UKH

Hi - I moved to Oxford and am having trouble finding any decent hills nearby to train on (e.g. repeats to help prep for trail races in the mountains). I have access to a small gym with a treadmill that goes up to 12.5 but that's boring and limited...

So far I've been to Wytham Woods, which is close and generally nice but not great in terms of hills. Online sleuthing suggests Wittenham Clumps, Badbury Hill, and Shenlow Hill all 30-45 min drive. Does anybody know any of these and/or can recommend anything better less than an hour away?

What about in the 1.5-2 hr range? Above 2 hours there is Brecon Beacons and then plenty of options, but I'm struggling to find anything halfway reasonable and am hoping I'm missing something. Thanks very much in advance!

-julian

Boars hill? Not that big or steep but one of the biggest around Oxford. Chiltern hills 30 - 45 mins east of Oxford and quite scenic. The Ridgeway, 30 mins south. Both considerably hillier than anything around Oxford.

A40 and on to the Cotswolds, although not very high, but pretty steep in places and good national paths to get some distance in. 

Not what you asked for, but look in your gym if they have a "stair master" or equivalent. I thought this was some 80s throwback for the unfit and obese - and didn't respect it .. until I tried it.

It's an absolute killer. , Try incorporating some hard 2 minute intervals of that into your program.

White horse hill at Uffington - you can make some decent undulating routes around there and along the Ridgeway?

Shotover is reasonably hilly & nice for running, and very nearby.

Wittenham Clumps might be ok. You can go up and down both hills from multiple sides which might alleviate boredom. Max ascent 50m-ish.
https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/6248948 

Otherwise head to the Ridgeway. Some very steep headwalls around Uffington White Horse (and it's access land):
https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/6541858 

Oh, and Beacon Hill is about 40mins drive south just off the A34. 110m ascent or so, all access land.
https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2704546

I wouldn't bother with Badbury Hill, and I don't know Shenlow.

Thanks everyone - this is great (and faster than I expected!) - White Horse / Uffington / Ridgeway looks especially good for what I'm seeking, maybe also Beacon Hill, but will definitely explore several of them and sometimes it's nice to just go on some longer more scenic hilly trails (Cotswolds, Chilterns) as also suggested.

Much appreciated...

Ha! - thanks, I do know about stairclimbers and find them very helpful for such training. Of course like the treadmill they only work the 'up' muscles (mostly calves I guess) not the 'down' (mostly quads I think), but that's still very useful.

Unfortunately the small gym at my workplace doesn't have one. It does have a Peloton so sometimes I do that at very high resistance, which feels like it works my legs similarly but not sure if that's legit or not?

For those who are curious, here is a 'mountain leg' home workout from ultrarunning coach David Roche that I've been trying and seems to do something (?): 

https://www.trailrunnermag.com/training/trail-tips-training/3-minute-mounta... 

Yes, exercise bike is better than nothing. I think you're right about the downs, they'll trash your quads without some training. In the absence of hills, you can try (long) interval training (if slightly downhill even better), e.g. 4 x 1 mile or similar to get the legs used to a bit of a pounding.