dimabear

For those out there that recommend doing hills as part of your riding routine, how long is the hill usually? the main "hill" i ride on is Mt. Diablo, but that's a very, very long hill (4000 ft i think). I was thinking of doing intervals and just riding up and down a certain part of the mountain. So, how long do you guys usually ride upwards for before you turn around, descend, and start all over again?

deep_sky

Plenty of folks on this forum use the entire mountain as an interval, usually training for extremely hilly centuries or doubles. Unless you are training for a specific climb or event, just do the hills you normally do in the course of your regular rides, and you will get stronger and faster up them.

ElJamoquio

i usually go to the top.

Interval training is usually done in a variety of lengths... 5 minute and 20 minute intervals are the common things these days, depending on whether you want to work on your maximum uptake of oxygen or your threshold power.

For anaerobic work, 1...2...3 minute intervals are pretty common.

Have you read any books about training for cycling?

dimabear

thanks for the replies. no, i haven't read any books about training for cycling. just saw a recent thread here on the forums mentioning that if you want to improve your bike performance you have to do intervals of hills and sprints

ElJamoquio

You don't have to do hills.

If you want to reach your potential, you have to do intervals of sustained, high intensity.

Any of the myriad of cycling training books will help you develop a plan.

umd

Speaking of hills, you doing Everest Challenge again?

Snicklefritz

There are lots of options in the bay area if you want to use hills for your training. Besides doing repeats on the lower half (or top half) of Mt. Diablo, you could do shorter intervals on Calaveras, where the grade is about 4% over 2.5 miles to the false summit, or for something shorter and steeper try Del Valle. I forgot the distance and average grade on that one, but I'm sure you can use google to find out.

Although you don't have to do hills as others have said, it's harder to slack off on hills than it is on flat terrain.