muscles and hills (Read 1395 times)

Since I live in Florida and I do not have the ability to add hill workouts to my training, does anyone have any suggestions to an alternative, weight training (squats)?

If you are near the ocean, running on sand or in wast deep water will be an added difficulty.

Since I live in Florida and I do not have the ability to add hill workouts to my training, does anyone have any suggestions to an alternative, weight training (squats)?

Standard FL hills include bridges, overpass abutments, parking garages (when no traffic), stairs (buildings, stadiums), etc. - at least from what I've heard.

Yes, strength training can include single-leg balance squats (with reach or closed eyes), multi-directional and multi-sized lunges, etc. (I'm forgetting one of the basics)  Short step lunges work muscles differently than long steps. Since running only has one leg on ground at one time, one-legged exercises are better than two. And multidirectional prepares you for turning and general accident prevention, etc. (very important for trails).

I live near lots of hills, but our winter runs tend to be flatter than summer runs (snow conditions). If / when I use supplemental stuff with strength training, I usually do it in winter (Nov-Dec mainly, but some in Jan-March) (fewer races and generally flatter terrain for runs), then pick up the hill work on real stuff when snow conditions permit. My philosophy is I need the hills (aerobic or strength training) in base to do the other runs later in my training.

Most of my hills are strength and strength endurance (aerobic), although may do some alactic stuff during base. When peaking I'll throw in some more power oriented stuff IF I have the base to support it. I'll generally do those 4-6 wks before a race. These are generally 3 min hard uphill (20-30% slope), full recoveries. (snow affects our timing a lot in terms of how much time we have to do certain types of workouts on firm surfaces) I may do Lydiard hill drills in there when convenient. I'm not sure I'd do supplemental strength work then, as I want to be close to race ready.

I don't use a hill phase like Lydiard has, but I'm running hills year round, and need to build elevation gain into my long runs (hilly trail races, ultras) more so than power.

so when we run up a hill it is harder but is simply because we have to carry our body weight up the incline, or is it the result of the muscle groups we use to go uphill being weaker due to their getting less work when we are on flat ground the majority of the time. Does it actually create more pressure on our lungs in and of itself, or is the lung pressure more a result of the muscles used for going uphill not being able to utilize oxygen because we normally don't ask them too and therefore they start needing more fast?

 This sounds like a homework problem?