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I'm just trying to finish off the climbing challenge on strava, beginning limite on time I'm reping the closest hill during my lunch break. Usually I do high intensity push hard 5 mins recover 3 repeat. Today I just couldn't be bothered to push hard, so rep'do a small 5% climb in lowest gear peaking at about z4/5 threshold for 3mins then back to z1 for 1min and repeat x 11.
It was actually quite relaxing and a lot more enjoyable than pushing flat out. But is there any place for that type of hill rep in a serious training plan?
Now that sounds like my kind of training.
Did you exchange recovery shake and skinless chicken breast for chips and a pint?
Not unless it's a warm up.
I did think the fact it was actually quite enjoyable likely meant it was pointless. I've been doing lunch time hill reps T,W,T for the last couple of weeks so I think I'm a bit bored of them.
No chips or a pint but I did polish off a packet of Jaffa cakes
There's no such thing as "junk miles" IMO and every little helps but it is perhaps not the most efficient way to get fitter and faster. Anything higher intensity within that hour would probably have been more efficient but if it gave you a mental break and kept you on the bike then it has fulfilled other goals which is valuable in itself. Perhaps not the best thing every day not least because 11 repeats of a small, shallow climb in 44 mins would get flippin' boring very quickly 😀
What aspect of riding is replicating? VO2 max, Threshold, Tempo, Endurance, Active Recovery, None of the above? There's your answer. Not exactly junk miles, but not really any specific goal. All time on a bike is good, so satisfying a Strava goal is its own reward. Lower gear and faster spinning would work on Speed (of pedals) at the very least.
No miles are wasted but that doesn't seem particularly useful, heart isn't elevated for 20 mins and you are not doing fhartleng either (not sure though depends how high your heart is for the 3 mins)
The only junk miles are the ones you dont get a reward from
At z4-5 level it must be of benefit, just not quite the level that you're used to?
I was advised to try low rpm (40-50 max) high gears up hills during winter Z2 base miles, staying in Z2 on the hills. Seemed to do some good or at least showed where I was improving as after a while I could get up hills that I really struggled to get up staying under ~130 bpm to start with. Seemed to help build strength w/o tiring me out during long low intensity rides.
I did something like this on last months climbing challenge. I live a couple of miles away from Ditching Beacon so just went up and down that, always in the same gear and at a steady tempo.
That hill has a few steep ramps and flatter bits in it though which meant the demands on your legs fluctuated a fair bit, and I'm much more of a tempo rider at higher cadence than someone who can grind a big gear round. I noticed the benefits after a couple of weeks so mine definitely wasn't wasted.
Normally I do 5 longer climbs flat out so trying to get up to max hr (start further down the hill...) rather than just rep the steepest part twiddling a little gear.
I'd love to do something a bit more interesting but when you work in Southampton and have 45mins on the bike at lunch, the choice for hills which are quiet enough to rep are very limited. I'm actually quite pleased I found this one.
Like the idea of focusing on low power climbing with a view to improve output in z2. Might give that a go for a few weeks and see if there is any benefit. I've had enough of eyeballs out efforts for a while, when you start dreading training its time for a change
im interested in this thread, as i will be doing 3 countries tour in july with much fitter mates.
plan is to do lots of hills with backpack as training, but training will be for preparing me to do 3-4 hour slow slog up steep inclines
DT78, I've not tried it as part of spring-summer efforts but it became a fun (of sorts!) challenge during winter miles that I still do on longer easier pace rides. I naturally tend towards pushing bigger gears and SS riding so it suits me, rather than being something good for race prep etc. The tip came from a good distance racer's coaching plan so I assume it has use in part of the kind of more endurance-biased training I do periodically.
It was actually quite relaxing and a lot more enjoyable than pushing flat out.
Well I'd call that the very best benefit that any form of exercise can give you. 🙂
I reckon if you repeatedly shout STRAVA! as you are riding up slowly it will raise your heart rate and make the training more valuable
I too had to get some metres in to finish the Strava 9000m challenge. Normally I have a total rest of at least one day between intensive off-road rides. But I decided to go for an easy fire-road hill ride and fitted some S-Works Renegades instead of my Minions.
I rode for six days without a break and found that I 'felt' a lot better having done 'easy' days in between hard days. It was nice to go slowly, enjoy the scenery, not sweat buckets and just relax...
Depends really. I don't really agree with the whole junk miles thing. But if you're only doing 1 hour crit races doing slow hill-reps probably isn't the best use of your time. If of course you're training for endurance races then it's good.
Personally I do them because I enjoy them. Enough reason as any isn't it.