It might seem like you always want to have the flattest terrain, but just like treadmills, it’s fun to look for some terrain with height differences as well. A Hill Run is a good run between the normal ones. The idea is that you ‘fight’ the hill as it gives you a new challenge you need to conquer, often the say ‘Kill the Hill’ when participating in this method. Your own bodyweight will become an instrument of resistance while you go uphill on a high-intensity level and then you go down the hill while you take it a bit more easy on yourself. Repeat this a few times with short cycles like 30sec-1 min to go up and then go back down in double that time.
The big selling point here is that it offers a high intensity, but it reduces the risk of injury. Once you are at the top you take it easy again when going back down so your body takes less of a beating. It does not need to be a real hill, it can be a dune, bridge or anything else that has the big terrain difference a hill would provide. Next, for being fun, it might help you out when you run a race, often the routes are long and you will encounter some parts where you need to climb or decline. This trains you for those parts.
Example of a hill training (4x 45 seconds * 2 minutes)
Tips for the Hill Run:
There are more interval workouts then hill training. Meet one of the following interval training sessions:
Mobile Product Manager by day, runner by night. Robin is one of the founders of the Run Trainer app and started running back in 2012. With a mix of his personal running experience and as a proffesional mobile app manager he tries to thrive the best UX and innovation to Run Trainer.