Hill Running

Hill work is speed work  on steriods….is a refrain that I heard from a friend back home.

As much as I did not like them, I know the sentiment to be true.

And while I love New Orleans, I find myself longing for the ease of finding a  hill that is not a climb up the levee or over the overpass.

With that in mind and knowing that summer is almost upon us, which can drive us onto a treadmill, here are a few ways to incorporate hills into your regimen

1)      Short hill repeats of 60-90 seconds on a 4-6% incline with a slow recovery run after each.  As we are trying to work on VO2 max, the effort should be 9-10/10 on the modified rating of perceived exertion scale with the recovery run being the same length of time as the hard run.

2)      Long reps of 2-4 minutes.  The speed and incline should be such that your modified RPE is 8-8.5/10 with a recovery run of 90-120 seconds…..you will know, by your breathing and motivation, when to start the next hard interval.

I hope you enjoyed the info and I hope to see you out there running the ramps in a nearby parking garage someday soon!

On another note….not to completely be rude to the levee hills…as they are great for doing hill sprints after a regular run.  Plan your run to end at the levy and then sprint up it as fast as you can followed by a walk back down the hill.  Repeat this 4-8 times