Some of you may notice if you are on Strava or follow somewheres else on the interwebs, that we’ve been riding a lot…training in fact. We do crazy things like “Aerobic openers”, “LT Stim” and “Int VO2 Max (Slow Load)”. It’s part of a “polarized” training program where one rides “Zone 2”, which teaches our bodies to burn fat, and “intervals” and other things that force our bodies to burn glycogen. This increases our endurance and strength for the rides to come.

But why? This is why

See the little bumps in this chart? That’s “7 Hills of Kirkland“. The large red bumps are the Col D’Aspin and the Col du Tourmalet, two peaks we will climb on the second to last day. This is part of the same route that the Tour de France Femmes will climb in their second to last stage. For numbers comparison

This is one day of the tour, and we are also going to be sporting full on four row tutus and human sized unicorn horns. The total elevation gain for 7 Hills is 2719′. This second to last day is 7129′, and it isn’t the biggest day.

Comparing lumps

Here is 7 Hills compared to the other last three days of our tour, which include Col du Tourmalet, Col d’Aspin, Pla d’Adet and Col de Peyresourde

In case you’re wondering, Washington does have a few epic climbs, Hurricane Ridge being one of them that compares well here. However there are often two climbs in a day. Here’s the d’Aspin/Tourmalet day with Hurricane Ridge in grey.

Training to smile when we’re there

We train by watts and time, which is a true measure of work. No matter the conditions, the bike or even weird heart hiccups, watts are watts. I haven’t seriously looked at distance or speed in a long time. It doesn’t matter. In fact if I’m less aero it’s easier to work out. This is what is called “polarized training” where you go easy, burn fat, or go hard and build strength. Here’s an example:

With this mild purgatory, there’s a long period of riding “tempo”, and then I get to just see how many watts I can produce for 8 seconds a few times. This is fun, but gets your muscles used to burning fat. Then there’s this

Here Katrina wants me to use up all my energy stores that the body gets easy, and then work my butt off after to get my body used to burning on hot air or ether or something. It gets even harder sometimes.

First you burn up the stores, then you go hard for 30 seconds, easy for 30, hard for 30, repeat. By the second set you are tired, by the last you are wondering what those lumps below your hips are. This definitely makes your muscles pumpy at the end though. Ok enough of this stuff, we actually did a ride today.

7 Hills of Kirkland actually

7 Hills was fun, actually, even with the ridiculous grades of Winery Hill. All that training and perspective made it so we didn’t feel like the route was “riding us” but we were riding the route. The kit was a hit, with a few folks taking photos, honking cars and we even met Bestside Cycling, a very nice fellow who gives out a lot of great information on cycling.