Treadmill Workout: Cowie's Hill and Field's Hill

I believe in specificity of training.  I try to include workouts that prepare me for the specific challenges I’m going to face in a race.  For example, if I’m preparing for a race that’s likely to be hot, I’ll do some of my runs at the hottest time of the day.

I do most races on the strength of my current fitness.  When you race every weekend, you can’t train for each one.  Instead, I focus on a few races that I know will challenge me.  I call these my “A” races.  One of my “A” races for this year is the Comrades Marathon.

Comrades is an 87 kilometer ultramarathon in South Africa.  It’s a point-to-point race that changes direction each year.  This year is called an “up” year, because its run in the direction that has an uphill trend.  Here’s the elevation profile for the “up” course.

Comrades has rolling hills throughout the course, but most of them aren't that big.  The hills that are big enough to get your attention have names.

I’m most concerned about the first 37 kilometers.  Besides including three of the named hills, it also has a net gain of about 700 meters.  That’s an average grade of about two percent.

Today I did a treadmill workout that should help prepare me for this part of the course.  Because my workout was only 10 miles, I ran it at a faster pace than I’ll run on race day.

I generally start slow and give myself about a mile to get up to pace.  I do that on a level grade.  By the end of the first mile, I was running at 7.5 mph.  That’s an 8:00 pace.  I like to do workouts at this pace or slightly faster, because that’s my marathon pace.

Once I was up to pace, I started gradually increasing the incline while maintaining the same pace.  Over the next few miles, I increased the grade in ½ percent increments until it was two percent.  This simulates the miles between the big hills.  It’s not very steep, but it’s still slightly uphill.

The first named hill is Cowie’s Hill.  It’s 2.1 milometers (1.3 miles) long with an average grade of 4.8 percent.  I simulated Cowie’s Hill on the treadmill.  I couldn’t remember this off the top of my head, so I took a guess.  I ran the next 1.25 miles at a 5.5 percent grade.  I backed the speed down to 7.0 mph (8:34 pace).  That’s still much faster than I’ll during the race.

After about half a mile, it started getting tough.  In the race, I’ll go at an easier pace, and I may take a few short walking breaks.  In my workouts, I’ll take it faster, much like doing speed work on a track.  The next three quarters of a mile seemed to take forever.  When I reached the “top,” I set the include down to zero, but set the speed back up to 7.5 mph.

In the race, there will be a short downgrade, but then the course starts climbing again.  Instead, I gave myself about a half mile of level grade, but then gradually nudged it back up.  By the time I reached Field’s Hill, I was already on a two percent grade.  I was still going 7.5 mph, so my legs were getting fatigued.

Field’s Hill is 3.2 kilometers (2.0 miles), with an average grade of 5.8 percent.  It’s actually the steep part of a much longer hill.  Again, I couldn’t remember the numbers exactly, but I took my best guess.  I ran the next two miles at a 5.0 percent grade, with the speed set to 7.0 mph.

At first it was a relief to decrease the speed.  Then the grade began to wear on me.  After half a mile, I was already asking myself how much of the hill I had left.  After that, the remaining 1.5 miles seemed to pass quicker.  It was tiring, but I got used to it.  With a quarter mile to go, I tried to imagine that I could see the top of the hill.  In reality, there no top.  The road levels off briefly and then starts uphill again.  I'll worry about that section another day.

After my simulated Field’s hill, I only had a half mile left to finish my 10 mile workout.  I set the grade back to zero, but once again increased my speed to 7.5 mph.  Besides training for Comrades, I’m continually training for road marathons.  I like to run at my marathon race pace or faster as much as I can.

One workout isn’t going to prepare me for Comrades, but it's a start.  My hope is that if I continue to sprinkle workouts like this into my training, I’ll be able to handle the real hills on race day.

Pacing Yourself with Variable Length Walking Breaks

For the past six months, roughly half of my workouts have been a blend of running and walking.  I’m emphasizing these workouts because I’ve been training for a 48-hour race.  To run for that long, you have to slow the pace down to something you can do all day long without getting tired.  In my race, I’ll need to average 14:24 per mile for 48 hours.  I’ll start out a little faster than that, but it will still be a pace that’s too slow for me to comfortably run it.

What I’m doing in my training runs is similar to what I’ll do during the race.  I alternate running and walking, but I don’t have a fixed ratio.  I vary the length of my walking breaks to keep me on a consistent average pace.

In my race, I’ll be running a loop that’s roughly 1.05 miles.  I have a loop through my neighborhoods that’s 1.1 miles.  That’s close enough.  In training, my goal has been to maintain an average pace of 12 minutes per lap.  That’s a little faster than my race pace.  I like to train at a faster pace, so my pace on race day will feel easy.

Here’s how I pace myself.  I run the first lap at a pace that feels natural.  Let’s say I finish it in 9:45.  My target was 12:00, so I’m 2:15 ahead of schedule.  I start my second lap by walking until my watch reads 12 minutes.  That means my first walking break is 2:15.  When my walking break is over, I run the rest of the lap.

