Turbo Hill Repeats

Another way to make those hill repeats even harder is to increase the weight you are carrying. You can do this in two ways;

Weight your body: Weighted vests come in a variety of weights from 2kg right up to 30kg and beyond. Personally, I use an 8kg vest and I find that once the vest is on, it doesn’t feel as heavy as you might think.

The weight is evenly distributed and there are lots of muscles working to hold it up. Wearing the vest is an easy way to add more resistance to your workouts and really makes a difference especially when pedalling out of the saddle as your upper body comes into play more at this point and your arms are working just as much as your legs.

When looking into getting a vest, bare in mind how much your riding bag weighs when you’re fully loaded with water, snacks and other essentials. You need to go for a weight greater than this to get the most benefit. You can get vests that have variable weight, so if you are unsure, these may be worth looking into.

If you don’t fancy investing in a weight vest, you can always load up your hydration pack with weights!

Weight your bike: If the idea of carrying additional weight on your body isn’t appealing, why not try and strap your kit to your bike. There are a number of great bags and straps on the market for you to laden with weights, but if you want to go full-tilt, consider some panniers and really pack them up.

Brow Sprints

If you are looking to work on your power output after a climb, brow sprints may be worth a try. Essentially for these, you ride up the hill at a decent pace, conserving energy while maintaining a good cadence. Once you reach the top (the brow) you put the power down and go for it! Changing to the big ring to add resistance until your legs are burning and might drop off at any second. These are great for budding racers who want to gain the advantage at the top of climbs when the other competitors might slow down or freewheel to catch their breath.

Power Starts

Fed up with hill talk? Ok here’s one that can be done on the flat. For power starts you start from a dead stop, with your bike in a high gear and then set off pedalling out of the saddle and keep going until you get on top of the gear. Try to keep your upper body relatively relaxed and still as you peddle, you want the power to come from your legs. Aim for around five efforts per workout with full recovery in between.

Remember before you do any training, you need to be fully warmed up so spend 15-20 minutes pedalling gently, getting the muscles warmed up and the blood flowing. Then feel the burn!

By incorporating resistance work into your training schedule, you should notice an increase in your strength in a few weeks. Those hills will be a breeze in no time!

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