Hill Repeats!

There's a lot of research showing that regular intense workouts yield large improvements in fitness.  Once a week I try to do a session of hill repeats.  I find the steepest hill that's convenient to me & I go up and down it ad nauseum.  Once I'm warmed up I try to make a few of these ascents with INTENSITY.  I get up out of the saddle and jam as best I can. 

My favorite location for this is Summit Ave in Brookline.  It's 125 vertical feet per loop and it's a pretty darn tough climb.  At the top there's a water fountain for water bottle refills.  A reasonable person would probably shoot to do this for about 45 minutes.  I'm not a reasonable person, so I've built up to doing this for two hours.

Nothing whips you into shape like hills.  But you have to make sure you only do this about once a week.  After two hours of Summit my legs are trashed for a couple days.  I can still ride, but I do so at a much lower intensity to allow for recovery.