Running Hills and Logging

I used to run on hills on purpose because it makes you breathe deeper and your legs stronger. That is what people are doing when they do interval training in running. It turns out you can actually lose fitness if you are running straight and flat and not pushing yourself too hard, even while you increase your miles.
But, it is really easy to push yourself on hills. It makes you breathe so hard you cannot help but increase your aerobic capacity (and, I think, lung volume, another advantage).

Hills are also good for toning your backside and legs.

I don't know about the calorie burn but running hills will make your legs stronger which will lead to running faster.

It will also help you prepare for any unexpected hills you may encounter if plan on doing any races. When you get to the hill, you will keep running, while most around you will stop to walk

If you mean training for runs, then hills are excellent trainers. If you do searches on the runners world and running times website, you will find a plethora of training modules for hills and how they help.

Oh, and a HRM will help you monitor your heart rate and calories burned during said training.

It turns out you can actually lose fitness if you are running straight and flat and not pushing yourself too hard, even while you increase your miles.

Say what? Lose fitness when running aerobically? If your HR is up, you are gaining fitness.

I agree w/ the second comment. Per my running instructor, hills help w/ speed because you push yourself harder.

Hey guys! So I recently have been working and living in pretty hilly areas. Most of my runs include a ton of hills that I am not used to that has slowed my pace considerably, but I feel like I'm working harder, which is great. I'm wondering how people log this, as the same distance I used to be able to run in 55 takes around 70 minutes now but feels like a much tougher work out (because, it is?).

Also, anyone want to explain the benefits of running hills in training? I feel like I should know this but I want to keep motivated to keep running them.

Several types of workouts and paces to focus on different things. Plus benefits of downhill.

http://www.brianmac.co.uk/hilltrain.htm

Calorie estimates for incline running.
Calc's most accurate for walking level 2-4 mph. Running and incline has more variability to a person's own efficiency and loses accuracy, but still could be more accurate than HRM. Problem is knowing the grade of hill without treadmill.

http://www.exrx.net/Calculators/WalkRunMETs.html

It turns out you can actually lose fitness if you are running straight and flat and not pushing yourself too hard, even while you increase your miles.

This year I slowed way down and increased my miles and got fitter (and faster) more quickly than I did while running less and pushing myself for every run. I'm faster than I've ever been and most of my runs are at a conversational pace.

I think you might be confused about what you have done. But okay. It is probably possible. Perhaps by running more miles you made your legs stronger than they were before?
That's great. Whatever it was.

No. I apologize if my point was mistaken. I was merely trying to support the notion that running hills can be highly beneficial.
BTW, The Chicago Bears Walter Payton, one of the greatest running backs of all time, had a favorite hill that he trained on endlessly. And, there is a famous hill in Kenya that all that country's best distance runners used to train on -- probably still do.
But read the blog I posted, if you are interested. It really is interesting.

No. I apologize if my point was mistaken. I was merely trying to support the notion that running hills can be highly beneficial.
BTW, The Chicago Bears Walter Payton, one of the greatest running backs of all time, had a favorite hill that he trained on endlessly. And, there is a famous hill in Kenya that all that country's best distance runners used to train on -- probably still do.
But read the blog I posted, if you are interested. It really is interesting.

I totally agree that running hills and speed intervals do amazing things. But one must not do them to keep gaining fitness is what I was trying to say.

It turns out you can actually lose fitness if you are running straight and flat and not pushing yourself too hard, even while you increase your miles.

This year I slowed way down and increased my miles and got fitter (and faster) more quickly than I did while running less and pushing myself for every run. I'm faster than I've ever been and most of my runs are at a conversational pace.

I think you might be confused about what you have done. But okay. It is probably possible. Perhaps by running more miles you made your legs stronger than they were before?
That's great. Whatever it was.

No, I don't believe I am confused. I have definitely gained fitness and speed without speed work (I did run a lot of hills, because they're awesome, but I did them even more slowly than I ran on the flat) and have made these gains at a faster rate than I did when pushing myself every time. For years, I ran 2 to 3 times a week, generally around 3 miles each time and working up eventually to long runs of 8 to 10 miles. Each time I went out, I tried to do those three miles faster than I had before. Over these years I did see some improvement, but mostly at the beginning. This year, I increased my miles up to 30 to 40 per week, running 5 days instead of just 3. For a few months, I did every single run at a conversational pace. When I added speed work back in, I was faster than I had ever been. Now, my conversational pace is faster than my best times had been at some longer distances. It's been a real revelation to me.

It turns out you can actually lose fitness if you are running straight and flat and not pushing yourself too hard, even while you increase your miles.

This year I slowed way down and increased my miles and got fitter (and faster) more quickly than I did while running less and pushing myself for every run. I'm faster than I've ever been and most of my runs are at a conversational pace.

I think you might be confused about what you have done. But okay. It is probably possible. Perhaps by running more miles you made your legs stronger than they were before?
That's great. Whatever it was.

No, I don't believe I am confused. I have definitely gained fitness and speed without speed work (I did run a lot of hills, because they're awesome, but I did them even more slowly than I ran on the flat) and have made these gains at a faster rate than I did when pushing myself every time. For years, I ran 2 to 3 times a week, generally around 3 miles each time and working up eventually to long runs of 8 to 10 miles. Each time I went out, I tried to do those three miles faster than I had before. Over these years I did see some improvement, but mostly at the beginning. This year, I increased my miles up to 30 to 40 per week, running 5 days instead of just 3. For a few months, I did every single run at a conversational pace. When I added speed work back in, I was faster than I had ever been. Now, my conversational pace is faster than my best times had been at some longer distances. It's been a real revelation to me.

This is so important for new runners to understand. It seems intuitive that you'd improve more by going out and trying your hardest every single time, but over and over it's been found that the most important thing is to build your base with only moderately intense mileage, not all-out hard runs. Later when you have your mileage built up you can improve with the all-out hard intensity runs, but the distance must come first.

To OP: hills are a great workout. You can manually adjust the calories in MFP if you feel your course is hilly enough to warrant a significant bump up.

No, I don't believe I am confused. I have definitely gained fitness and speed without speed work (I did run a lot of hills, because they're awesome, but I did them even more slowly than I ran on the flat) and have made these gains at a faster rate than I did when pushing myself every time. For years, I ran 2 to 3 times a week, generally around 3 miles each time and working up eventually to long runs of 8 to 10 miles. Each time I went out, I tried to do those three miles faster than I had before. Over these years I did see some improvement, but mostly at the beginning. This year, I increased my miles up to 30 to 40 per week, running 5 days instead of just 3. For a few months, I did every single run at a conversational pace. When I added speed work back in, I was faster than I had ever been. Now, my conversational pace is faster than my best times had been at some longer distances. It's been a real revelation to me.

The Maffetone method, go slower to speed up. In other words, increase aerobic capacity at lower HR's to go longer faster.

His program also includes some tweaks as to when to do intervals, and testing to see when the slow pace has plateaued.

Search for Maffetone Mark Allen and on his site find his improvements to pace. Incredible.