Sanitation Hill

Sanitation Hill. So called because there is a big sanitation (refuse collection) place next to the hill near the top. This is the only hill of note in Queens, New York (at least the only one without traffic lights in the middle). So it has become my place of daily interval sessions here in New York.
Sanitation hill – perhaps the most unromantic hill in the Western hemisphere?

The past week I’ve spent in New York.

The bad news is that I missed a great weekend of excitement in the hill climb season. The good news is that I got to cycle around Queens, New York. The even better news is that I got to read the whole of the USADA report on some semi-famous American, whose name I temporarily forget. Somehow reading the report didn’t exactly help with my meditation retreat, but that’s another story.

just to prove I’m not really the only cyclist in the whole of Queens.

Sanitation Hill is not exactly Alpe d’Huez. It’s short and it’s not particularly steep,  it’s about as visually and odorously attractive as standing outside a  sanitation department. The road is quite wide, so cars don’t beep you quite as much as is usual in this part of the world.

But, it does go uphill and there’s no traffic lights half-way up. So it does the job, in it’s own ‘odorously challenged’ way. (Somehow when your gasping for breath at the top, you don’t really appreciate a refuse truck squeezing past with some green malodorous liquid seeping from the back of the truck.

Anyway, it takes about 1 minute 40 seconds to climb the hill. Not as long as the Rake, but long enough to get a decent interval in. I’ve been taking quite a long gap in between the intervals to try and make them high quality. My training has been pretty straightforward in the past week. Do an interval session (about 5 repetitions of sanitation hill) and then take a day off. Then an interval session. On – off. It’s not rocket science, but hopefully, it will work.

Earlier in the hill climb training season, I was having some weeks with three consecutive interval sessions. But, three weeks before the national championships, it’s time to start thinking of tapering.

When I get back to England, I will keep up this routine, just on different hills.