Cycling – Hill Reps

One of the good things about having someone else write a training plan for you is that it gets you out doing things you might otherwise not have done.

Last week it was pounding up and down the cliff path doing running hill reps. This week it was more hill reps, but on my bike. The prescribed session was 6 hill climbs on a climb that would take 4-5 minutes, followed each time by a recovery back to the bottom.

I picked a hill that I thought would take about that amount of time, and one that would be traffic free and quiet. Not too steep, but definitely a climb, and off I set. After a warm up to get there I set off on the first rep. The hill seemed just about right. Enough of a gradient to have me out of the saddle most of the way up but not too hard and it took 4 minutes 44 seconds.

The road was quiet, I did see a few cars whilst doing my session but they weren’t an issue. I did have a close call with a hare though that ran out in front of me whilst I was descending. I’m not sure who was the most startled, me or the hare, but it ran off in front of me and easily managed to keep pace with me at 30mph.

Climbs two and three felt OK then I started pushing a bit harder on rep number four. Reps five and six were flat out. Here;s the breakdown of the time:

• Climb 1: 4:33
• Climb 2: 4:19
• Climb 3: 4:19
• Climb 4: 4:08
• Climb 5: 3:58
• Climb 6: 3:47

It looks as though I shall have to find a slightly longer hill next time. As usual though, hill reps such as these produce a lovely topography vs heart rate graph.

Hill Reps Heart Rate

Tags: CyclingFitnessTrainingTriathlon Training