[GraemeTee]

The area I live in is fairly flat with no decent hills nearby for training on.

The only reasonable one is a gravel track which climbs 200ft in just under 0.4 miles and Strava lists it as being an average of 6% gradient.

Is it worthwhile doing hill rep's on something like this or would it be too small to be of any benefit?

 

[BermudaBrown]

Rules of specicifity apply - i.e. you will become strong at hills like the one you're practicing on.

I'd go for the hill reps on it - chances are your nearest race tracks also only have hills of that size.

 

[Circlip]

The only reasonable one is a gravel track which climbs 200ft in just under 0.4 miles and Strava lists it as being an average of 6% gradient.

Is it worthwhile doing hill rep's on something like this or would it be too small to be of any benefit?

Sounds like plenty of hill to train on, especially if it's representative of climbs on your local courses as BermudaBrown notes below. Or, if you are planning to race somewhere out of your area that has longer climbs - by time elapsed - a "fudge" you can employ is to tack a few minutes of intensity on the flats to the bottom before you start the climb and/or the top after you crest the climb. e.g. if the actual climb takes you 5 minutes at an intensity you can maintain for a few reps, but you want to become accustomed to a climb of 10 minutes duration, just add a total of 5 minutes at similar intensity on the flats before/after.

That being said, if your goal is to become strong at longer climbs of say 30 minutes, the whole concept of intervals is to go at a higher intensity for shorter periods of time, than you could sustain for your actual event. In other words, doing multiple reps of a 5 minute climb, with a brief rest in between each, at a higher intensity than you could maintain for a one shot 30 minute climb, is actually great training to cause adaptations that will help you for the 30 minute climb.

Rules of specicifity apply - i.e. you will become strong at hills like the one you're practicing on.

I'd go for the hill reps on it - chances are your nearest race tracks also only have hills of that size.

 

[rydbyk]

Like others have said...if it matches or exceeds what you hope to perform well on in races etc, they "Yeh!".

.02

 

[GraemeTee]

Thanks for the input guys.

The hill in question is pretty similar in length and height to those in local races. Obviously once you travel further afield they get a bit higher and longer but as suggested I'll try and include some high intensity riding before or after the climb to simulate the longer climbs as best I can.

The hill rep's aren't something I'll be doing too often as I prefer getting out for proper rides as much as I can. The rep's will mainly be used as a short session that I can do before or after work or as part of my commute when I can't get out for a proper ride.

 

[WR304]

If this hill is close to home then you could always do the hill reps at the end of a longer ride. Do a few hours riding and then a set or two of hill reps to finish before heading home.

There aren't any really long climbs in the Cotswolds so for longer intervals (20 minutes or so) I'll often do a few minutes on the flat beforehand, a climb lasting 5 to 10 minutes, and then the remainder of the interval on the flat afterwards. I think that's a good format in its own right, as opposed to just doing straight hill reps (where you ride up a hill, u-turn at the top, ride down and ride up again). Being able to reach the top of a hill, and then keep the pressure on over the top without backing off for a breather, is a useful habit to get into.

 

[Circlip]

If this hill is close to home then you could always do the hill reps at the end of a longer ride. Do a few hours riding and then a set or two of hill reps to finish before heading home.

^^^ Also a good way to mix things up and get accustomed to the feeling of having to put some juice into a climb while fatigued, but not quite the same as a dedicated interval session. The dedicated interval session starting from relatively fresh (after a decent warmup) should allow for generating higher power/output than at the end of the longer ride. Even though the perceived effort may subjectively feel similar in both instances, they are going to tap into slightly different training effects.

 

[GraemeTee]

If this hill is close to home then you could always do the hill reps at the end of a longer ride. Do a few hours riding and then a set or two of hill reps to finish before heading home.

I've never actually thought of doing rep's at the end of a ride before.
Depending on which direction I ride one of my regular 60 mile loops, the hill could be at the start or end of the loop so I may try and throw in a few rep's at the end of my next ride and see how it goes.