One great strength training method is hill repeats, however to avoid muscle injury these should only be done once you have a well established fitness base. It is also an alternative to gym-based weight training.
Step 1
Warm-up for 15-20 minutes at an aerobic heart-rate with a cadence of 90-100rpm.
Step 2
Find a hill on a road with little traffic with a 7-10% gradient and at least 400m long or one that will take you 1-2 minutes to climb.
Step 3
Start at the bottom of the hill in a gear that will be difficult to sustain all the way to the top with an average cadence of 50-60rpm.
Step 4
Start climbing aggressively to the top of the hill or to the end of your interval. Stay seated.
Step 5
Roll back down and do another rep (repeat) as soon as you arrive at the bottom. Do the planned number of reps.
Step 6
Cool-down for 15-20 minutes.
Tips
Start with 4 reps and increase by 1-2 reps each week until you reach 10 reps. Make the following day a rest day.
Done properly, hill repeats will give your legs incredible cycling-specific strength that will carry over to race day.
Pinched from an article by Troy Jacobsen in Triathlete magazine.
If you know of a good location to do this kind of session, leave a comment below. A few I can think of are:
Bukit Damansara - Jln Beringin, Jalan Setiabistari.
Bukit Tunku - Persiaran Duta (Hockey Stadium), Laman Tunku.
Saturday, October 13, 2007
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