I did a little better this year in the state hill-climb championship event. It helped that all my data-bits were working correctly, though the heart-rate monitor was acting a bit dicey in the weeks leading up to the event.
Last year I made it up the first half of the climb on power data only, and I now know my power meter was mis-calibrated at that time. That mis-calibration resulted in me blowing up at the mid-way point and having to take 3 minutes trying not to puke over the side of the bike.
This year I managed to PR every single segment, stay on the bike, and complete the event 5:59 faster, taking 2nd in the Men 40 - 44 and 3rd in Masters 35+.
There are, I believe, two other significant factors that played into that improvement: super lightweight climbing wheels (I picked up a set of Giant SLR0's back in October, and they are a tubeless dream at ~1300g) and a willingness to give up gears. One of my greatest climbing weaknesses is a determination to keep at least one gear off the bottom of the cassette, just in case the climb gets REALLY nasty, or if I need to rest a bit. I convinced myself this year to abandon that strategy and just use the gears that let me turn the pedals. With my deepest gear being a 39/28, that's still not a very friendly combination, but it's a hell of a lot friendlier than forcing myself to grind out 39/25.
My cadence still fell well into the 50's for a significant portion of the ride, and my heart glued itself to the low 180's, but I settled into a rhythm (of hate and regret) and just rode it out. And honestly, though it hurt to grind that slowly, the climb wasn't that bad until the 3 back-to-back kickers at the top.
Next year I'll change the crankset for one with smaller rings. I think there might be more time up there, but I won't find it turning a standard chainring.
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