Below are two pictures of the hill I've been training on this month. My Garmin tells me that it's a 120ft hill. I have been able to do 4-5 repeats, but it's slow going. I sometime think about turning around before I make it to the top. To my surprise I have not been sore or had any issues from adding this into my training.
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| Distant view (arrow points to top) |
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| My view from the bottom of the hill |
I have some questions I hope some of you more experienced at hill training can help answer.
- I know it may be difficult to tell from the photos but does this hill seem steep enough and long enough to classify as a long hill? I know of some other hills that seem steeper but they are short in comparison. It's really hard to find hills in Houston.
- I have been running 4 miles then doing the hill repeats. I count the repeats as part of my total mileage. When done it comes out to around 5 miles total. Am I suppose to count the hill miles also?
- I have played with the idea of doing hill repeats twice a week instead of just once since my body seems to be handling the training. What are your thoughts on that?
Any other thoughts would be appreciated!
4 comments:
First, in my opinion, you CAN NOT go wrong with hills, short ones, long ones, steep ones, etc. with that being said, this one may be a little short, but since it's hard to find hills...... I'm currently running a hill that is .37 of a mile long - I'm training for a marathon. I even have a hill that is 1 mile that I run from time to time.
I definitely count my hill repeat mileage. I run up hard, and then run down easy, and repeat.
I personally like to - more or less - run 2-3 quality workouts a week, and for me most of the time those will be tempo run, hill repeats or track workout, and a long run. If I do 2 hard workout, like hill repeats and a long run, the next week I would want to run a tempo and long run. Some wks I get 3 hard workouts in, in one wk, but try to listen to my body to make sure I'm not overdoing it.
The main thing, in my opinion, is "to run faster, you have to run faster" so anytime you are picking up the pace, in any way - hills, intervals, fartleks, tempos, racing shorter races, you will improve.
Good Luck!
I think as long as your body is handling it, 2 days a week sounds good.
I always count my hill mileage. I do the same - run up hard, run down easy and repeat.
i like what they both say!
i'd say one day do it hard, the second time, easy. any incline where it's hard to find hills counts for something!!!
good job for being diligent on that terri! :)
when is that next half? is it the white rock one?
And if you can run on grass, that's better than the hard surfaces. I always count the hillwork. In fact, maybe it should be counted twice!
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