10 minute hill repeats
March 31st, 2011 by Ashleigh Moolman Pasio
Today was a beautiful spring day in Varese province, Italy!
It was a perfect day for some hill repeats up the Sacre Monte climb, just outside Varese city centre.
I am currently doing some specific training for the Fleche Wallone World Cup in Wallone region Belgium on 20 April. This World Cup race is awesome, because it finishes on the top of the Muur de Huy, a 1.3km climb with an average gradient of 13%, but it kicks up to 26% at times.
Today I did 10 minute hill repeats up the Sacre Monte climb. This climb is steep and about 4km long. It is a perfect climb to simulate the Muur de Huy in the Fleche Wallone race!
Apparently many professional males use this climb for training. I read a blog that said Nicolas Roche used this climb in his preparation for the 2010 Fleche Wallone.
I started off my session with a good warm up of 2 hours before hitting the Sacre Monte climb.
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| Session: | 10 minute hill repeats |
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| Duration: | 10 min/interval |
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| Terrain: | One steep 3 – 5km hill |
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| Session details: | Start session with a good warm up of at least 30 min.Once properly warmed up, start the first hill repeat. Climb at top end L4, bottom end L5 power for 10 minutes. After the 10 minute interval, free wheel to bottom of hill and start next interval.
Cool down for 30 min after last interval. |
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| Average power/interval: | top end L4/bottom end L5 |
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| Number of repeats: | 3 |
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| Lesson learned: | When the legs stay no more, get out of your seat and push harder! |
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This session is particularly valuable to build strength endurance. It is important to try to push above your threshold power zone (L4) and into your VO2 max power zone (L5). Pushing into your VO2 max zone is what makes this session particularly hard, but doing this is valuable as it works to increase your threshold power, VO2 max and strength endurance!
The intervals were hard, but I was lucky to be treated to a beautiful view at the top every time 
