OS Question: Tuesday Runs & Hills

Rob

Apologies in advance if this is covered elsewhere... I looked through the wiki and the forums and couldn't find anything.

I'm trying to figure out the Tuesday run.  Do people usually do it as a brick or as a standalone run?  I don't have hills right outside my house, so hopping off the trainer and doing hills isn't practical.  Can I just substitute intervals?  Since Wednesday is a running day, I'd like to keep the Tuesday running to the morning so I have time to recover.

On a related topic, I'm thinking of moving the Wednesday run to a hilly course since I'm doing IMLP and doing the intervals on HR versus sticking to hard pacing.  Any down side to that?

Nate Parady

There has been some discussion on Brick running the past several months. For the most part, runs as Bricks are for time efficiency first and running off the bike "practice" second. The guidance that you see on the plans (not tues run) where it says if running as a brick do essentiall Half the time compared to a stand alone is a new feature to the plans.
For My Tuesday runs, the Main workout of the day for me is the Bike!. I then do the run inthe most efficient a manner as possible Keeping in mind that Wed's Run is a key workout for the week. Since I bike in my basement I will very rarely get off my bike, towel off, change clothes, and then head out into Winter Weather just to get a 20' run in. I just skip it if the weather is crap or if I don't have the time. Again the bike is priority for me on Tues. However, its been pretty nice here in VA, So I have been getting off the bike, throwing my shoes on with dry clothes and doing a simple out and back run just to get it in. I do have some hills outside my door but don't always hit those. I personally wouldn't get in the car to find a hill for a short run. For Run only days if the weather is bad I have two options for treadmills to use. As far as substituting intervals for hills, I would be careful with overdoing it and try and keep the run to an Easy paced run with some strides along the way. Easier said than done.

I did LP last year and did a lot of hill work. I think it paid off for me and gave me the confidence to know I could run up a hill at x pace, recover at the top, and then run the down hill. In terms of HR on the runs, most folks are using pace for the run. using HR on your Long runs just to see where you are at can be useful.

Good luck..

mgraffeo

the strides with hills on the Tuesday run are nice to have. If you don't have hills, do with what you have.

LP run is not a 'hilly' run, insofar it's not a rolling course. Two big hills which are quite steep and pace goes out the window, which you do twice. Much bigger issue is getting your head used to the fact that your average pace is not going to be what you're looking for on those specific miles. There are no physiological adaptations that are going to come from focusing on hill running in training that will make you better able to hold pace on those hills.

That said, Wednesday runs on hills are always good. work works. Do more work and recover from it, you'll get results.