Training on a downhill

The author of this article is Mattia Michelusi. Decisions concerning use of the work, such as distribution, access, updates, and any use restrictions belong to the author.

Versione in italiano: Allenarsi in discesa

Downhill usually is not contemplated for training. Anyway it depends on how you ride it:

Watt, RPM, and HR during a downhill with a sprint after every hairpin turn

In this chart you can see a donwhill recorded with a power meter BePro (website: http://www.bepro-favero.com). During the downhill I did a sprint after every hairpin turn. In just 10 minutes time I did 15 sprints, 10 with a peak power above 900 Watt, 5 at a power between 800-900Watt. Heart rate was always quite high with a peak of 180 bpm.

Interesting to see that the cadence during the sprints was between 120-135 RPM. Especially during the 11th sprint, where I output my maximal power of 1042Watt at 135 RPM, I reached a peak cadence of  163 RPM at 751Watt.

Power distribution during the downhill and the average cadente for every range (left chart).
Power and cadence during the 11th sprint (right chart)

For sure it was not an easy downhill, in fact, it was a useful neuromuscolar training at an high power and high cadence.

Climb, downhill or flat road..you can always train yourself!

Strava's file: 

The author of this article is Mattia Michelusi. Decisions concerning use of the work, such as distribution, access, updates, and any use restrictions belong to the author.

Dott. Mattia Michelusi
Email: mattia.michelusi@gmail.com 
Web: www.coachmichelusi.blogspot.it