barrykai

Doing my first metric century this Saturday. I dont want to be miserable crossing the finish line so I'll be keeping my heart rate in zone 3. Assuming its mostly flat with a few hills, how should I approach the hills? Should I try to keep the heart rate in zone 3 and take them very slow or will hitting them hard, burning the thighs and spiking the heart rate going to affect my endurance that much?

rm -rf

How long and steep are these hills?

What's the longest ride you've done recently? Did it have similar hills?

Which zone 3 calculation is this? There's at least 4 or 5 different methods to determine the zones. The top of my zone 3 is calculated by different methods anywhere from 136 bpm to 148 bpm. 136 would be too easy, 148 is over my long distance maintainable heart rate of about 142 to 145.

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For me, if the ride was 50% longer than my recent rides, I'd try to avoid pushing "too" hard on longer hills, say, over 200 feet in elevation gain. My local hills can be fairly steep and about 300 feet tall, so I'm used to climbing those.

You might have headwinds, too. That can be worse than hill climbing.

Recently, I've done a couple of longer organized rides, 65 or 70 miles. My usual distance is more like 35-45 miles. Both times, I started out with a group of riders going a little faster than I was ready for, and I was slowing down a lot on the last 15-20 miles.

Mobile 155

I have to assume you already know what your HR zones are. If you aren't sure here is what I use. https://www.best-running-tips.com/hea...-karvonen.html

Once we are on the same page how you ride the hills all depends on where in the ride the hills are and how you feel when you get to them. I did a metric Wednesday and most of the climbing came from about mile 42 to mile 58. Keeping in the zone made the last 12 to 14 miles pretty easy. But once you exceed zone 3 and go deep into zone 4 it can be hard to pick up the pace and stay in 3. If a metric is no big thing to you and the climbs are short then just ride how you feel at the time. If you aren't used to doing metrics then it might be wise to use gears more and push hard less to make sure you have something left after the hills.

barrykai

I had metabolic testing on a treadmill done at a fitness facility using New Leaf computer equipment. Prior to the test I had only been hiking and power walking. It showed my zone 3, which is below my anaerobic threshold, as 128-151 bpm. I would expect that to be higher since I've been riding (or does it go lower when fitness increases?).

A couple of weeks ago I did 55 miles, on a rented carbon Trek Madone 4.3, with 1400 feet in elevation gains . Last weekend, on my Fuji Absolute (flat bar aluminum fitness bike), I did 80 miles over 3 consecutive days with 2200 feet in elevation gains. I expect the metric century to be around 1000 feet in elevation gains.

My aim is not just to finish, which I believe I will. My goal is to have some gas left in the tank at the end to race ahead of young whipper snappers on expensive carbon bikes....on my low tech fitness bike would be icing on the cake. I might even wear a pair of jeans.

h2oxtc

+1 What they said. Good advice.

Mobile 155

Nice goal. But remember they have recovery on their side. On centuries and some metrics there is always a group of big dogs pushing to finish with average speeds in the 20+ bracket. I don't know if you use Garmin Connect or Strava or if you have the ride posted somewhere but if you posted the elevation gain or course map we might have a better idea on what to tell you.

1000 feet isn't much of an elevation gain unless it is all in less than 2 miles. I would suggest if you are going to ride a flat bar you might want to draft as much as you can because you will be pushing a lot more air than most of those whippersnappers. They do make aero bars that will fit a flat bar to get you down on those longer high speed sections. I don't believe wearing jeans would increase you odds of success however.

Greyride

If this is your first Metric I can give you some advice from my own experience. First find a group that will allow you to ride at a decent speed (for you not them) and DRAFT. If you can paceline in zone 2 or low 3 do it, there is no reason to go faster unless this is a race. My first metric goal was to just finish. Second if the ride touts 1000 ft of climb don't believe it. My first metric was suppose to be 1300 ft of climb and turned out to be 3000. Because I drafted at an easy pace for most of the ride the climb did not kill me. Good luck, drink often, eat at the sags and mostly have fun.

barrykai

Found this on mapmyride.com:

"This is a 83.9 mi Bike Ride in Greenville, TX. The Bike Ride has a total ascent of 872.7 ft and has a maximum elevation of 761.15 ft."

The 63 mile route that I'll do covers most of the same roads which would be even less elevation. It will be sunny and 66 degrees with 10mph winds. I think this will be a perfect PR ride for me. Hydrate, fuel, draft and stay in zone 2/3 should be a good plan for success.

Aero bars for flat bars? Easy install? Got any recommendations?

Thanks.

OldTryGuy

Inexpensive bars.....https://www.nashbar.com/bikes/Product...10_-1___202445 or similar

Have fun on the ride.

fietsbob

Low tech . I stop, let my heart rate recover , then start out again ..

In last long tour I was pushing my Touring load up a steep climb .
[Ft Augustus to Foyers, south shore of Loch Ness, Scotland]

I pushed it up 10 yards, on foot, held the brake on , let my heart rate drop,

then pushed it up another 10~15 yards/Meters..

Planemaker

I thought Aero Bars were not acceptable in a group ride format.

