Treadmill Hills Are Better Than Nothing

Many training programs call for hill work.  The problem is many people (like me) don’t live near hills.  I generally just don’t worry about it and never even think of hill training.  But this morning as I looked outside at the treetops swaying and flags whipping in a 25 mile an hour wind, I decided it was a good day for hill training.  Inside on the treadmill.  I like mixing up my treadmill runs to keep from getting bored so every quarter-mile I increased or deceased the incline.  Into the 4th mile the “hill” was pretty steep and I could tell I hadn’t done hills in a long time.  Five miles on the treadmill with lots of hills was a good workout for a windy, cold Saturday.  Not quite the same as the 12 miles I had planned for outside but I think the hill work was a good substitute.  In the future I need to build that into my training on a more regular basis.   If you don’t do hills often, jump on the treadmill and crank up the incline once in a while.  Your quads will thank you.