Hill repetitions (questions)
Lightning
Posts: 360
I found a couple of roads near my house with a nice ascent. I didn't really find them, but I was thinking about nice places to climb nearby, and I remembered these 2 roads since they're pretty hard to "climb" on my car, although I rarely drive there.
One of them is 1km long, with average 9,1% pend. The first 200 meters are easier (around 6%) but then it has about 100 meters with 20% so it's not easy to climb.
The other is 0.55km long, with average 14,3% pend. This one has a long part with 20% and it's always over 10%.
Today I went to try them out as I was watching the Giro and didn't have enough time to do my usual ride afterwards. I got there really fast and just went for it. I climbed them as hard as possible without dying. Only had time to do it once though.
The first one barely has any cars passing by which is nice. It's not an easy climb but I don't know if 1km is too much for hill reps.
The second one is way shorter and has way more cars passing by, but it was way harder. The 20% part was a real killer so it didn't seem shorter.
Which one should I use for reps? I've never done this kind of training before but it seems really nice for these situations when I don't have the time to ride to the usual mountain (which is 2cat by the way).
Also, when you do hill repetitions, when coming down, how do you do it? Should I just relax coming down, pedal slowly, not pedal at all?
Any advice appreciated!
One of them is 1km long, with average 9,1% pend. The first 200 meters are easier (around 6%) but then it has about 100 meters with 20% so it's not easy to climb.
The other is 0.55km long, with average 14,3% pend. This one has a long part with 20% and it's always over 10%.
Today I went to try them out as I was watching the Giro and didn't have enough time to do my usual ride afterwards. I got there really fast and just went for it. I climbed them as hard as possible without dying. Only had time to do it once though.
The first one barely has any cars passing by which is nice. It's not an easy climb but I don't know if 1km is too much for hill reps.
The second one is way shorter and has way more cars passing by, but it was way harder. The 20% part was a real killer so it didn't seem shorter.
Which one should I use for reps? I've never done this kind of training before but it seems really nice for these situations when I don't have the time to ride to the usual mountain (which is 2cat by the way).
Also, when you do hill repetitions, when coming down, how do you do it? Should I just relax coming down, pedal slowly, not pedal at all?
Any advice appreciated!
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Comments
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Whichever gives you the duration of effort you are looking to do. Personally I think you are better looking for something that gives you a more consistent sustained effort for between 3-20 minutes and then how hard you go is determined by how long the climb takes.Lightning wrote:Which one should I use for reps?
The shorter and harder it is, the longer the recovery in between efforts, so plan on a loop or some out and back if the climb is shortish. For longer climbs, the descent time is probably sufficient recovery time.
SafelyLightning wrote:Also, when you do hill repetitions, when coming down, how do you do it?0 -
Obviously. But what is safely? Is it safe to say, descend the whole way without pedaling at all, when you're going to start pedaling really hard as soon as you go up? I just asked since I don't want any injuries..Alex_Simmons/RST wrote:
SafelyLightning wrote:Also, when you do hill repetitions, when coming down, how do you do it?0 -
If the object is to just improve climbing, then free-wheeling down should give you enough of a recovery time, assuming the hill is long enough. Otherwise, do it as part of a shortish loop, if possible.0
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Yes - freewheeling will not injure you, nor will pedalling hard when you turn round and go back upLightning wrote:Is it safe to say, descend the whole way without pedaling at all, when you're going to start pedaling really hard as soon as you go up?0
