hill repeat question

Instructions: Ride up hill. Turn. Ride down hill. Repeat as desired.

Kidding...

Great question. You'll find lots of opinions on hill repeats because it really depends on your fitness. However, I think typically a good hill for hill repeats should take anywhere between 2 and 3 minutes to climb. A decent grade would be between 5 and 8 percent, but should be nice and steady. It will frustrate you to have the hill flatten out or get much steeper right in the middle of the climb. Your recovery should be on your coast down the hill. No need to rest more at the bottom, in my opinion. Many people like to go at a 1:1 climb:recovery ratio(i.e. 3 min. climb 3 min. recovery). I started out with sets of 3 and have built to 7 after several months(I live in santa fe...no rides without some pretty good climbs here). Though, I don't know that I'll go much higher than this. I typically do these before or after a shorter ride, so the length of the workout varies depending on how long that ride is. 

And yes I do have a name for my hill...old dirty bastard.

Hill repeats are a great way to push your leg strength. I like to vary the type of climbing that I do in the hill repeats: some, I'll spin super fast up the hill to spike my heart rate, the next I'lll smash a super big gear at 50rpms.

The best way to see what you like is to...well...try it.

Hope this helps!

I do a lot of hill repeats.  I prefer long steady climbs and have plenty of hills to do it.  I repeat most 3 to 4 times if I'm doing one hill, or I connect them all.  These are all hills near my house on Cougar Mountain.

The hill to my house is 1/2 mile, 7% grade, some undulations.  Ride from the bottom to the top, ride around the block at the top of the hill as active recovery, coast to the bottom.  Repeat 4-6x because it's short.

Lakemont Blvd is a great hill for repeats.  3/4 mile at 10% grade, then it mostly levels out for 1/4 mile, then another 1/2 mile at 6% grade.  Ride from the bottom to the top, coast to the bottom.  Repeat 3-6x.  Bonus workout: stand the bottom half.

Forest Drive: 3/4 mile steady undulating descent, followed by a series of hills back to the top.  Repeat 3-6x.

Cougar Mountain Way: 3/4 mile 3% to 10% grade, never levels out until the top.

It takes 60 minutes to ride to Lakemont, climb it, ride to Cougar Mountain, ride it, then ride to Forest Drive and climb.  Then do it all again two or three times.

Yesterday I did this 2x, with all hills >5% standing.  Nothing like a 3/4 mile 10% grade standing hill  climb to strengthen the legs.

Different things at different times.  My favorite (not necessarily the most effective in an ideal world) is simply to ride a rolling route and go very hard up each hill, easy down.  The net result is approximately 10-15 repeats ranging from 45 seconds to 4 minutes, most (10 or so) being around the 90 second range.

If I'm being more anal about my training, then I'll choose a hill based on what kind of work I want or need to do.  Some days it will be more like 3-5 minute intervals with 2-4 minutes rest; other days I'll do 30/30 (30 seconds hard, 30 seconds easy).  Still other days (when I can get to the mountains) I'll do just one 'repeat' -- but it takes an hour!

I use a series of three hills - 3% 300ft > flat 300ft  > 2% 400ft > flat 200ft  > 6% 500ft >  flat 200ft > turn around and do again.

This makes for a great workout.  I think the key is to keep pushing beyond the top of the hill.  No matter how bad it hurts, no coasting.