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What type of hill should I pick for hill repeats on the bike and run?

Homebrewermike's picture
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started by Homebrewermike on April 17, 2008

long or short? moderate or steep?

Socket's picture
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Socket posted 25 weeks ago.

Any hill that has road signs that say "Use low gear" on it is what you're looking for.

Homebrewermike's picture
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Homebrewermike posted 25 weeks ago.

But in terms of training is it better to run hard up a moderate hill or kill yourself on a really steep hill where you're on your toes the whole time? Same with biking. Should I power up a short hill or grind up a "use low gear" hill. Which is better? My goal is to get faster by raising my lactic threshhold.

iamtb13's picture
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iamtb13 posted 25 weeks ago.

Ride them all! They all offer benefits and cause different kinds of pain (the good kind of pain).

deepbluex's picture
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deepbluex posted 25 weeks ago.

Ride the steepest hill you can find that you can conquer without putting your foot down or pulling over to catch your breath. Time yourself going up that hill. Then strive to shave down that time each training session that involves that hill.
Also, run up that hill once in a while too.

Homebrewermike's picture
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Homebrewermike posted 25 weeks ago.

deepbluex wrote:
Ride the steepest hill you can find that you can conquer without putting your foot down or pulling over to catch your breath. Time yourself going up that hill. Then strive to shave down that time each training session that involves that hill.
Also, run up that hill once in a while too.

If you slow down on the hill to catch your breath is the hill too steep? Should the goal be to maintain the same speed, just get up the hill without stopping, or staying in the anaerobic zone?

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Milesofsmiles15 posted 25 weeks ago.

I've wondered this too, i have this hill by me that i can get about 1/3-1/2 of the way up maintaining a decent speed, but then i always end up crawling up the last part. Every time i do repeats on it i get a little further up, so i know i'm improving, but i often consider taking a smaller hill that i know i could get up to raise my fitness faster.

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theShiba posted 25 weeks ago.

Choose the kind of hill that you know a VW Bus would break down on.

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jsk85 posted 25 weeks ago.

I choose more the moderate hills, but that's b/c I've come to a complete stop on some of the more extreme hills in the area and then walk the rest of the way up...it's embarrasing. Someday I'll work my way to them. I'd say work on a challenging hill you can complete I guess.

My poor hill skills aside, I still find myself passing on the hills (albeit moderate ones) in races. Could just be the road bike advantage since I don't have a tri-bike yet