meanwhile

???

I thought that it was absoluetely-definitely small tears in the muscle? Who - that matters a damn - says otherwise? What isn't true is that old saw about lactic acid. See eg

http://orthopedics.about.com/od/over...soremuscle.htm

Anyway, the point of hill climb training is to force muscle growth - which will lead to soreness. There is no way you can change the training to reduce this and keep it effective. More, for it to work - to build muscle and increase mitochondrial efficiency - you have to rest at least the next day. Rest can include *slow* riding, but that's all. Muscle growth means stressing the muscle so that the body knows more strength is required; some pain and tiredness are the inevitable result. If growing muscle was free of metabolic cost we'd all do more of it!