The plan on the original program had been for more intensity on the bike, but I thought I would hold off on that for a bit longer and just get in a bit of time on the bike instead. For interest I still went up into the Perth hills, but while climbing requires a higher power, you can still choose to moderate your effort, so the session wasn't off the chart.
Today's spin into the hills was a bit of a solo affair, which regular readers will know I have absolutely no problem with. I like riding with others, but when the chips are down and training takes a turn to the more serious, then my preference is always solo. Do my own work, follow my own program. No wheels to hide behind here.
The only problem with me riding solo is that I am relatively new to the Perth Hills (other than the fact that I used to live there) and so am never quite sure which was to go. As a result, most of my trips to the hills have followed the same route. The route I take is a good one, lots of interest, some solid climbs etc, but do anything too often and you will get sick of it. As a result today I tried a different road into the hills. Ironically the way I went today was up Welshpool Road, which is the way that most people go, it is just me that hasn't been using it. My main reason for not going up Welshpool Road is that to get there you usually have to ride on some pretty major roads. No problem in a group, but it is always something I am nervous about solo. However, today I realised that I could nearly the whole way there by following a network of quiet roads and cycleways. It wasn't the most direct route, but I thought it was fairly perfect. 40km to get to the hills, 30km in there and 40km home. Nice morning out, although I would be lying if I said I felt close to healthy. This morning I was not a picture of well being. Getting there, but not there yet.
When I got to the hills I did have a grand plan of doing a bit of a loop through the hills, for once I was reasonably confident of where to go. However, once I was there I decided I would like to try doing repeats of Welshpool Road instead. Welshpool Road hill repeats are a common training tool for a lot of triathletes and cyclists in Perth and something that I have always been interested in trying. The climb is a good one without being insane, about 4.5km long for a gain of around 250m. I think that make it an average gradient of about 5.5%, but really there are big chunks of 7%, with other big chunks of a lot less. According to Strava it is a Category 3 climb.
Anyway, fun and games. I got three repeats done before I ran out of time and had to head home again. I think I had more in me, but it would have made the ride home rather unpleasant. In the end the amount of total elevation gained for the ride was actually less than I was expecting, and a lot less than I felt like I had done. But I guess the trick with repeats is that you gain a lot of elevation in a short space of time and that never tickles. Perhaps the session wasn't quite as low intensity as I had planned.
It is strange a lot of my friends think it a waste to ride all the way to the hills and then simply ride up and down one of them, so many pretty roads to choose from, but I didn't really mind it. For one it was a new thing for me and that is always going to make something interesting, novelty is always fun. But additionally I have never really minded doing repeats in training. Whether it is hill repeats, running intervals over the same ground, laps in a pool, whatever, it doesn't tend to phase me. Perhaps I am easily entertained, but I usually find that I can lose myself in the work, rather than be too bothered about where I am doing the work. The challenge is the thing.
Yep, I quite enjoyed today (other than still feeling rubbish), which I find kind of surprising, but there you go. I think there could be some more hill repeats in my future.
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