This is Gong to be Repetitive - Hill Repeats

I always look forward to Tuesday nights. They mean speedwork in Central Park, usually a tempo or some other crazy long(ish) workout. Occasionally, though, we do hill repeats. Hill repeats are great because they're strength training in disguise but hill repeats also suck because, well, they're strength training in disguise.

Last night was a hill repeat night. Since my team is hosting a track meet on Saturday,* we focused on short repeats last night. The workout was 15-25 100m hill repeats--run up at around 2-mile effort, and jog down. Repeat. The jog down is the only rest during the repeats.

These short, tough repeats are great because they work your core, your hip flexors, abductors, adductors, lower back, and hamstrings. They also help you to activate your fast-twitch muscles, something a tempo run doesn't do. I'm going out of town this weekend so I'll be missing the track meet but I have my first road mile of the summer next week so I figure the short speedwork will help with that too.

I might as well enjoy these short bursts of speed now because soon it will be marathon training season with its longer intervals and heavy dose of tempo runs.

_________________
*Quick plug: if you're in town you should come out to the Whippet's track meet. It's only $10 and should be really fun! Details are here: Dashing Whippets Track Meet