ramsey Hill.

Speed: 3 trips up Ramsey in the red, then taking "the back way" down to the bottom via Irvine / Pleasant.
The "randomness" before the hills was due to riding through the edge of downtown.


Ramsey x3.

The 0.22 mile trip up Ramsey 3 times looked like this:

1:25.2, 9.2 mph
1:24.7, 9.4 mph
1:27.4, 9.2 mph

BRING ON THE TIME TRIAL THIS WEEKEND!!! Pro triathlete arch-nemesis Devon Palmer and I have something special planned for the TT. Stay tuned for updates over the weekend to see what happens. And Pharmie's doing the Trinona Triathlon, so look for awesome photos of her racing, too!