what are some hill workouts that you do on a treadmill? what speed (relative), what incline, how many, length of hill section / length of recovery etc.
fire away with your best workout.
Thanks,
Good Luck…
Treadmills are the devil! Screwed my knee up bad one day in the winter, it snowed bad and i had to get in a run. Was out for 1 1/2 weeks with PCL Issues after that. I hate those things…
It’s amazing out, finally warm… just run outside.
(sorry for the rant)
i haven’t run on a treadmill in forever, but I used to looove hill workouts on it.
It all depends on your skill level, but I’d set a base speed (like 7.5 or 8) at an incline of 0 and do something like…
incline up to 1.5, speed up .2 for 1:30
incline up to 2.5, speed up .2 for 2:00
incline up to 3.5, speed up .2 for 2:00
incline up to 4.0 (or 4.5), speed up .2 for 1:30
incline up to 5.0 (or 5.5), speed up .2 (if i could) for 1:00
take it off… cool down for 3 minutes, increase base speed by .2 or .3, then do it again. Usually run through 4 or so sets of those.
I agree. I find i’m much more injury free running outside. I’ll do a treadmill run if it’s just super cold or pouring rain or something… otherwise, I’m outside.
The treadmill is how I get in my runnning over the winter. I both love and hate it. Honestly, I love it mostly because I get to watch TV (while running) guilt free.
A sample
#1
Warmup 5-10 min easy
5 minutes at comfortable cruising pace 1-2% incline
(anything less than 1% is a total waste of time, IMHO)
Increase incline 1% 1-3 min.
Increase 1% again 1-3min
Repeat until heart explodes.
(My goal is to get to 8% or better. Haven’t made it without having to slow down yet)
recover at easy pace
do again if time permits.
#2
regular warm-up
5 min at steady pace 1-2% incline
0.5 miles at 5+% incline fast as possible
(try to keep same speed for entire distance)
0.25 miles 1-2% incline as fast as possible
0.25-0.5 miles easy recovery
repeat until dead.
Cooldown
#3
regular warm up
5 min steady at 1-2%
0.75 miles at tolerable pace 1-2% incline
0.25 miles 5+% incline,
(don’t slow down if you can help it)
0.25-0.5 mile recovery easy
0.75 miles 5+% incine at tolerable pace
0.25 miles at 1-2% incline as fast as possible
0.25-0.5 mile recovery
Lather, rinse, repeat.
Really, your options are limited only by your willingness to suffer.
I hear you on the outside bit, but living at sea level with limited hills close by makes it tough, especially when working out on a lunch break. closest hills are called bridges and they aren’t that long.
thanks for the other workouts - kind of what I expected run fast and hard until you make a fool of yourself and fall off the back.
is there anyplace where you can run stairs?
not the same as hills, but a lot less boring than a treadmill.
“Just play with it” would be my best answer.
One day just pick an incline and a speed (say 5.0 incline and 6.6 speed) and increase the interval duration until you say no mas.
Another day pick an incline and an interval duration (say 6.0 incline and 2 minutes interval) and increase the speed until you fall off the back.
Mix it up. You get the idea. It’s all good. Anytime you step away from the treadmill drenched in sweat, you did good.
Here is my favorite, and the hardest treadmill hill workout that I do. It seriously kicks my ass every time. I do this in my strength building phase or as part of my base. Speed, obviously, is a variable. Comes out to somewhere between 8-9 miles.
10’ warmup @ >7.6mph and 2.0 incline
2 x 5’ @ 7.6mph/6% incline, on 2’ recovery at 7.6mph/2.0 incline
3 x 4’ @ 7.8mph/8% incline, on 2’ recovery at 7.6mph/2.0 incline
4 x 2’ @ 8.0mph/10% incline, on 1’ recovery at 7.0mph/0 incline
5’ at threshold pace on 1% incline
5-10’ cooldown