Training & Nutrition - Hill Repeats

I'm trying to get ready for a week-long tour with lots of long, sustained 6-7% climbs. There's a hill nearby that's probably about 6% and 1/4 mile long. What's the best way to do repeats on it? I tried doing repeats with increasingly harder gears, ending with standing for the entire climb. Then I tried using my easiest gear but increasing my cadence on each repeat. What's the best use of this climb, given my needs?

(I should add that I'm really bad at climbing - long, steady flat rides are my strong point - I typically get dropped on climbs, because I'm slow, but steady...)

You're already doing the best you can. Just relax and learn to endure hills, quit fighting them.

Two of my favorite exercises involve picking a relatively slow speed at the bottom of the hill and then maintaining that pace for the entire hill. On grades, I try the same thing, only I increase speed as I crest the incline.

I should add that the reason I'm asking is that I did this last night, and nothing hurts today. So obviously, I wasn't working hard enough!

Try many sets while altering seating position - hill climb stance (tip of saddle in butt), standing, seating regular. I find that I get a diversity of muscle groups involved that way.

Do you use a heart rate monitor (HRM)?

Its pretty hilly where I live, so maybe I can help.

I think its important to find a gear and cadence that you can turn without putting yourself under pressure. To do that, climb the hill at any speed you can hold with a steady heart rate, even if its really slow. For me it helps to know that no matter what happens I can break down to a pace I can recover a little at while on a grade.

Another thing that's good is to have more than one climbing style. If you can spin a gear at 90 - 105 rpm you can really save your legs. This is important if you have alot of hills to go over. So do some riding on the hill in a higher cadence. Fast pedal intervals on the flats can help get you used to the higher cadence before you take it onto the hills.

Its also good to be able to get out of the saddle and climb for as long as you want without blowing up, so do some climbs out of the saddle in a steady rhythm to get your legs used to clearing the lactic acid.

I guess what I'm saying is to practice climbing like its a bike handling skill too, not just a fitness thing.

There's other stuff like timing your shifts as you come onto the grade, shifting up as you go over the crest, saving momentum on rolling hills and other stuff that just takes practice because you have to make a judgement about the road up ahead.

Remember to climb your hill from both directions. That way you get your money's worth. Its like a two for one.

Good luck with your event.

^ Good advice. I live at the highest point in my city - 4 mile climb from every direction to get back to my house. Every ride.

Do you use a heart rate monitor (HRM)?

I have one, but I'm not sure how to use it to effectively train for hills.

It's a one-sided hill - flattens out on the top and then has a gentle descent, so this is the one side I can do.

I can do the hill in my easiest gear and it's quite easy to climb - I'm just trying to figure out how to make it harder and a more effecient workout - like I said, I'm not sore at all today, so I'm not sure I was working hard enough. How can I use my heart rate monitor to help??

I have one, but I'm not sure how to use it to effectively train for hills.

I'm not sore at all today, so I'm not sure I was working hard enough. How can I use my heart rate monitor to help??

...it will help you measure your improvement over time.

So, do a search on HR zones/trainng zones and then determine your own (see the stickey at the top of the T&N page). Once you can establish what your zones are you then will understand how to best help improve your fittness by doing workouts that tax you in productive more ways. This helped me a ton...

good luck!

Slim, I know my zones, but not sure where to stay for sustained climbing and how to use that information to improve climbing. To stay in a zone, I can increase cadence or increase resistance, but not sure which I should be doing. I should add that I need to protect my knees, no matter what I'm doing, so extreme mashing is out of the question.

Slim, I know my zones, but not sure where to stay for sustained climbing and how to use that information to improve climbing. To stay in a zone, I can increase cadence or increase resistance, but not sure which I should be doing. I should add that I need to protect my knees, no matter what I'm doing, so extreme mashing is out of the question.

when I'm climbing hard in the saddle I stay right at my threashold. Once you go over that, the clock starts ticking.

when I stand up and go hard I'm over my threashold and in an anaerobic state

when I'm climbing just to go over the top of this stupid ridge I am in my "Tempo" or "Climbing repeat" range (as defined by the CTS system)

If I am under at least the Tempo (CTS) range, I'm blown out and trying to recover

everybody's different, so these are just my own personal thing, not written in stone or backed up by any science or anything.

As to your knees and whether to increase cadence or gearing, use cadence. Higher cadence saves the legs.

Slim, I know my zones, but not sure where to stay for sustained climbing and how to use that information to improve climbing. To stay in a zone, I can increase cadence or increase resistance, but not sure which I should be doing. I should add that I need to protect my knees, no matter what I'm doing, so extreme mashing is out of the question.

If you are climbing you should be in zone 3-4 depeding upon the grade and duration of the effort. So, to protect you knees keep a higher cadence, but also select a gear that you can turn so to provide a suitable res. If you have trouble turning that gear to simulate res on the hills (due to your knee) and get you that targeted HR, then you may want to reconsider this ride.

Zone 4 is just below to just above your LT, so you will reach and rise above your threshold when doing hills. This is good. The more this happens and the longer you push 80-90% of LTHR you will push your LT higher over time. If you know how long these climbs will be then you can guess how to time your interval at or above LT.

