Some days your marathon plan calls for hills or you just have the urge to work on your strength and endurance. Hill repeats are a great way to increase your strength, power, stamina and speed. They are often overlooked in training programs.
Never done them? Here is how they work:
Start with an easy mile or two to warm up and get to the bottom of a hill. Choose one that is challenging, but not impossible. From the bottom of the hill, run hard up for a set amount of time. Turn around and jog or walk easily back down. Repeat this for the number of times the workout calls for. A good beginner hill workout would be as follows:
EZ1-2 mile warmup, 10x:30 hard up, easy down, EZ1-2 cool down.
Easy mile or 2 warmup, 10 sets of 30 seconds running hard up the hill then walking or jogging down, easy mile or 2 cool down.
If you are looking for a hill in Winchester that is challenging and safe to run on, check out the hill in front of the James R. Wilkins, Jr. Athletics & Events Center at Shenandoah University. MAP
There is not much traffic on this section of the road and you can stay on the sidewalk for all of the hill. Cars go slow due to some massive speed bumps installed on this section of the campus.
If you have a favorite hill to run on in Winchester, comment below.
You can get a warmup by running around the SU campus, which has some nice rolling hills. Then head toward the stadium. From the bottom of the hill, you can easily get a steady two minute hard run up the incline. I recently did 10 repeats of 1:30 each and was able to get about 3/4 of the way up at a 6:00-6:30 pace.
Pro Tip: Bring a piece of chalk to mark off your repeats to keep track, I always lose count. OR you can pick up the equivalent number of rocks to your repeats and toss one out after each repeat. Empty hand equals completed workout.