237. Adding in hills

Run4PRs

Many runners dislike hills for a number of reasons. They are hard & they can slow you down! Many people avoid hills because they don’t like how hilly routes slow down their average pace. It is important to work on things we are not good at in order to improve as athletes. When we neglect our weaknesses, we do not improve as much as we could have! Hills not only will help you on hiller races, but they also improve your running in other ways. They increase your power, help with form & allow you to build stronger legs. When you work on hills, you can become a more well-rounded runner AND run faster on flat ground as well. Today we will be talking about different type of hill workouts and how to add them into training

We get used to doing the hills. At first it feels really hard. If you are used to it, it’s not a big deal.

1. Training for hilly races vs flat races

1. If you are training for a hilly race, hill work is a must

2. Even downhill races need downhill work

3. Simulation of the race

4. Boston marathon is very hilly and doing a lot of miles on rolling hills helps

2. Regular training adding in hill work even when training for a flat race

1. Hill repeats helping with vo2max & power

3. Tempos

1. Steady state on rolling hills- effort based. Some people are better at downhills vs uphills. You're not going to be able to get a pace band that tells you exactly what pace you should be at each second.

2. Mile repeats on rolling hills

3. Long run steady on hills

4. Easy runs on hills

4. Speed work

1. VO2max type workouts on hills

5. Combo/mixed workout

1. Hill sprints then tempo work after