Hill Repeats

I have been running ten to fifteen miles per week for nine weeks now. Having established a good base, I was looking for a workout that would increase my speed and ability to climb hills without trashing my legs.

I was inspired by reading a short article by Lindsay Flanagan, Go Up to Get Better: A Hill Workout for Strength, Speed, and Endurance.

On Wednesday morning May 13, I ran 1.8 miles as a warmup to the base of Spring Hill at the intersection of Somerville Avenue and Lowell Street. I ran my repeats up Lowell Street, a long and fairly steep hill.

I started with four repeats of 45 seconds each. Lindsay recommended 80-95% effort, but I doubt I worked this hard. A 45-second run got me about a quarter way up the hill, and I walked back down to recover.

Then I ran six repeats of 30 seconds each. Linday recommended 90-95% effort. I definitely didn’t work this hard, but I found I could increase the intensity of each repeat. My watch recorded that I raised my heart rate to about 135 bpm for each repeat; this is the bottom of Zone 4 for me.

My total distance for the repeats was 1.25 miles. I ran an easy mile back home to finish four total miles. My legs were not especially tired the next day.

I will try this again next week now that I have a feel for my effort. I want to increase the intensity of my repeats.