Hill climbing reps (Edinburgh's Arthur's Seat)

Brassknocker

Due to work and baby commitments I'm trying to train more time efficiently with about 1 hour at a time when I get the chance. (in addition to a 35mile daily commute 2 or 3 times a week)

I'm right next to Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh which I run up once/twice a week, but now I want to cycle laps to improve bike fitness for the summer.
It's about 3.5miles per lap and gains about 300metres in total perlap (I think!?), so it's a good, steep climb, with a bit of undulating flat in the middle, followed by a good rest on the downhill.

Can anyone advise as to the best way to approach hill climbing training like this? Usually I 'try' not to drop below 10mph, and do between 3 and 6 laps nonstop.


Would it be better time spent if I vary the cadence/ gear choice/effort over these laps...
Perhaps spin up one time, then try to stay in the big ring for as long as possible for the next etc etc??

Should I stick to 3 laps, but with a greater rest between them?

Any advice/thoughts would be appreciated!

bompington

Not quite sure where you get the 300m: try plotting it on http://www.bikehike.co.uk/mapview.php.

Can't help you much on the training stuff myself, I'm in a pretty similar situation regarding time (and family), when I posted recently to ask how best to train in <4 hours a week most people simply said I should train more...

But at least I'm fitter than I was in the days when school rugby training runs up Brassknocker Hill were my worst nightmare...

Cranks

Your estimate of 300m climbing seems a bit far fetched.

3-5 climbs should be about right if you are doing them hard enough, I would spin easy to recover on the rest of the lap. Time yourself for the climb and and try and keep to that pacing for all your efforts, that will mean doing the first and second efforts far from flat out, but as fatigue sets in you will really struggle to match your time on the last one.

Unless you are already a pro the small ring is what's required. Keep your cadence up.

enjoy, I think the record for the climb is around 2mins 50 secs.

Brassknocker

Cheers for that site Bompington, that's showing 125m

...I used mapometer.com and got 340m - thought that sounded a bit excessive!

kfinlay

Would have thought it depends on what your training for but my mate stays near you and commutes to the Gyle 5 days a week. He did hill reps at Kaimes Rd (next to the Zoo) on the way home 2-3 times a week and it stood him on good stead for doind the MacMillan Alpe D'Huez challenge - 6 cols on 3 days including Galiber. He's using that to help train for Fred Whitton this year too.
HTH

Bhima

Cranks wrote:

I think the record for the climb is around 2mins 50 secs.

:shock: Wow. For 125m, that's FAST.

What's the gradient like for the actual climb? Length?

LittleB0b

Bhima wrote:

Cranks wrote:

I think the record for the climb is around 2mins 50 secs.

:shock: Wow. For 125m, that's FAST.

What's the gradient like for the actual climb? Length?

There's a spot height of 94m on the map - It then eases off a bit (there's another spot height of 117m further on) - it might just reach 125m, but it doesn't start at sea level.

There's even a web page: http://www.arthursseatchallenge.co.uk/

bompington

Maybe the next Danny Macaskill vid should show him riding right over Arthur's Seat, that would get the ascent figures up a bit...

Garry H

I use it for reps in spring/summer. I just try and get up as fast as I can really. Usually do 6 or 7 laps.

Brassknocker

thanks for the replies.

...that's a good little site LittleBOb -cheers!

lochindaal

I use it for hill reps as well.

As it is almost downhill from the summit back to the start of the climb again I find you can easily go for it each time as your HR has come right down again. This means I will vary how I do the climb; sometimes using a too high gear for leg strength work and other times just working on efficiently climbing.

I've attached the elevation profile from my garmin below. About 125m at the summit from a 45m starting elevation. Arthurs Seat is the 3 peaks in the middle.

Bhima

Well, i've just done some hill reps and held back a bit on the first few which allowed me to do more climbs than normal, as I used to go all out and then fade after a few. Both ways have their advantages/disadvantages but I think going out riding with a better climber than yourself and doing a loop of different hills at a fast pace is much more "fun" and you can't really chicken out of it.

ded

Brassknocker wrote:

Due to work and baby commitments I'm trying to train more time efficiently with about 1 hour at a time when I get the chance

Sounds familiar! And Arthur's Seat is also one of my local runs... It's great for a hour's workout but I think it all depends what you want out of it. I've done different things depending on what I'm trying to train. I think "just loops" means that if you're not careful you end up with too much rest.

For example, if you're doing hill reps and the hill (the eastern one, the one way one) takes you between 3 and 4 minutes and you just spin for the rest as somebody above suggested you are "resting" for about 7 minutes plus, twice the length of your work interval, which, IMO, is the wrong ratio of work-rest. If you prefer doing laps, better to extend the intervals by keeping the effort going over the summit of the hill and all the way round the back until you get to the top of the descent, then just rest from there until you get back to the roundabouts.

Another thing I have done is to just do the "one way" hill, then roll back down the footpath (only works on quiet days) and repeat that. You get a lot of work done in a short period of time then!

Another one is to use the western hill (much more traffic tho') and go between the "Dynamic Earth" roundabout and the "Commonwealth" roundabout. Not so steep, but actually easier to control your effort levels on, and you can just loop round the roundabouts to do intervals, or combine that with some loops to stop you resting too much!

fastercyclist

I do a lot of hill reps [check location]

I do them over-geared (as in I would use a smaller gear in a race as it's not optimal for fastest ascent). I just treat it as weight training in disguise. I had a cycling perfect moment last month going up a hill sign posted at 18% in the big ring seated (almost) the whole way. Had to get out of the seat at the very end. Just shot up it so my approach must help in some respect.

Be wary of over-doing it. I tend to find when I do hills I get good at hills but not so much at flats and vice versa.