# New Year - need help on a training plan for a 5 minute climb



## Srode (Aug 19, 2012)

My one cycling goal this year is to get stronger / faster on a 5 minute climb the group I ride with regularly does. Thinking using the Winter Months and some trainer time a couple times a week or more with intervals targeting improving on this one climb (part of a 30 mile ride). I've been riding about 2.5 years, and will be a bit over 8000 miles this year (6000 last year) so figure I have a decent base to start from. 

I have power meters on the road and trainer bikes and use Golden cheetah for analysis. Don't know if I should do 5 minute intervals at say 90% of the max power I have completed that climb this year, or shorter intervals at 100% or higher of that average power. What intervals would you recommend?


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## evs (Feb 18, 2004)

I'm sure intervals will help. But I notice technique plays a role in it as well. What do you normally do? Are you going hard in to the hill being gassed or is it more casual. Also, do you spin all the way up or can you stand and click down a couple of gears half way up? What gives out normally? Is it your lungs or your legs? It may take some trial and error. I think climbing is hard to replicate on a trainer. Sure you can go in to harder gears which I'm sure will help but when things starting going up it takes some technique and thought. I would think short harder 100+ intervals working up to higher rpms might help. 1 min or 30 second hard efforts perhaps....I need to start doing some intervals for the same reason. I know it's going to hurt now and help later


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## Srode (Aug 19, 2012)

It's a casual pace approaching the hill, and I normally stay seated the first 90% of the climb, staying at about 90rpm and and keeping power steady, then stand the last 10% upshifting a couple / few gears to get to high 60s/low 70's for cadence. The standing I might increase power by 10-20%, and I do find my timing to be good enough that I'm toast at about the time I hit the top of the hill. 

I've tried going to standing and back during the climb instead of just at the end and I just lose too much momentum in the transition that it appears I am better of staying seated until the end. That's based on looking at my power files for the climbs, speeds, and observations from others I ride with. 

I would say my limiting factor is cardio - at about 175ish beats / minute. My max ever seen is 184 I think, and that was all I had for sure. I can stay at 170 or higher for the entire last half of the climb. There's a noticeable bump in my power cover at the 5 minute mark due to this hill.


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## Alex_Simmons/RST (Jan 12, 2008)

Srode said:


> My one cycling goal this year is to get stronger / faster on a 5 minute climb the group I ride with regularly does. Thinking using the Winter Months and some trainer time a couple times a week or more with intervals targeting improving on this one climb (part of a 30 mile ride). I've been riding about 2.5 years, and will be a bit over 8000 miles this year (6000 last year) so figure I have a decent base to start from.
> 
> I have power meters on the road and trainer bikes and use Golden cheetah for analysis. Don't know if I should do 5 minute intervals at say 90% of the max power I have completed that climb this year, or shorter intervals at 100% or higher of that average power. What intervals would you recommend?


Improving fitness, even for a specific goal such as one particular climb, is an integral of all that you do, and not so much about whether one particular type of interval is best. Obviously including some specificity into your training makes sense, but that may not mean doing 5-min intervals ad nauseam. No single interval type is best. It might be good to start with but it can also send you backwards, which is why variety and an overall approach is what matters more.

Mix it up. Sustainable progressive overload. Recover as necessary. Without having much more knowledge about your physiology, it's very hard to say what training might be optimal, but it's hard to beat training that lifts both threshold power and maximal aerobic power, and losing any excess body fat in a sustainable manner. 

The sort of training that achieves those outcomes involve quite a variety of training sessions and approaches, and how you go about that depends on various factors, such as your available training time, history, power profile, psychology, rest of life factors and so on.


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## Srode (Aug 19, 2012)

Thanks Alex. My title was a bit miss leading I guess - I am just looking to add some targeted intervals to add to my current training / riding. Thinking 2 days per week is what I will invest in the intervals probably so it doesn't get in the way of 1) my group rides that are fun a few mornings during the week, 30 miles 2)Sunday recovery day off with the family 3) Saturday long ride which is either a hard hard solo century (weather permitting 2 to 3 times a month) or a 50 to 60 mile hard group ride. The solo century is intended to be mostly sweet spot training - low zone 4 / high zone 3 with just a few stops under 5 minutes each to reorganize bottles eat etc. The 50 to 60 group ride is normally a mix of a few decent climbs, some hard pace line riding, sprints and recovery segments.


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## HyperSprite (Nov 20, 2013)

There is a lot of great info here, don't know if you are a Strava Premium member but they added training plans here Training Plans | Strava that even include a 6 minitue hill training plan. It does look like more work than you are planning to do though. It is described as:

4 Weeks · 5 Workouts per WeekItching to mix it up on that 4-8 minute hill climb you’ve had your sights set on for a while now? Take your preparation to the next level with this training plan from CTS. It’s four weeks long, and it’s designed to improve your power at VO2 max and increase peak power output for short climbs.


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## Srode (Aug 19, 2012)

Wow, that's perfect- thanks for posting it - I am a premium member and did look at the 3 week plan - I'll see how it works out but may have to reduce the hours, I put it 7-10.


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