The way it works is something like this: most of your time should be spent in zone 3 (tempo) and below (recovery-easy ride), with greater effort (due to geogrphy or desire to go faster) you will move into zone 4 with occasional spurts into zone 5 (approaching MHR) -if you really push it. It depends upon what intensity you want to be able to do this work. Hill repeats are a form of interval so I assume you want to take the bull by the horns and ride these hills...so, make sure when you do these training rides you hit your LT and hold it for some duration. Recover and do it again...

Hope this helped...

enjoy the ride!

Wench, I just got out my calculator. Hmm. 1/4 mile is 1320' and 6% of that is about 80'. So if that's really what it is, well, you should be able to get up that puppy in 1.5 minutes or less. So that's perfect for short intervals! Hit the hill at your normal pace and give it everything you've got. I'd stay in the saddle. Keep a high cadence and a high effort. Ignore your HR. It won't be long enough to bring the blood squirting from your eyesockets, but it will be hard. Then pedal back to the bottom, ride off for a minute or two, return and hit it again. Do that 4-8 times. That'll stimulate your systems.

The second drill is to get your HR up to LT on the flat or small rollers and hold it there for 15-20 minutes. Ride moderate for 5-10 minutes and repeat once. You'll need a lot of road room to do this - it'll be 7 miles or so. Quit when/if you feel yourself slowing. You should be right at the edge of what you can sustain for that length of time. That's your LT.

About power and cadence - that's complicated. On the flat, most folks develop their best power at a relatively high cadence - I'd say 100 is about average. OTOH, when climbing, most folks develop best power at a lower cadence - say 78 to 85. I don't know why this is so, but it is. My guess is that momentum is less on a climb, so that puts a greater emphasis on pedaling smooth circles - a complete power stroke - and that's harder to do at high cadence. Although sometimes I'll climb better at 95. It just depends on how my legs feel.

In general, if you are struggling to stay in zone, "pedal faster, you fool." That should be painted on every climb near the crest. Sometimes I'll shift down a gear and my speed and HR will pick up.

If you did each of these drills once a week, that would be good. Otherwise, just ride lots and have fun. And this might fix being dropped on climbs. Oh, and every 4th week cut out the intervals and take it easy.

Wench, I just got out my calculator. Hmm. 1/4 mile is 1320' and 6% of that is about 80'. So if that's really what it is, well, you should be able to get up that puppy in 1.5 minutes or less. So that's perfect for short intervals! .

Ahh, I think we've discovered the problem. It was taking me about 2 minutes to get up it. Only about 1.5 minutes when I was out of the saddle. (About 7mph seated climbing, 9.5-10mph while standing) I just need to work on going up it faster. Hmmm, I might stumbled onto something: in order to climb faster, I need to climb faster! Seriously, I was just cruising up it. I need to really just push the speed up a bit. Thanks for all the input!

I should add that the reason I'm asking is that I did this last night, and nothing hurts today. So obviously, I wasn't working hard enough!

I, and you, may feel good the day after really difficult day. It's not uncommon, but don't think it has to hurt the next day to be a good workout. You may just be very well conditioned.

On a short hill like that, you want to be doing intervals above LT the entire way. Go at a steady pace that has your HR increasing the entire way so that you blow up at max-HR right at the top. You shouldn't have anything left to give at the top. If you do, you didn't go hard enough.

Then practice doing these intervals in different gears to work on smooth big-gear out-of-the saddle form and low-gear in-the-saddle spinning. If the limitation for you on long climbs is your legs & muscle-fatigue, practice more of the big-gear intervals. If your lungs hurt on the climbs, then do more of the spinning intervals.

Then practice doing these intervals in different gears to work on smooth big-gear out-of-the saddle form and low-gear in-the-saddle spinning. If the limitation for you on long climbs is your legs & muscle-fatigue, practice more of the big-gear intervals. If your lungs hurt on the climbs, then do more of the spinning intervals.

What about when your legs are burning and you feel like you can't suck enough air to keep from fainting and you start seeing these multicolored rings forming on the perimeter of your eyeballs?

On a short hill like that, you want to be doing intervals above LT the entire way. Go at a steady pace that has your HR increasing the entire way so that you blow up at max-HR right at the top. You shouldn't have anything left to give at the top. If you do, you didn't go hard enough.

Then practice doing these intervals in different gears to work on smooth big-gear out-of-the saddle form and low-gear in-the-saddle spinning. If the limitation for you on long climbs is your legs & muscle-fatigue, practice more of the big-gear intervals. If your lungs hurt on the climbs, then do more of the spinning intervals.

Danno, on that short of a climb, how many of those types of blow-up intervals should I do? I plan on doing this just twice a week - group rides the rest of the week, and long endurance rides on weekends (aiming for long distance one day, long climbs the next)

I actually wouldn't do it more than once a week really. There's so many other workouts that you can do, two days of hill-intervals will sacrifice a sprint day or a tempo day or an endurance day, etc. If that hill's a 1/4-mile... maybe do 8-15 of them. If you haven't been doing them all out to complete exhaustion, start with 8 first and see how you feel. If you're OK, then do a couple more.

To improve your climbing, you'll also want to find a longer hill that takes 20-30 minutes and do repeats on that once a week as well. :)

Sprint intervals vs. hills. Aren't you simply trading speed for elevation gain?