When I start running, I’m already part of the way through my next lap, so I don’t have to run as far to finish the lap.  As a result, I’ll be even farther ahead of schedule at the end of two laps.  Let’s say I finish the second lap in 20 minutes.  My target time for two laps was 24 minutes (2 times 12).  Now I get a walking break of four minutes to start the third lap.

I keep repeating this process.  At first, my walking breaks grow noticeably from one lap to the next.  Eventually, the difference becomes negligible.  I’m always finishing laps ahead of schedule, but the average trends toward my target of 12 minutes.

The beauty of this pacing method is that you don’t need to know what pace you’re running, and you don’t need to know what pace you’re walking.  By varying the length of your walking breaks, you automatically attain the correct overall pace.  That’s what really counts.  The goal is to run/walk at an overall pace that’s sustainable for whatever distance you’re racing.

This pacing method automatically adjusts to changes in either your running or walking gait.  Let’s say that as you get fatigued, your running pace slows down a little.  Let’s say your walking pace also slows down a little.  Does that mean your overall pace slows down?  No.  It means you do proportionally more running and less walking to maintain the same overall pace.

This method also automatically adjusts for downtime, if it’s not excessive.  Let’s say I stop for a minute to go to the bathroom.  That minute comes out of my next walking break.  I’ll still start running when I reach my target time, although I probably won’t get as far around my loop before I need to run again.

I run continuously in marathons, but take walking breaks in races that are significantly farther than a marathon.  If you normally take walking breaks in marathons, you can use this pacing method.  You only need to know what pace you’re trying to run, on average.

This isn’t suitable for races where the grade or terrain differs significantly from one mile to the next.  I don’t use it on technical trails or in point-to-point races with long or steep hills.  Most of the ultras I’ve done have been fixed time races on short road loops.  This is ideal for those types of races.

When I started doing these workouts last summer, I was doing them outdoors.  Lately, I’ve been doing them on a treadmill.  I continued to think in terms of 1.1 mile “laps” so I could keep using the same target for my “lap” times.  Instead of starting a walking break each time I finish a loop through my neighborhood, I start a walking break when my total distance is a multiple of 1.1 miles.  Now that it’s getting closer to my race, I’m adjusting my simulated lap to be 1.05 miles.  That’s the length of the laps I’ll be running in my race, so I need to make the mental adjustment.

This type of workout takes discipline.  When you’re walking you need to pay attention to your time, so you know when to walk.  In the treadmill version of the workout, you also need to pay attention to the distance when you’re running, so you know when to walk again.

Since moving to the treadmill, I’ve sometimes been tempted to change the routine.  Running on the treadmill can seem monotonous.  Switching between running and walking gives you some variety, but constantly watching the time and distance can accentuate the monotony.  Sometimes I tell myself, “You only have a few miles to go.  You could just run the rest and get done quicker.”  I resist the temptation.  Other times I’m tempted to run until the end of one song and then walk until the end of the next song.  Changes like that might make it feel easier, but there’s no guarantee I would stay on my target pace.  Again, I resist the temptation.

I’m training for a race that will take a great deal of mental discipline.  I need to keep my head in the game for 48 hours.  Compared to that, staying disciplined for two hours, even on the treadmill, should be easy.  I’m not just training my body.  I’m training my mind.

This workout isn’t for everyone, but it’s a great way to keep yourself from going out too fast in a long race.

Treadmill Workout: Variable-length Hills

Now that winter weather has arrived, I’m starting to read posts on other blogs about running on the treadmill.  When I started running, I ran outside all winter.  With the right clothes, I could endure the cold, but it’s hard to get a quality workout when you’re running on icy streets.  It can also be dangerous if you have to run after dark.

Now I do most of my winter training on a treadmill.  I’ve learned to use the treadmill to do a variety of different workouts, depending on my training needs.  On Thursday, I decided to do a hill workout, largely because I hadn’t done one recently.  It’s easy to neglect hill training when you’re running indoors.

I don’t listen to music when I run outside, but I always do when I’m running on the treadmill.  Over the years, I’ve created a playlist with more than 1,000 songs.  I have them arranged chronologically, so I gradually progress through time.  It takes me several months to work my way through the entire playlist.  I’m currently listening to songs from the early 70s.

For my Thursday workout, I did variable length hills.  I used my music to determine the length of each hill.  I started running on a level grade until I was warmed up.  As I warmed up, I gradually increased my speed to 7.5 mph.  That’s 8:00 per mile, which is my standard training pace.

The next time a new song started, I changed the incline to a 0.5 percent grade.  That’s a barely perceptible hill.  Outdoors, you might not notice it.  I haven’t been doing much hill training recently, so I wanted to ease into it gradually.  I ran at that grade until the end of the song.

Most treadmills can only do positive grades.  You can run uphill, but not downhill.  I have one that will let me run downhill, but the steepest downgrade is 3.0 percent.  After running a 0.5 upgrade for one song, I switched to a 0.5 downgrade.  I also increased the speed to 7.6 mph.

