Hill Repeats

[Bern]

Hi. Am a relatively new poster and cyclist. I am looking at putting hil repeats into my training regime, and have read about them in Bicycling Australia. From what I have read your cadence should not go over 60rpm. Is it OK when doing hill repeats for your cadence to be as low as 40? Is it slower the better or must you be around 60? The longest incline I have relatively close to me that I want to use is about 1.2km long, and I do it riding 53x13 at approx 45rpm. I can push that all the way to the end, but I am not at exhaustion when I finish. Is that OK? Cheers, Bern.

[DanielS]

You're probably going to be told the same thing by others here - training at low cadence, i.e. 'strength endurance' training, is not very useful. The problem with this sort of training is (1) the force is too low, and there are too many 'reps' to actually build strength, and (2) strength itself is not particularly useful for cycling performance anyway.

That being said, a lot of people still do this sort of training and espouse its benefits. It may still benefit them, but they'd probably get the same benefits using a reasonable gear and going the same speed up the hill.

You are better off doing the hill repeats, but just ride hard at whatever cadence feels best for you.

[Alex Simmons/RST]

You're probably going to be told the same thing by others here - training at low cadence, i.e. 'strength endurance' training, is not very useful. The problem with this sort of training is (1) the force is too low, and there are too many 'reps' to actually build strength, and (2) strength itself is not particularly useful for cycling performance anyway.

That being said, a lot of people still do this sort of training and espouse its benefits. It may still benefit them, but they'd probably get the same benefits using a reasonable gear and going the same speed up the hill.

You are better off doing the hill repeats, but just ride hard at whatever cadence feels best for you.

Rather than not very useful, I would say that "strength endurance" training is no more useful than riding up a hill at the same/similar power while in a gear that enables you to pedal at a higher cadence (which you say in your 2nd para).

IOW there is no particular reason to choose a large gear, unless for some reason you anticipate the need in your riding/racing for such efforts (in which case I would suggest choosing alternative gearing on the bike to start with). What SE training won't do is impact on strength (not that strength matters anyway). A lot of people espouse their benefits but what they don't do is to provide the evidence to back up those claims (over just riding up the hills at same speed in a normal gear). It's just coaching folklore.

Hill repeats are good. Just do them hard at a speed/effort you can sustain for the duration and pick a gear that feels right. If you like doing them in a big gear, go for it.

[Bern]

Thank you both for replying. I can see what you are saying and it makes sense. I had read that this type of 'strength' training helps in being able to turn a larger gear over at a higher cadence on the flat, but if I follow what you are saying Alex to train to turn a larger gear at a higher cadence then you should practice doing exactly that on the flat?

[Alex Simmons/RST]

Thank you both for replying. I can see what you are saying and it makes sense. I had read that this type of 'strength' training helps in being able to turn a larger gear over at a higher cadence on the flat, but if I follow what you are saying Alex to train to turn a larger gear at a higher cadence then you should practice doing exactly that on the flat?

Yep. In the right doses.