Skip Lydiard hill phase?

treadmill?

I was thinking I might have to bite the bullet and join a gym for this reason. Seems like a horrible last resort lol.

Try doing plyo drills like bounding and an skips. the main purpose of Lydiard hills is to develop a powerful stride and elasticity in the calves and Achilles. plyos can do that well

Arthur would tell people who lived where there were no hills to look for a stadium and run the steps. If there were truly no hills or stadiums he said you should do springing and bounding on flat ground. Or you could find a treadmill. Also in really flat places you can often find a bridge that arcs up a bit and use that.

As opposed to a super-sweet last resort? You can look for options, and good luck, but you’ll either be a Guinea pig (for the surprising better option experiment) or compromising this part.

No hills on an Athletics track ignore the boomers hills are so 1950s. Do all out 40m sprints and host a podcast that’s the 2023 way

Hills are integral to Lydiard, so figure out a way to make due the best you can.

In Chicago you've got Cricket Hill & Palmisano Park. There's a small hill in Humboldt Park too. And you've got stuff like Waterfall Glen that you can drive to outside of the city. Some folks will use parking garages. It's not easy but there are some hill options. Maybe not as easily accessible to get in every single hill workout but you do have some options.

Parking deck

Most are somewhat lit and dry so skipping a session due to weather is no problem. Evening hours are best with lower vehicle volume.

Cricket was the hill closest to me I was referencing. My main concern with it is that it's too short in length to be sufficient and I would likely have to Divvy bike there and run back which is annoying. Gotta do what you gotta do I suppose.

I think this is likely my best option.

Run up a parking garage. Roughly similar.

6 miles to your nearest hill? With a Lydiard schedule you can even run to that one. There are many hills on chicago. I know of several with gains of around 200’.

If you are motivated enough you can find a hill that will take 15 minutes or less by car to get to or less than 30 minutes using public transportation.

With all those skyscrapers why don’t you just run up and down the stairwells???