Ill briefly answer your next few questions, too: why?
Lets tackle those first, and then find your perfect hill.
What are hill repeats and why should I do them?
A hill repeat means running uphill.
Theyre called repeats because you wont do just one.
The shorter, faster ones are sometimes called hill sprints.
But there are lots of ways to do intervals.
Why take to the hills?
They provide strength benefitsfor runners, making your glutes and hamstrings work a little harder.
(Hill repeats stilldont replace a proper strength workout with weights, though.)
They make you practice good running form, driving your knees up and landing softly on your midfoot.
You just run up until its time to walk down, then repeat.
One hill, one workout.
How many hill repeats should I do, and how long?
Hills are a tool, not a workout.
So it depends on what youre trying to get out of your hill repeat workout.
Rest about 3 minutes before going again.
(This includes your walk down the hill.)
They shouldnt feel hard on your lungs, theyre just a drill for your legs.
Two to six reps would be typical.
Some runners will add an extra minute of recovery at the bottom before going again.
You might do 4-12 of these.
Longer hill repeats: These span several minutes or to a specific distance.
You might do only 2-4 of these, since theyre so long.
check that youre warmed up for hill repeats (as you would for any hard workout).
You may want to do another easy mile at the end as a cooldown.
What is a good incline for hill repeats?
A handful of thesteepest streets in the worldare 30% or more.
Want just a little bit of a hill?
Need something real challenging?
See if you’ve got the option to find 8%.
The longer the repeat, the lower you probably want the incline to be.
How do I find out how steep a hill is?
To calculate the percentage grade of a hill, remember the phrase rise over run.
So how do we find the rise and the run?
Or you could go to Google Maps and right-select a point to measure distance.
For rise, I likethe elevation finder tool here.
Then nudge the bottom of the hill, and do the same.
Click your starting point and your ending point, and double-check the show elevation toggle is on.
The elevation gain, in feet, will show at the bottom of the screen.
But for a single hill, theres only up.
The hill in my example is 0.39 miles with 175 feet of rise.
Thats an 8.5% grade, yikes.
Strava also has a route builder tool, but it requires a premium subscription.
(Any topographic map tool can do the same.)
And finally, if nothing else, theres always the incline button on the treadmill.
