It’s time to dance on the pedals
Hill reps — simple but effective session.
— Got To Tri Coach & Bike Lead, Santi Brage
One of the sessions I start to introduce into my training plan from about now is a weekly hill rep session on the bike. While training in the hills is valuable all year round, it is particularly useful early in your annual preparation to gain strength and muscular endurance.
These sorts of sessions help to build strength and power — exactly the attributes a Triathlete needs. Being high intensity and usually under an hour, they’re also great if you’re short on time too.
The length of repeats you should ride will vary depending upon your goals as a rider, as well as your level of experience. , Kerry Bircher at Revolution Cycling, says ‘The purpose of hill repeats is accumulating time at lactate threshold*. For example, if you have 3×8-minute hill repeats you’re accumulating 24 minutes at LT intensity. Accumulating time at this intensity forces your body to adapt so you can produce more power from the aerobic engine’’
*Lactate threshold (LT) is the exercise intensity at which the blood concentration of lactate and/or lactic acid begins to exponentially increase.
Heart rate: 95 to 100 per cent of what you can sustain for one hour
Power: 91 to 100 per cent of what you can sustain for an hour (FTP)
New to this type of training:
Generally, less experienced and less fit athletes should start with more, shorter intervals such as 4×5 minutes so that each interval can be completed at higher quality. As you get stronger — and as the training plans progress — the individual intervals typically get longer even if the total time at intensity stays the same.
Recovery & How Often
Recovery between intervals is typically half the time of the interval, or 3 minutes between 6 minute efforts, and 6 minutes between 12 minute efforts for example.
Ride hill reps once a week or if you starting these sessionst once a fortnight.
Keep recoveries half the length of the effort (eg 12 minute efforts have 6 minute recoveries)
If hill reps are new to you, start with more shorter reps to ensure you keep the effort high enough throughout each one
My Session
This session is simple but effective. I always plan in a 20-minute route to the hill to train on, so I can warm up for 20 minutes and cool down. The warm-up should start at a low intensity and gradually increase my cadence with some short higher efforts to prime the legs. The cool down should be the reverse of the warm-up aiming to keep the cadence high to counteract the lower cadences of hill reps.
I live in Brighton so I use Dyke Road from Saddlescombe- https://www.strava.com/segments/812306.
I time my first climb and ensure all the following climbs are around the same time. My power is around: 91 to 100% FTP. My ensuring I try and do each climb consistent I don’t go into my red. I will be starting next week with 3 climbs and over the coming months I will progress it with another one / two hill reps.
Enjoy!
Want to put your hill climbing to the test? Come and train for a week in the mountains of Mallorca! More info on our triathlon camps: www.gottotri.com
