Hill climb repeats?

[ollietrex]

So here is what I am thinking:-


1) Yellow House to Taylors warm up spin

2) Taylors hill climb on 4 minuite intervals at about 80+% max hr with a four minuite recovery time. Then repeat this four times.

3) Climb upto the masts and then a couple of loops of satellite run, down to the club course and back up the fire road

4) Down the bone shaker and back to the yellow house as a warm down spin.


To start some training would this be a good session to build up some speed in my riding? Should the hill repeats be longer with a longer recovery time? Would riding some of the hill repeat out of the saddle be advisable as well?


Cheers


Ollie

[ryan]

Ahh, hill repeats :) It really depends on what you are trying to work on. As an initial start -w hat you described above sounds good. Maybe just do 3 repeats the first time but try to keep it at about 90%. The next week, up it to 4, then to 5. Make sure you do things like this when you are pretty fresh - maybe a light ride (nothing!) the day before. Doing things like that are also great at teaching yourself about pacing. A lot of Irish XC courses have climbs in the 2-4minute length - doing things similar in training helps a lot (physically and mentally).


As for out of the saddle - 30 seconds to go in the climb, jump out of the saddle and hammer to the end. (Just like in a race when you are trying to get into the singletrack ahead of someone)

[ryan]

Another thing - when doing the intervals make sure you don't overcook yourself in the first minute and then fall apart for the last 3. Go out a little easier then you think you should and up the ante as you go... Perceived effort at the start will be much lower then the end for a given power output.


I see this a lot when I train - I can hammer off at 600+Watts for the first 30 seconds then drop to under 400Watts rather then keep a steady 450 for the interval. Doing any sort of repeated interval training will help so much.


Incidentally, I use that hill a lot in training too. 13 minutes 10 seconds is my record from Taylors to the top of Three Rock (did that last year so I should give it a go again some time soon...).

[ollietrex]

Thanks for the info, just needed to check the methods to my madness made a bit of sense.

[Sean]

Incidentally, I use that hill a lot in training too. 13 minutes 10 seconds is my record from Taylors to the top of Three Rock (did that last year so I should give it a go again some time soon...).




Was that on the road bike Ryan?

[Fergal]

I sincerely hope so, though knowing Ryan, it was probably on his Enduro :-)

- I timed myself on it not so long ago and I'd be embarrassed to say how long it took me in comparison to Ryans time!!!

[ryan]

Yeah, it was a road bike. I had set a goal of doing it in 13 minutes last year. The day after the Irish Marathon Champs (and the day before I was going on holidays for a month) was my last chance at having a go at it, so I did. I would say at the moment, on a warm day and a good warmup I would get it in about 12:40... I'll be falling off the bike at the top though :)


As another target - Taylors (well, just after you cross under the M50 bridge) to where it levels out and goes downhill a little (on a left hander) I did in 4:25 - road bike again...


It is a really nice climb though - just wish it didn't level out on the two sections on the way up.

[Fergal]

I use that same section as well (from just under the bridge to where it turns left and levels off) for intervals as you can loop around and be rested by the time you go up again, I think 7 mins is my best so far


Also for a staggered interval it's good as you can do;

Stage 1: Taylors to the level-out turn

Stage 2: T-junction (at end of levelled-out road) to upper Ticknock car park

Stage 3: Upper car park to aerials


..tough session as you don't get much rest between stages, but good for you

;-)

[Fergal]

think I've mentioned it before but Rock n Roll backwards is great training too,

soooo tough by the time you eventually come out of the forest - but not over until you climb the rocky path to the fireroad---ohhh poor legs!

then you turn around do it in the way God and MAD had originally intended it and you feel like you are in XC Heaven!!!