Hills training when living on flatland

FUELERDUDE

I live in Kansas, and as such, there aren't many hills to train on. There are a few areas of town which do have some hills, but they aren't in the safest of areas. I was wondering how well hills programs on treadmills work instead of actually going out and running hills. I appreciate any advice or tips.

twinmom_112002

I would assume the training programs would work well. Here is an odd thought...is there a safe parking garage you could run in?

blueheron83

I'm in Florida and we have the same problem here. Finding hills is always a problem, we jokingly call our route with three overpasses our hills run. I have tried the treadmill to get some hills and for me it didn't seem to help much. I'm not sure if its because of the treadmill being a steady incline and not acting like actual hills or what it was but they didn't work well for me.

What did help was introducing cross training specifically a body pump type class. Doing the step ups (especially anything that forces you onto your toes) and just general cardio movements with weights did help me get stronger all around which translated pretty well into hills when I finally got to them. Although as I said, Florida hills aren't much of hills so it probably depends on the type of hills you are training for.

FUELERDUDE

Most of the hills which would be included on runs in our area are probably have about 100' rise in about an 1/8th of a mile. There's usually only one or two of these depending on the length of the run.

SassyCalyGirl

stadium stairs are also great training

mikeyboy

stadium stairs are also great training

Yes this... very much this!