Friday 4 February 2011

Hill Reps

My training for Mont Blanc has begun in earnest and in an attempt to gauge my current "state" I thought I would head off last Friday and do some hill reps.
Now bearing in mind that Mont Blanc has around 29,000 foot of ascent, a few sprints up the hill from my house wasn't really going to cut it so I set off first thing in the morning to Rowardennan where there was a slightly larger hill to use.
It's been a long time since I climbed Ben Lomond but it all seemed very familiar as I headed up through the trees and onto the hillside. Four and a half hours later I returned to the car after two consecutive trips to the summit and back.
On the whole, I felt pretty good. As I suspected, my climbing is fairly solid and I can keep a good pace most of the way up. Where I struggle is on the descents, partly through being a wimp and partly due to my weak ankles but the path is generally pretty good and there were no mishaps.
I used my sons trekking poles for the first time and these were fanatstic for the climb and will be a very helpful addition to my kit list in August.
The main thing that came out of my hill session was that for the next two days my quads were really painful. This is down to the descents rather than the climbing and is something I need to work on over the next few months.
So there we go. The first of many trips to hills and and a taster of things to come. All together now - "Oh, the Grand Old Duke of York, he had....................."

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think you could benefit from getting experience of using your poles on the downhills as well as the uphills. On UTMB I used them like ski poles going down a black run slalom at great speed. Well, not quite, but along those lines............

UTMB is divided into 2 camps.1) those who swear by poles, and use them to good effect (about 80 % plus of those doing the race. 2)The minimal kit guys (mostly @ the sharp end) who don't use poles 'cos they add weight.

Murdo t M

Andy Cole said...

I'm sure that's the right approach Graeme, any running is incidental in the UTMB, it's the ability to keep climbing hills all day that will get you there.