Forums >General Running>Running Hills
Hi All,
I'm new addition to the site. Might be kind of a dumb question. My half marathon training plan form Garmin has me doing hill repeats. Question is, on the recovery portions do I run downhill or keep going up?
For repeats I'd walk/jog back down and repeat. For hill runs, keep going as you'd for a normal run, trying to keep the effort going up hill manageable, so you don't need to walk.
Just a dude.
Hi All, I'm new addition to the site. Might be kind of a dumb question. My half marathon training plan form Garmin has me doing hill repeats. Question is, on the recovery portions do I run downhill or keep going up?
Typically, hill repeats are done by doing a run up the hill, and then recovering by jogging back down the hill...
I've done other things with longer or shorter recoveries, but not that often. (Did an up 2 telephone poles, jog back 1 pole in high school that was both fun and brutal...)
I've never done my recoveries uphill... Could make for an interesting workout, but not a typical one I don't think...
Thanks!
-Kelly
Getting back in shape... Just need it to be a skinnier shape...
Assuming you have a hill long enough that you could keep going up, you'd still want to walk or stop for recovery. Even a slow jog uphill isn't that much of a recovery. To me it makes more sense, and is my only option for hill work, is to jog/walk down for recovery.
Hopefully your training plans says more than "do hill repeats!" Does it say x number of seconds, a certain race pace/effort? Normally, short hill repeats (< 15s) are nearly all out sprints. Hill repeats in the 30s to 60s range are done a bit slower (like 1 mile to 2 mile race pace), and longer hill repeats are done at 5K pace or slower. But, there's lots of variations.
Typically, hill repeats are done by doing a run up the hill, and then recovering by jogging back down the hill... I've done other things with longer or shorter recoveries, but not that often. (Did an up 2 telephone poles, jog back 1 pole in high school that was both fun and brutal...) I've never done my recoveries uphill... Could make for an interesting workout, but not a typical one I don't think... Thanks! -Kelly
I did .... once. Last year I was going to be running a marathon that had significant downhill mileage and I got the bright idea to run one of my 1600 repeat sessions on a hill. I ran a HMP-paced 1600 downhill (supposed to be the hard part of the workout) and then jogged back up a mile for the next one. It was, indeed, a very weird workout because the downhill 'fast' 1600's felt more like recovery than the 9-10min 'recovery' jog back up to the start! The hill was about 250 feet of gain/loss over that mile. Ended up being a 13 mile session 7 fast, downhill 1600s and 6 recovery, uphill 1600s. Don't know that it helped or hurt but since no one runs them that way I guess I don't recommend it!
Boy, that must be some hill!
Thanks for all the replies. I live in northern NJ and there are some loooong hills. Since i've never incorporated hill repeats in training before, I was just unsure of the protocol. I certainly wasn't excited about the prospect of recovering uphill!! The p;an has psecific instructions for the hills; time, HR, etc but didn't specify if i should walk/jog on recovery
I run hill repeats where the cross country team runs them. They run on a short steep hill. Over 8% climb only 150 yards. Run up jog down.
I run hill repeats in front of my house 1 mile hill but I only run 800 yds up and down and rest holding my knees.
Hi,
I'm new to this forum and recently started running in Spartan races. everything was going well, 5 miles every other day with big hills 7-10 mile hilly runs on the weekend. i work in the construction industry so days are long and hot on roofs. went for run after work with coworker and back locks up, painful, Couldn't finish run could barley walk. Now every time I attempt to run or even walk on treadmill back pain comes back. I stop every 10-20 minutes to stretch and roll on foam roller but pain comes back soon after I get back on. Any advise would be appreciated.