Treadmill Hill Running Intervals Workout Training

One of the best ways to increase your running ability and over all fitness is to train running or walking up hills. Though some consider treadmills "dreadmills" or "hamster wheels" they are actually ideal for hill training.

Training on hills outside calls for running a hill and walking back down and repeating. Typically you are limited by the length and grade (steepness) of the hill in the area where you live. However, on a treadmill you can run one long continuous hill, change the steepness up and down as you see fit and not have the jarring effect running downhill has on the joints.

If you are trying to improve your race times running hills is by far the biggest bang for your buck as far as improving your fitness in the shortest amount of time.

Given the choice between adding mileage, speed work or hills to your routine, adding incline training is the no brainer.

Not only will running hills build up your leg muscles it will also increase your endurance and speed just as much as track work without nearly the same injury risk.

One of my favorite treadmill hill workouts is a 3 mile interval workout.

1. Start with a 5 minute warm up. Reset the treadmill to zero.
2. Run .25 miles (quarter mile) at a 1% incline at your 10K pace.
3. Then increase the incline to 7% for .25
4. Bring the incline back down to 1% for .25 which is a recovery period.
5. Keep increasing and decreasing the incline every quarter mile till you reach two miles.
6. During the last mile increase your speed to 5K pace and complete the same 1% to 7% quarter mile intervals.
7. Once you have reached 3 miles total cool down by walking for a quarter mile.

The total workout time including warm up and cool down periods will be approximately 45 minutes. This small investment in time once per week will greatly improve your overall running performance.

I have found that this workout has increased my fitness and leg strength. My race times from 5K through marathon have all improved since incorporating this workout into my weekly routine. Typically I run this routine once per week, sometimes twice if I am ramping up for a race. I find it is easier on my knees than speed work but gets my heart rate up in short amount of time.

I run this workout at 6 miles per hour for the first two miles and 7 miles per hour for the third mile. Based on your fitness level you can increase or decrease either the speed, incline or both to find a combination that works best for you.

About once a month you can run this routine but increase your norms slighty such as raising the incline an additional 1% or increasing your speed slightly. This will push you a bit allowing you to gain more fitness.

If you add this routine to your weekly workout schedule you should see improvement in your running and overall fitness in a relatively short amount of time.