Runners-Hill work

nyy03

I just did my first hill work on the treadmill. I'm following a training plan and it said to do 5 mi with 5 repeats. I had a friend give me advice on how he did hills so I followed his guide. This is what I did:

2.5miles @ 7.0mph

.5 mile @ 6.3mph with 4.0 incline - I would do hill for 1 min then bring incline to 0 for 1 minute, repeated 5 x

1.5 miles @ 7.0mph

.5 miles @ 6.5 mph

Then 5 minutes of cool down.

My question is, did I do this right? Is my speed OK?

Any additional advice or comments are welcome.

nyy03

Each week I have to increase my repeats by 1. I'm only doing 4 weeks of hills.

This is what the plan says:
Hills: 1-2k warm-up then the R# above in 45-50 second surges uphill... rest by jogging down/ do 1k cool down

scottb81

For your workout you probably need to speed up the hill repeat part.

Normally you should go for hill repeats of about 1/4 mile or less and run them fast, at race pace if you can do it. It is supposed to be very hard. Also, not sure what slope a 4.0 incline is but ideally the slope should be around 6 to 10%.

brandyk77

i guess i've never done a hill w/o on a treadmill. Is there a reason you cannot do this outside?

scottb81

I think outside would be easier since you wouldn't have to keep adjusting the treadmill incline. Just find a steep hill long enough to take a minute to run up. 6 to 10% slope is desired but if it looks steep it's probably about right.

When I do hill repeats I run up hard, to the point my legs are burning and breathing is nearly to the point of being lightheaded. Then I run down really slow to get the breathing and heartrate back under control.