Hills

I think I found the hilliest, somewhat direct route to work this morning.  20 miles of up, down, repeat, with not a whole lot of flat.  Hopefully by the end of summer I won't be feeling like they bitch slapped me repeatedly and left me for dead.  Cause that's kind of how I feel now. 

But this image is constantly in the back of my mind.

And it's a bit worrisome.  12% is a big hill.  I'm not aware of many hills in Dane County that are that steep.  The two I am aware of aren't that long, but still scare the hell out of me when thought of in the middle of an IM course.  One I've only ridden down, the second is on the HHH course, which I described at the time like so:

Picture putting it in the granny gear, turning the pedals over at 40-50 rpm, while simultaneously seeming to try and push your feet through the bottom of your shoes and rip your handlebars from the bike. At times for miles at a crack. Expletives were flowing freely from all fronts.

So hills are on the menu, followed by hills, and supplemented by more hills.  I've changed the gearing on Wilson back to the 11-23 which it came with.  I intend to train with this cassette and the standard cranks and then switch the cranks/cassette (probably around taper time) to compact cranks and a 12-27 cassette.

Kill the legs in training, make the IMMT ride as easy as physically possible.  Get off the bike ready to run.  That's the plan.