Typical sessions
Typical sessions
Fleeman says a typical hill reps session will include five ascents of a five-minute climbs at a high intensity, with five minutes recovery in between.
As you will descend quicker than you climb, that means going beyond your start point, turning around and continuing the recovery until you reach the foot of the climb, before setting off on the next ascent.
Fleeman says you should aim to ride at threshold (zone four – you can read more about training zones here), though you can adapt the session to work specifically on lactate tolerance by reducing the amount of recovery (which should be just that – recovery – in zone one).
“If you reduce the recovery time to three minutes then you’re not quite recovering fully between each session and you will get a big lactate build-up, which is also an effective session,” he says.
Going on the attack
Another area to focus on, and to work into your hill repeats, is tactics, to replicate how a climb may play out on event day, though that, of course, will depend on whether you are racing, or just aiming to get round a sportive.
“The gaps at a road race or a sportive, whatever their big event may be, will open up over the top of the climbs as much as actually on the climb,” Fleeman explains.
“Other riders will accelerate over the top and that is what catches people out. What you can do is a session where you ride in zone three or four up the climbs and then focus on the last 30 seconds over the top – ideally on a climb that finishes with a false flat – and just go all-out for that last bit.
“You might do four minutes on the climb in zone four and then just 40 seconds as hard as you can.”
Fleeman says you can also flip that session on its head, hitting the climb hard from the bottom.
“An alternative would be to do it the other way around,” he says. “When you hit the climb, go hard for 30 to 40 seconds at the bottom and then sit at threshold (zone four) for the rest of the climb.
“It’s really important to replicate, as much as possible, what will happen in an event if you want to improve your climbing and stay in the group you’re in. Very often there will be a surge at the bottom of the climb and a surge over the top. They would be the the sessions I’d recommend.”