Originally Posted by
Psychopasta
I’m a 65 year old rider getting back to cycling....I’ve been reading a lot about zone 2 training and it makes a lot of sense to an old geezer who needs to lose weight and get fitness back. My problem is that I live in a very hilly area, and I can’t see me climbing some long steep hill, keeping to zone 2 and going fast enough to not fall off. What do other zone 2 peeps do when the road points steeply up?
First, there is no magic "CLICK" when going from one zone to another. At our age (I'm 73 and average 4500 miles/year) these 'zone rules' are far lower on the priority stack than just getting out and riding. If you are like me, (and have been waiting all these years for the Tour de France to call you up to fill in Froom's place), you are not training for the Big Race.
***************** IGNORE ZONES *****************
Personally, I find that short intervals, and I mean fun ones like pushing hard up short hills, and making myself do every third ride at a slower pace than normal, are more beneicial than sticking to any Zone-magic. And long hills? Great - go at whatever pace you feel like for that day.