Can't it be both?

Why do specific hill work? If you live in a rolling/hilly area just make sure many/most of your runs cover a rolling route.

Then you can put the beginning & final touches on at the track.

But if I had to choose, for IM I'd choose hills over the track. Mainly bc you can run fast on the roads but it's hard to run uphill on a track.

After all the higher one's run fitness the more likely one is to have a good run in an IM. The higher your run fitness the more room for error one has on the bike.

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Brian Stover USAT LII
Accelerate3 Coaching
Insta

Absolutely both. They serve different purposes. Change the stimulus often in training.

And add in tempo runs and fartlek while you're at it...

Well it could be both, but I only like to do one really hard run per week. I have no problem running my distance runs on hilly routes, in fact I enjoy it, but for the really hard quality runs I want to choose one and stick with it. Over the spring I have done track work once a week and really enjoy it, its easy to push and I have gotten quite a lot faster. Earlier years I have done hills autumn/winter, then two faster sessions a week and gotten hurt during spring. Now that I never did more than one hard run a week i'm fine. And for the last 6-7 weeks before an IM I want to program my hard runs so that they build into each other.

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Endurance coach | Physiotherapist (primary care) | Bikefitter | Swede

If you have a gps, there's really no reason to go to the track at all.

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Take a short break from ST and read my blog:
http://tri-banter.blogspot.com/

Again, why not both?

I do one hard run a week too, and I run both hills and track every week. How? Very simple - nobody said hills have to be hard. Hard on the track, easy days in the hills. Takes some discipline and base fitness to hold a low HR and effort on the hills - and some damage to the ego, running so slowly - but for me, it means: A) More varied routes, less boring city street runs, and B) Better fitness through less injuries.

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ZONE3 - We Last Longer

I would look at in in a bigger context....where do I do my intensity:

1. Hard swimming....pretty well every swim
2. Hard riding....85% of the rides will have decent intensity
3. Hill Work (pretty well every run has some hills....often end runs coming indoors and running 10 min up a 4-12% incline....no pounding great aerobic load)
4. Track work....never do anymore unless I am training for a 10K or less. I will go to the track to dial in my half IM pace on 1 mile repeats, but hardly any high end.

Keep in mind, I am racing 50-54 and have some running limitations, so ROI on real track speed work is not that great and injury risk is high...plus the track intensity takes away matches to devote to swim and bike intensity and I think those latter two are more important for an Ironman anyway for all but 5% of the field.

A lot of reasons:
1) Totally flat
2) Round: almost no impact of wind
3) Very fun to run fast
4) GPS inaccurasies
5) No other random stuff disturbing intervals like parents with strollers, people walking their dogs, etc
6) The pros do it ;)



As I said, I like and still do hilly routes (mainly trail) on my distance runs. I am not at all sad about slow avg paces in my distance runs; they are just volume and a good time+fitness gains is the goal. I am now talking about that one run per week where you do focused intervals and want to be pretty darn tired at the end. Quality training.



I am in the 25-29 AG, turning 25 this autumn. I am a weak runner compared to my competitors (I was fifth in my AG in the Long Distance WC last weekend, third off the bike but was outran). Sure that sucked but I know that I have to be patient with the running. I am improving. I am looking to improve a bit more until my first Iron-distance in just 6 weeks. This means about 4-5 weeks of solid training and thus only 4-5 quality runs. I know that track work has suited me very good over the spring and I am keen to go down that route for these 4-5 quality runs for my IM, while still running hilly on the distance training, but I am also afraid of hurting myself leading up. Thats why I am thinking about replacing track work with hill reps.

It's a tough call and I like all the answers so far.

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Endurance coach | Physiotherapist (primary care) | Bikefitter | Swede

If an either/or and since you specified it is for IM prep, it is an easy choice for me: hills. In fact if I was limited to only one type of run for IM prep, it would be hills. I feel hill workouts prepare you the best for the back half of an IM marathon.

Never use the track. Always cross country with lots of good hills.

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Dave Campbell | Facebook | @DaveECampbell | h2ofun@h2ofun.net

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Lions don't lose sleep worrying about the sheep

maybe alternate weeks. One week a hard hilly run the next a track workout?

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Brian Stover USAT LII
Accelerate3 Coaching
Insta

100% agree, but at your level of ability and this close to specific IM training, would suggest maintaining the fun/difficulty of your trail long-run hills (take it easy on the descents- no need to push the downhill unless your IM has some long downhill portions on the run), and then get specific on your intervals once a week on the road.


6 weeks out and you should be getting into your 1k-3k repeat range. As the interval distance gets longer, injury risk increases slightly with the track in my experience. Track specific prep under 800m isn't too bad, but if all of a sudden you're hitting (example) 6x1200, or 4 x 1600, that's a lot of stress (for a triathlete. Single-sport runners are a different animal).


Would use the strollers/dogs/walkers to your advantage and do "over-under" workouts where the "average" of the interval is intended to be "x" pace, but you intentionally get there by specific distances or time that are slightly above and slightly below (but can not be confused with recovery or endurance pace). So when you get the obstruction, let it be, note the time on the watch, and then accelerate for an appropriate time when the obstruction is passed, then ease back into interval pace. This teaches your body to handle the small surges we face when racing and never get on the track (if track etiquette is followed).


When people really stop and think about most races (especially multiple loop IM run courses), it can be a constant acceleration/deceleration/some speed maintenance. Therefore, if the training preps for the unexpected, you've done the work to handle race day craziness such as congested aid stations, weaving in and out of some who may be slower and unaware you're passing, etc.


So, get your long hills on your long runs to maintain strength, and get some over/under long intervals on the road for a race-specific quality workout. Turn your identified #5 "negative" reason into a positive.


Good luck.

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http://www.reathcon.com

My 2 cents if you are 25 and only have 6 weeks to your first IM, is don't worry too much RIGHT NOW about pointy end running....there is time to jack up your swim and bike thresholds and have a higher top line in both without risk of injury or burn out and just run hills for your intensity. Race day, if you have a higher top line swim and bike and use the same percent of a better top line in each sport, then your run legs should be in better shape.

In the context of training for tris and balancing off the three sports over the IM distance it can be hard to make big run gains with the overall training load from the other sports in a short duration of 6 weeks. I think your run improvements need to be a year long project (or multi year), not 6 weeks. My 2 cents with an IM looming over the horizon. Swim and bike fitness are like having bonds in your financial portfolio...absolute pointy end run fitness might be like owning pre IPO tech stocks that you never get to cash because you can never access them...they stay locked up and never turn into liquidity. Track work at high speed is not really bread and butter until you get into really pointy end (like pro zone) IM run speed. And even 2:45 IM marathoners like Marino Van Hoenacker and Tim O'Donnell have had more than a few days when they never got to access their run fitness.