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IM plan - subbing in some hill runs

trirebeltrirebel
in General Training Discussions

I'm blessed to have a National Military Park 2 miles from my house.  Its a beautiful area to run in.  One of my favorite routes is a 6 mile route (can be longer if I wanted) that is incredibly hilly.  There would be no way to maintain any sort of pace goals.  Is there a way to sub this run in in place of one of the other running days?  Or maybe in addition to the other runs?   

Comments

  • Al TruscottAl Truscott

     Where I live is quite similar - I live down in a hollow with three roads heading out north, south and east. To start any run from my house is 200' of up vertical in the first half mile, and it rolls on from there. So I just go by perceived rate of exertion on my runs to hit the HMP and MP paces on bricks or long runs. Where possible, (say, a 15 minute HMP interval), I try to even out the up and down within it, so reviewing my lap pace when it's over can confirm I was in the right zone. When it comes to faster intervals, though, going hard up hills is just too much for my knees, so I do those on the school track at the top of the hill, or on the relatively flat bike path 1.5 miles away (or the treadmill in the winter rains).

  • Tom GlynnTom Glynn
    I'm signed up for IM SG and subbed in a ton of hills. Rather than pace goals per plan, I did the same route quite often and benchmarked time. Slow up hill, fast down and hoped to hold an average overall. Sometimes I would do the same loop 2 or 3 times in a row, trying to hold average pace overall.

    I think hills are a great add to training.

    tom
  • Michele CellaiMichele Cellai
    Agree with the guys! My problem is the opposite of Al's. I live near the high point in town, so it is downhill for 7/10 mile in 1 direction and mostly down hill for 1 mile in the other direction. After that I have small rollers to do my intervals. Of course that also means that I can not get home, no matter how tired I am, unless I run up hill. But I have always loved hill repeats, stadium stairs, whatever. Depending on what I want to do, i.e. follow the plan or make it my own, determines if I stay close to home and drill myself on hills- not caring about pace- or head to the relatively flat area. Great VO2 work any time.
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