Hill Work

I did 10.6 miles of hills this morning. The start was a balmy 22deg F. The first hill is at mile 2.5 and then they keep coming every 1/2 mile or so. I really hammered the first one and felt great so I kept pushing thinking I would have to back off and didn't. I have not been able to do that since well before the marathon. About 5 miles in, I was toasty warm and breathing hard. 

Here is the Garmin data:



Everything I am reading including "Advanced Marathoning", "Run Faster from the 5K to the Marathon", "Barefoot Running" all say run hills.  There is a lot of debate about speed, tempo, LSD, weights, yoga, stretching, rolling, etc.  What I have found no debate on is hills.  Everyone says run hills.  The benefits include:

- Building strength in legs and core
- Building cardio endurance and upping the lactate threshold
- Burning tons of calories
- Solidifies mental confidence in handling hills in races

The most important benefit of consistently running hills is injury prevention.  Runners that only run on flat and do not do strength training or hill runs are much more susceptible to injury.  Matt Fitzgerald ("Run Faster...") coaches many elite runners and says the key to helping most of these runners grab the next gear was hills.

I can't say that I understand all of the science, but I know it is helping and if it can prevent injury then I am a fan!