Hill Repeats - Marathon Specific

It is good to be back on these boards and I hope more of the old time v-teamers show up.

What % grade on treadmill do you feel is appropriate for building strength on hills specifically for marathons like Hartford or others that have some hills especially at the end. I have moved up this past cycle to 6% incline for 400m. For my upcoming cycle in a few weeks should I keep it that way or move to a longer repeat of maybe 500m @ 6%. Thanks,

Kenny B. wrote:It is good to be back on these boards and I hope more of the old time v-teamers show up.

I'm doing my best to spread the word. Feel free to pass the link along to anyone else as well.

Kenny B. wrote:
What % grade on treadmill do you feel is appropriate for building strength on hills specifically for marathons like Hartford or others that have some hills especially at the end. I have moved up this past cycle to 6% incline for 400m. For my upcoming cycle in a few weeks should I keep it that way or move to a longer repeat of maybe 500m @ 6%. Thanks,

6% is solid. When I've trained for Boston I've stuck in the 4-6% range. Unless there are hills steeper than that on the course, I don't think you need to increase it more.

I am also a fan of hill sprints at the end of easy days: 8 x 10 seconds at 10% incline. They really work a different set of muscles. That being said, I practically beg Chris to do them and he ignores me.

Dave-O wrote:

Kenny B. wrote:It is good to be back on these boards and I hope more of the old time v-teamers show up.

I'm doing my best to spread the word. Feel free to pass the link along to anyone else as well.

Kenny B. wrote:
What % grade on treadmill do you feel is appropriate for building strength on hills specifically for marathons like Hartford or others that have some hills especially at the end. I have moved up this past cycle to 6% incline for 400m. For my upcoming cycle in a few weeks should I keep it that way or move to a longer repeat of maybe 500m @ 6%. Thanks,

6% is solid. When I've trained for Boston I've stuck in the 4-6% range. Unless there are hills steeper than that on the course, I don't think you need to increase it more.

I am also a fan of hill sprints at the end of easy days: 8 x 10 seconds at 10% incline. They really work a different set of muscles. That being said, I practically beg Chris to do them and he ignores me.

Dave I tagged your post on FB so I'll do my best to get it out there. Might event twitter it. Thanks for the quick reply (one thing I loved about the HH forum) But that is then this is now. And now looks very good!

Pretty sure Hudson/Fitz recommend those super-short-super-steep hill efforts in Run Faster, too, as a means of injury prevention via strengthening of various stabilizing muscles.

Dave-O wrote:

Kenny B. wrote:It is good to be back on these boards and I hope more of the old time v-teamers show up.

I'm doing my best to spread the word. Feel free to pass the link along to anyone else as well.

Kenny B. wrote:
What % grade on treadmill do you feel is appropriate for building strength on hills specifically for marathons like Hartford or others that have some hills especially at the end. I have moved up this past cycle to 6% incline for 400m. For my upcoming cycle in a few weeks should I keep it that way or move to a longer repeat of maybe 500m @ 6%. Thanks,

6% is solid. When I've trained for Boston I've stuck in the 4-6% range. Unless there are hills steeper than that on the course, I don't think you need to increase it more.

I am also a fan of hill sprints at the end of easy days: 8 x 10 seconds at 10% incline. They really work a different set of muscles. That being said, I practically beg Chris to do them and he ignores me.

I would agree with the 4-6% range also and have found that has helped with my Boston training also. Another thing you could do Kenny is see if you can find the grade changes and the profile of the Hartford marathon and other then doing hill repeats you can also simulate the course layout. That has been a huge thing for me with running Boston better every year.

Dave as for Chris ignoring you on the hill sprints I don't know what to say other then if he would listen to you maybe he would have run that darn sub 3 by now!

Ha ha - I have generally ignored doing the short hard hill sprints. In my defense, I was battling a balky calf for the past 5+ months which always let itself be heard from when I was doing hills. But I get the message and its a good thing for me to work on. I'm doing a recovery run tonight and will throw some in on the hill right by my house.

As someone once said... "running hills is speedwork in disguise"

Try 800s at 5% as they are a completely different animal than 400s at 5%. For me 400s at 5% on the treadmill feel relatively easy, but the 800s at 5% feel a lot harder.

Jim Lentz wrote:Try 800s at 5% as they are a completely different animal than 400s at 5%. For me 400s at 5% on the treadmill feel relatively easy, but the 800s at 5% feel a lot harder.

800's would scare me. I am going to keep the 400's @ 6% this cycle as I am increasing intensity and mileage But will consider 500m @ 6% next cycle as I build up to it.

Chris M wrote:Ha ha - I have generally ignored doing the short hard hill sprints. In my defense, I was battling a balky calf for the past 5+ months which always let itself be heard from when I was doing hills. But I get the message and its a good thing for me to work on. I'm doing a recovery run tonight and will throw some in on the hill right by my house.

I think it's time to do more downhill sprints--works great to get rid of calf and quad tightness.

I'm hoping that 13.3 miles at 11% average incline helps. Except it is not on a treadmill.

jimd wrote:
I think it's time to do more downhill sprints--works great to get rid of calf and quad tightness.

I know that one of the workouts the Hanson team does is downhill speedwork. I'll have to look up what the distance was. What I thought was funny about that workout is that they run downhill and hope in the team van to drive to the top for the next repeat. The drive time was their recovery team between repeats.

I love doing the hill sprints in the style Dave-O mentioned. When I do them regularly I've yet to get injured, they aren't the most fun but they work.

Hill repeats I've never really done, but I'd assume you just wanna do an incline that lets you keep pretty good form while still working hard.