Shakeout: Run to the hills

Run for your life

Hill work. We all need it, yet few of us actually make time to include it in our running repertoires. If we’re being honest, most of us simply ignore hills until it’s too late and they’re staring back at us. That’s a life metaphor, obviously.

Race directors love putting hills at the end of events because they separate those who trained for the course versus those who didn’t bother. That’s why I like saving hills for the end of my run. Anyone can run hills when they’re fresh. True hill beasts run them when they're tired.

Whether you’re training for a specific race or not, running hills is yet another way we can deepen our reservoir of resilience. Few things build character – as well as literal strength – quite like hammering an incline.

Of course, running hills and training for hills are two different things. You run hills because they’re there. You train for hills because you care. There’s all kinds of ways to train for hills ranging from short sprints up steep grades to longer sustained efforts along more gradual inclines.

Sprint workouts, while nasty and brutish, are relatively straightforward. All you need is 15-20 minutes, a steep enough hill, and a willingness to suffer. Longer efforts require a bit more attention to detail. In addition to infinite amounts of patience, you also need a hill long enough to climb for say, 30-40 minutes.

If you have mountains in your backyard, you could simply run to the peak and call it a day. For everyone else, the treadmill is an excellent tool. This week, we’ve got three different vertical workouts to explore on the treadmill.