HTFU ("Hills To Fly Up" but sometimes known by a less appropriate name) is our regular Tuesday night hill climb/power development workout. Come prepared for 60-90 minutes of steep hills and hard efforts. This will help you develop more power and mentally prepare you for challenging sections of your race course.

Benefits of Hill Workouts: Working on hills is critical, because, well, some races have hills. Confidence going up AND going down is essential. But that is just the starting point. Intense near-all-out efforts are critical to improving overall strength and key to improving your VO2 Max. As part of a focused workout, hill efforts can also greatly improve pedal stroke dynamics. Regular hill workouts will also help you mentally prepare for whatever gets thrown at you on race day. You should join us, even if climbing hills is intimidating. Let's get it done. Bring your willingness to suffer and leave your inhibitions at home as we will tackle some of the steepest hills in Seattle. Pace and Regrouping: HTFU is designed to get your heart rate close to anaerobic threshold and give you 3-4 chances to get close to your max HR. Please note that this is a training ride and not a social ride. This requires that you pay attention to the group dynamics as we ride on open roads and try to stay with the group.

Routes: Our routes change every week. Traditionally we have gone through a 4 week cycle from easiest to hardest, with the routes listed below. When doing these routes, they are no drop rides. You can expect 3-4 significant hills. As everyone will conquer the hills at their own best-effort pace, we regroup frequently (at the top of almost every hill).

Our route rotation:

1. HTFU 75th
2. HTFU Queen Anne
3. HTFU 98th
4. HTFU Bellevue

Lately we have also introduced hill repeat workouts. In these, we go to together to get to the hill, then everyone is on their own going up and down. While the scenery does not change, you get the benefits of a workout tailored to your own needs and desires. The strong climbers aren't waiting and the slower climbers aren't feeling like they are holding people up. So far we have two such rides:

• 5th Ave W in Queen Anne. It's about 8-10% grade, easy to get to and very few cars.
• NE 24th St in Bellevue. It's 10-14% grade, we treat the 520 bridge as a "hill" workout interval both ways, and while there is traffic, it has a decent shoulder.