Hilly Hundred? Need advice

[OakLeaf]

I've never done the Hilly, but I can speak to training in the flats and then coming to the hills.

What you have in the flats is WIND. That's a strength-builder as good as any hill (and mentally much more brutal IMO).

The first week in May, one week after I came back to the hills this spring, I did a tough 61-mile ride with about 4500 feet of mostly steep climbs. Not only was it my first hills since November other than a couple of short rides the week before - it was also my first ride over 50 miles in the same amount of time. Riding in FL is so boring and the wind is so brutal that nobody I ride with goes any farther than that! My FD wouldn't shift into the small ring for the first, and steepest, 10 miles (three 15% hills and about 1400 feet of climbing just in that segment). And to top it off, the people I was with are riders that are a good deal stronger than I am on the best of days. I was suffering pretty good by the end of it - actually I took a bypass and cut off about 5 miles and 500 feet from what the others did, but if it was a goal event I definitely could've done the whole thing.

How's your shifting technique? Are you comfortable standing and sitting in a climb? As long as you have hill technique, and don't try to stick with too fast of a group before you've sounded out your strength, you should be fine.