At the end of the next song, I switched from a 0.5 percent downgrade to a 1.0 percent upgrade.  I also decreased the speed back to 7.5 mph.  I continued this pattern for several miles.  I alternated between uphill and downhill and steadily increased the grade in half percent increments. Running uphill, I always went 7.5 mph, which got progressively more difficult.  Running downhill, I went a little bit faster each time I increased the grade.

There are two reasons why I like to change the incline on the transition between songs.  The first is to add some variety.  Some hills are long; some hills are short.  Unless I can remember the next song in my play list, I don’t know in advance how long the next hill will be.  The other reason is that it frees me from having to constantly watch the display.  I know when I’m reaching the end of a hill just by listening to the music.

Eventually, I reached a grade of 3.0 percent.  I was doing the uphills at 8:00 per mile and the downhills at 7:24 per mile.  After that, I couldn’t get any steeper on the downhills, but I continued to increase the grade going uphill.

Before I started, I had decided to run 11 miles.  I didn’t know exactly how many hills that would be.  I planned to keep running hills until I was somewhere around 10.5 miles. Then I would finish the workout on a level grade.  At 8.8 miles, I began running downhill.  The song was Beginnings by Chicago.  This was the album version, which is almost eight minutes long.

Since I can’t do steep downgrades, it was nice to have a long one.  At a 7:24 pace, I would be running downhill for over a mile.  That felt easy at first, but would eventually feel less comfortable.  At first, I felt guilty that I was getting a downhill that was twice as long as most of the uphills.  By the time the song ended, I was getting close to 10 miles total.  I would only have one more uphill.  I assumed it would be shorter, since most of the songs were between three and minutes long.

As the final notes of Beginnings faded out, I reduced the speed to 7.5 mph and changed the incline to a 5.0 percent grade.  Before the treadmill was done adjusting the slope, I recognized the next song.  It was Riders on the Storm by The Doors.  “Oh Shit,” I thought.  That song is over seven minutes.  I no longer had to feel at all guilty about the length of my last downhill section.  Seven minutes on a five percent grade at an 8:00 pace was going to be tough.  I hadn’t planned to finish with such a long hill, but I did it.  After that, I finished with about three minutes of level grade running.

This was a good workout, with the toughest hills coming toward the end.  I think running hardest near the end of a workout helps prepare me mentally for the tough miles at the end of a race.

Although my hills varied in length, the grade was always predictable.  This was still a fairly regimented workout.  Sometimes I’ll do workouts where I don’t know in advance how steep each hill will be.  I have a clock on the wall of my exercise room.  I’ll wait until the song fades out and then look up at the clock.  How steep I set the grade depends on where the second hand is pointing when I look up.

There are lots of ways you can keep treadmill workouts fresh.  This is just one example.  It works for me, because I really get into the music.  I don’t always remember which song is next, but they’re all songs I picked, and I love them all.

Run/Walk Workouts

Lately, I’ve been including walking breaks in some of my training runs.  I started doing this right after deciding to do the Across the Years 48-Hour race.  I plan to alternate running and walking during the race, so it makes sense to get used to it during my training.

I’ve found in 24-hour races that I sometimes spend as much time walking as I do running.  By working on my walking form in training, I can hopefully become a more efficient walker.  As my form improves, I’ll be able to walk at a faster pace without expending additional energy.  Covering more ground walking will allow me to do proportionally more walking and less running.  Since running and walking emphasize different muscle groups, spending more time walking will hopefully allow me to maintain my running efficiency as long as possible.

I expected these workouts to have both advantages and disadvantages.  Aside from the obvious advantage of improving my walking efficiency, I also expected to be able to do longer workouts.  Mixing running with walking results in a slower average pace.  That lets me go farther without getting tired.  I expected a trade-off.  I thought I would be sacrificing quality for quantity.  That hasn’t turned out to be the case.

Although my average pace is slower, my pace while running is actually faster than it would be if I was running the whole time.  I’ve found that I can push the pace when I’m running, knowing that I’ll have time to recover during my walking breaks.  In that sense, some of my runs are like interval workouts.

I’ve also found that I can run more often.  I used to take two days off from running after a marathon.  If I ran on the second day after a race, it was usually a short workout at an easy pace.  With the run/walk workouts, I’m comfortable running on the second day after a race.  With the walking breaks, even a 12 mile run can feel like a recovery workout.  Likewise, I used to take two days off from running before a race.  Now I’m comfortable doing a run/walk workout two days before a race.  Again, 12 miles doesn’t seem like too much.

Since I can do more workouts between races, and I can also go longer in each workout, I’m increasing my total training mileage.  In spite of doing more mileage, I also feel like I’ve improved the quality of my training by getting some faster running into the mix.  Only time will tell if these workouts will help my marathon times, but I’m hopeful that they won’t hurt.  I’m doing run/walk workouts twice a week, but I’m also doing some workouts that are continuous running.

Since it’s summer, there’s one other big advantage to the walking breaks.  I can do a two-hour workout on a hot afternoon without overheating.  Each walking break gives me an opportunity to dissipate some of the excess heat.