Monthly Workout Round Up – Hill Running Workouts

I have a complicated relationship with hills. My training for the Vermont City Marathon this year involved plenty of hills. I was determined to attack the long climb at mile 15 as prepared as I could be. And sometimes my mental state made them harder than they should have been. We all know how the hill in VCM worked out for me, after all that preparation, but regardless of the outcome, I never regret a hill workout. The harder a run, the stronger you are at the end of it, both physically and mentally.

If you’re looking to add speed, endurance and some mental grit to your running game, we have you covered in this month’s workout round up. Laura, Angela, Allie, Nellie, Sarah and I have come up with 6 hill running workouts to challenge you and prepare you for any hills a race will have to offer.

Want to catch up on some of the previous month’s workouts for runners?

Here are our past workout round ups:

Injury Prevention for Runners

Upper Body Workouts for Runners

Two a Day Workouts for Runners

At Home Workouts for Runners

For this workout, you’ll need to find a hill that will take at least 60 seconds of hard effort to climb. Begin by warming up, running at an easy pace, for 15 minutes, ending your warm up at the base of the hill. Run at a hard pace for 30 seconds uphill, then recover by walking or slowly jogging back downhill for 30 seconds. Immediately return to your hard uphill pace for another 30 seconds, then the same recovery. Then do the same two repeats at 45 second intervals, and then at 60 second intervals, for a total of 6 hill repeats. Finish off with 15 minutes of easy running as your cooldown.

There is a definite mental element to this workout – when 30 and 45 second repeats feel tough, but you know the last two are going to be even harder, it will take a little extra determination to grit it out to the end.

Now let’s check out what the other ladies in our round up have in store for you!

Laura from This Runner’s Recipes combines tempo and hills into a rolling hills course.

Nellie from Brooklyn Active Mama combines a quick workout break at the top and bottom of the hill (um, I kind of love this idea!).

Allie from Vita Train for Life takes you to a hilly loop and has you focus on form while you attack the hills.

Angela from Happy Fit Mama has you running a pyramid workout, in which you knock out the hardest repeats first.

Finally, Sarah from Run Far Girl has also embraced lunging and squatting in the middle of a hills workout. 😉

Tell me I’m not the only one who wants to run hills tomorrow!! I’d take a hill workout over a tempo run any day!

How do you feel about hills?

What’s your least liked workout?