short hill sprints on treadmill?

jess from crabtown wrote:

I live in an extremely flat place with no hills at all - when I go for a 20 mile run my garmin tells me I usually changed about 10 feet in elevation total. I've been trying to do short hill sprints (a la Brad Hudson) on the treadmill at the gym but it's very awkward. Anyone tried this or have any tips? Maybe I should do slightly longer hills so it's not quite so absurd?

First of all, please quit using the English system. The rest of the world uses metrics. Start running at x:xx/km at logging with km

Next, what do you mean 'awkward'? If anything, hammering it going up an incline at the gym looks bad f***ing a** man. Don't worry what other people think.

Incline on the treadmill is the same as running up hills outside. Use the treadmill to your advantage

Actually, continue using miles...

The problem with the mill is that it takes a while to spool up to sprint speed. Do people turn it on, then jump on? Or wait for it to reach the desired speed while using precious energy?

elevate once at desired elevation hit stop use your hands as resistance then run on the stopped tread. OH YEA BABY

I have done this on tmill (short hill sprints). You stand with your feet on the side (not on the belt) and let the tmill reach the speed that you want. Then you use the hand rails on the side to get on and then get off the belt when you are done (obviously, don't hold on during the time that you are actually doing the hill sprint). After I have put one foot on each side of the tmill (and off the belt), then step off the back and stand around or whatever until it is time to do another one. Just let the tmill keep going at the same pace and incline that you want to do for your sprint. If you are worried about doing this, use a slower speed until you get used to getting on and off safely.

I actually wouldn't concern yourself too much with hill sprints.

I was not fortunate enough to have such a flat place to run... except a treadmill or a track.

There are other ways to get the effect of hill running in.

Resistance training and plyometrics will do a great job.

As for running on the flat... you are teaching yourself how to run fast. The adaptation will be in the nervous system.

I wouldn't be too worried... running on the treadmill is awkward to begin with!

Any other questions, shoot me an e-mail!

jess from crabtown wrote:

I live in an extremely flat place with no hills at all - when I go for a 20 mile run my garmin tells me I usually changed about 10 feet in elevation total. I've been trying to do short hill sprints (a la Brad Hudson) on the treadmill at the gym but it's very awkward. Anyone tried this or have any tips? Maybe I should do slightly longer hills so it's not quite so absurd?

Is there a stadium or such in which you can run steps? Bridge or overpass anywhere?

Run in a parking garage, either early in the morning or late at night.

Just get on the treadmill and warm up a couple miles. Set the treadmill at a pretty good pace that you can recover at. When you want to start your hill sprints, jack up the incline to 6% and go for 30 seconds. (This is 1:20-1:40 min/mile faster pace effort) Decrease the incline back to level for whatever time you need for recovery. Do 3 of these and increase incline to 6.5%. Repeat. Keep increasing the incline until you are right at your limit for 30 seconds. Continue at this incline until you do as many repeats as you want.

Remember that while it takes a few seconds for the treadmill to reach the desired incline, it also takes a few seconds to go back down to level. This will make the actual time you are running at some incline longer than 30 seconds though not all that time will be at the max.

The possibilities of time, speed, and recovery are endless.

Last week I did 45 seconds at incline followed by 1:15 recovery. That way I could repeat at every 2 minutes. I started with a 3 mile warmup and then did 18 repeats which left a little bit recovery to finish out an hour run.

well..... wrote:

Actually, continue using miles...

The problem with the mill is that it takes a while to spool up to sprint speed. Do people turn it on, then jump on? Or wait for it to reach the desired speed while using precious energy?

I use the treadmill for my short hill sprints.

I use the hand rails to jump on & off while the belt remains going at a fast speed. Usually, when starting the sprint, I'll hold onto the rails and slowly lower my bodyweight onto the belt as my legs are rapidly turning over. So, at first there my only be 10 lbs of my bodyweight on my legs, and then over 3-5 seconds I decrease the amount my arms are lifting until I'm 100% running on the belt. That is where I start the time for the 6-10 second sprint.

When I'm finished with each sprint, I use the hand rails to more quickly lift myself off as I jump off the belt and straddle it on the sides.

Seems to work fine. The only annoying thing is I feel like my footsteps are really loud when I'm doing these sprints on the mill, but that's not a big deal.

I have no idea how effective they are vs outdoor hills. If I had a convenient outdoor hill I'd rather use it b/c I can just go all-out and I nail the right effort from sprint #1. With the treadmill, I often have to increase the speed a little each sprint as I convince myself that I'm able to keep up with the speed. Not willing to overestimate and fall off/face plant.

Interesting, but not what (some) people mean by true "sprints" on the treadmill. Great workout, however!

For those who mean genuine sprints, you're talking maybe six-second bursts with perhaps a minute or more for recovery. The advice (previously given) about leaving the 'mill at a given speed/incline, and using the hand rails for on/off, is correct.

So is the reminder to be safe. At first, develop the skill at lower speeds/inclines until you can get it all right--especially the "back off the treadmill carefully" bit.