Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Hills, hills, hills, hills, well- you get the point!

I was recently reading an article about how important hill training is to overall running fitness. If you are like me and run on a treadmill most of the time (when the weather is junk,) then you may want to add the following session once or twice to your weekly routine:

Mile Marker Elevation
0 to 1 -1%
1 to 2 -2%
2 to 2.5 -5%
2.5 to 3 -2%
3 to 3.5 -8%
3.5 to 4 -2%
4 to 4.5 -5%
4.5 to 5 -2%

I did this twice on Monday and it was really a good workout! Way better than the normal flat grade. Actually, the article said that running without an incline is comparative to running downhill outside and that you should be running at least at a 1% elevation in order to duplicate that of an outdoor track. It also said to run about 1 min/mile slower than your normal pace. If this workout is too easy, then you could do it twice (like me) or speed up your pace. If it's too hard, then just do it once and slow down your pace. Apparently, adding hills is one of the major components to increasing your speed on race day. Just thought I'd share ;)

3 comments:

  1. Okay, I need more explanation on what all the numbers mean. If it's says 1-2 (I'm assuming 1-2 miles) are you saying we need the treadmill on the 2 incline? Then mile 2-2.5 move the treadmill to 5 incline etc.?

    I ran 4 miles today on a 2 incline but it was hard for the whole time. This looks like a better idea. I'm curious if I'm interpreting it correctly. Let me know.

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  2. Sorry- I had a nice table labeled, but when it posted it scrunched it all together. So, you run your first mile at a 1% incline, your second mile at a 2% incline, your next 1/2 mile at 5%, the next 1/2 mile at 2%, the next 1/2 mile at 8%, the next 1/2 mile at 2%, the next 1/2 mile at 5%, and the last 1/2 mile at 5%.

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  3. Thanks Amber, sounds awesome. And I will be doing that just 1 time for now :)

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