Hill sessions

[adi]

Does anyone do regular hill sessions? I try to do a session a week and use West Highgate Hill as the hill. Split the hill into three sections, sprinting the first, spinning the second and sprinting the final third. Get my heart rate down and do it again. The aim is to manage 5 of those at roughly the same time.

Any other hill sessions people regularly do?

[Deleted]

Yep I do a lot of specific hill climb sessions! Apart from loving the hills, I think they are an efficient way to improve, you can easily judge your level by timing yourself on the same hill, and it is ideal if you have only an hour to spare.

I tend to try many different riding styles and see which ones work best and on what type of gradients etc. So think Contador, Evans and Ullrich for very contrasting styles. I also vary my position on the seat - normal or far back, try different hand positions - drops, hoods, bars, and different cadences.

I tend to stay seated for 90% of the hills where possible, although I would like to hear other people's opinions on the standing vs seating debate - where is it best used?

As for specific hills, normally I go down Jerningham Rd turn left onto the main road then first left up Pepys (New Cross). That is a convenient route as it isn't far from my house and is pretty quiet up Pepys. It takes about 90secs so not that long. I normally do 8 repetitions, alternating low and high cadence then one sprint up Jerningham.

Other than that I would recommend Crystal Palace as there are many hills so no worries about variation. The only thing is that it is pretty busy. I normlly go up then down both Dulwich Wood Park and Gipsy hill (joined at the roundabout).

[adi]

Typically I only stand if I'm sprinting or running out of gears

[Deleted]

For something very steep try Canonbie Road in Forest Hill. Or you could just ride cross, then you won't even need an incline to grind out a big gear.

[Deleted]

Fox Hill, Wells Park Rd and Phils aformentioned Canonbie Rd...you can link them up along with the footpath between College Rd and Crescent Wood Rd, enough time to recover inbetween too.

Jasper Rd x 4 on the way home after Sat or Sun ride is pretty full-on too...

[Deleted]

Greenwich Park is closed to traffic before 7:00 on weekdays. When the sun's coming up a bit earlier than it is now you'll often find some cyclists doing hill training sessions. Rainy weekends work well too but there are too many pedestrians around when the sun's out. It's about 1 1/2 minutes from the bottom to the top so you can either do hill sprints or just keep going up and down to make a longer interval.

[andyw]

My old athletics coach always used to make us do intervals that finished a couple of hundred metres beyond the crest of a hill. The point being, you never get to stop at the top of the hill in a race so you need to learn to pick your speed up again.
It's even more worthwhile in cycling: breaks rarely go on the hill itself, but more often than not they do go over the top of the hill. The people who are able to accelerate back up to speed and get a big gear rolling again are the ones who make the break; the ones who sit up at the crest of the hill or can't acclerate stay in the laughing group.
So my advice is, finish each rep a couple of hundred metres past the top of the hill, and spend that couple of hundred metres going deep in the red to get your speed back up to serious race pace.

[David Joss Buckley]

"Greenwich Park is closed to traffic before 7:00 on weekdays..."

It's also closed to traffic after 10am and open again at (I think) 4pm. Mid-week in the middle of the day it's pretty quiet on that hill, and I have often done a modicum of hill-work there myself. The odd pedestrian / dog-walker / observatory-bound tourist is a good trade-off for traffic in my view. And there's coffee and cake at the top and the bottom...

[Deleted]

Dec 1, 2008 12:14:45 GMT David Joss Buckley said:

"Greenwich Park is closed to traffic before 7:00 on weekdays..."

The odd pedestrian / dog-walker / observatory-bound tourist is a good trade-off for traffic in my view. And there's coffee and cake at the top and the bottom...

Pick the right day in summer, and the serried ranks of foreign exchange students will applaud your masochistic efforts too.

[Deleted]

At this time of year, if looking for a winter base type of ride with hills included, rather than hill reps in a park or suburb, there's the Invicta Grimpeur loop:

www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Invicta-Grimpeur-50km-anticlockwise-loop

Ride two circuits, one in either direction or “just” add Ide, Toys and the two either side of Westerham.