hill training

tallieterp
tallieterp Posts: 257 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
part of me hates it but i have some great hills in my neighborhood to do hill training on...

The worst hill is a 200ft elevation climb in .3 miles... lets me honest i can only "run" .1 miles of it right now... but when i get to the later 50 and 100 ft elevation climbs later in the runs i find them much easier to handle (yay)

what are some tips on how to get those nasty nasty hills to cooperate? I'm hoping I can conquer the hill before it gets icy and I'll have to stick to the flats or the treadmill for the winter...

Replies

  • tallieterp
    tallieterp Posts: 257 Member
    bueller?
  • Tomhoffman84
    Tomhoffman84 Posts: 99
    The 200 ft climb in 1500 ft might be a bit tough for starting out hill training...thats about a 12% slope for a pretty significant distance.

    Typically with hills, if your goal is to make to the top and keep going, shorten your stride, give the same "effort" if you will as if you were running the flats. You want to have energy to keep going at the top of the hill, not be completely gassed. Also, if running less than a 10 minute mile, I've read where some say its faster for you to do a fast walk up hills, then return to normal running pace at the top.

    If your goal is to do specific hill training...do hill repeats. Go to those 50 & 100 foot climb hills, attack them, walk by down, attack the hill again, repeat. Improves overall fitness level and makes hills easier.
  • jacksonpt
    jacksonpt Posts: 10,413 Member
    If your goal is to do specific hill training...do hill repeats. Go to those 50 & 100 foot climb hills, attack them, walk by down, attack the hill again, repeat. Improves overall fitness level and makes hills easier.

    agreed
  • tallieterp
    tallieterp Posts: 257 Member
    thanks - the hill i live on is a 100 ft climb and that is usually what i start out with and then I hit a lot of 3-4% grades during the heart of the run... but my friend who runs with me wanted to loop a different route though and mapped out this 2 miler that is slight down hill, short steep uphill, slight down hill, devil uphill, slight down hill, steep down hill and then one last short uphill... i know its a rough challenge but i need things like that to keep me motivated....

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