For my three and a half hour endurance ride, my coach told me to choose a hilly route.  Why would he tell me to choose a hilly route?

Typically, endurance rides are relatively low effort rides, that last quite a long time.  They are aerobic rides designed to build resiliency and, as the name suggests, endurance.  In choosing to add in hills however, the ride can also help build strength on the bike.

Climbing hills on your bike route forces you to push higher power. To push higher power, you need to be stronger.  So riding hills on the bike develops cycling specific strength.

I am fortunate to live in Western Pennsylvania, where it is very easy to find a bike route with hills.  In fact it is harder to find a route that is flat!  Yesterday however, I chose to ride a particularly hilly route.  Riding north from where I live, I picked roads that I knew had some decent climbs on them.  None of the climbs were extremely long, but it felt like I was constantly either ascending or descending.

In total, my hilly route yesterday, resulted in over 5,600 feet of climbing or about 1,500 feet of climbing per hour.  Certainly a decent amount.

By the end of the ride, my legs were tired. I had a short run off the bike and my legs didn’t like running after all those hills. 

I have the same workout next weekend.  I cannot decide if I want to try and climb more, or less, than the ride yesterday. I will leave it to when I actually start my ride to decide.