I am also riding in my first organized metric on Saturday and my usual rides are very similar to the OP. I have ridden several 50 mile rides and had energy left at the end of the ride (except for once), I might be wrong but I just don't think the extra miles is going to be that big of a deal. I am planning on drafting as much as possible during the first part though.

fietsbob

I expect you will approach them from the bottom

read the terrain ahead , get into the 'granny-gear' and one of the smaller gears on your rear cluster
then continue downshifting as required .

Metric 100Km,.. Start early , do more than half of the distance, 60%, before lunch.

Greyride

Just advice: don't change your bike for the Metric (Aero Bars). If you are going to change something on your bike do it after and test ride it.. 60+ miles on a bike that hurts is no fun!

Rowan

Take a measured approach to hills. Don't spend all your energy in the first 100 yards. Keep your gears and heart rate low -- that way, you will remain aerobic. Concentrate on your own ride, not what others are doing or how fast they may be going. Enjoy.

genejockey 

It sounds like the climbing in your regular rides are more challenging than this Metric, so I wouldn't worry.

My approach would be to maintain your cadence as you start the climb, and try to maintain the same level of effort by downshifting till you run out of gears. Then adjust your effort to slowly raise your heart rate to the top of your Zone 3, and if you go a bit beyond that, no big deal because with 800 total feet of climbing, you can probably adjust to stay within a few bpm of your lactate threshold till you're over the top.

WRT new equipment, if you're riding with flat bars, I might consider bar ends, but not aero bars. Bar ends allow you to put your wrists in a neutral position, rather than pronated all the time, as well as giving you a slightly more forward lean. Aero bars, OTOH would make you lean WAY forward, and dramatically change the rider/saddle interface.

Remember to ask before you draft, and if you haven't ridden in a paceline before, hang well back, with your fingers near the brakes. At this point, I'll confess that when I rode my first century (Imperial, not metric), at the 90 mile mark I did wheelsuck a group of younger, fitter riders for 2 miles into a headwind, without asking. But I hung back quite a bit. They were riding 3-up, though, so their wind shadow was pretty big.

rm -rf

mapmyride always reports much less elevation than everyone else. GPS recordings or ridewithgps.com routes all count every little dip or rise. But mapmyride ignores hills less than 10 meters (33 feet), and they average out grades on longer hills. I can see why they do it, but it makes rides sound easier than they are.

EDIT-- I found the Greenville route pdf link. It heads north out of Greenville, which looks very flat. Headwinds could be a bigger concern, the hills will be easy rollers.

[ I guessed the ride went southwest for these comments below ]
But, looking at Terrain view on Google Maps, the biggest hills SW of Greenville, around Tyler or Mineola, seem to be about 100 feet high or less. (Zooming in with Terrain View, each contour line is 40 feet.)

I'm guessing your ride probably has more like 2000 feet in 63 miles. That's still pretty reasonable, it's maybe 30 feet per mile, compared to the usual standard for a hilly ride, 100 feet per mile.

You should do fine, and the weather sounds great. Just don't try to keep up with fast climbing riders when you get to the hills. (I can hang in a fairly fast group on the flats, but those guys just zoom up the hills.)

Road Fan

Because of my knees I try to keep my cadence up, so this year I've been climbing at 80 rpm rather than 65 or so. I gear down to the granny then shift the rear to keep my HR below the 140s, to stay aerobic. This has been good for some longish hills.

In the past I've found that butrning all my matches on hills makes it harder when I have to ride home over those same hills.

So, I watch cadence and HR to manage my level and the loading on my knees. And try not to get too impulsive.

barrykai

I finished the ride with gas left in the tank. I might have been too conservative for the first 1/2 of the ride. Thighs ached on the last 10 but was tolerable. Stayed in zone 3 for the first 45 miles but was feeling too good so I played in zone 4 on the last part of the ride. It was nice to be the one passing on the hills instead of getting passed while keeping the HR down. 12 mph head wind on the first 30 but on our backs for the last half. Temperatures ranged from 65-80 degrees. My Strava data shows 964 feet in elevation gains.

I did pass a young whipper snapper on a hybrid bike which felt good despite the fact it didn't look like he was trying and appeared to be fresh as a daisy. I tried to be very mundane and casual with my pass (like it was accidental) so that he didn't get the idea that I was actually racing him. Otherwise if he put the hammer down I'd have to tell him that he dropped something and should go back and look for it. Overall a very good day!

By the way, I am highly impressed with you 60's and 70's folks out there riding, regardless of distance. Being only 52, they are inspiring. There was a couple that looked like they could have been 70 that did the 63 mile ride. I asked the wife if she had any gas left in the tank and she said "of course!", like it was a silly question!

OldTryGuy

Great to read your ride was pleasurable. Time for a 100 miler in the future?

bikepro

You're normally safe if you keep your average heart rate in the zone. A few visits to zone 4 will not hurt. Of course, this also depends on what your overall condition is, and how hot it is. As long as you heart rate recovers after a harder effort, you're likely ok. If it remains high, you need to soft pedal in a lower gear until it recovers.