How to get ready for Boston marathon hills?

The best way to get ready for hills in a race is to run tempos on a hilly course, which I guess your'e already doing. Some long hill repeats might help too. If you can find a mountain road that inclines for a mile or more that would be good.

Also, just to get your legs used to it, maybe do your striders on a hill so you're doing an uphill strider, resting for a few seconds, and then doing a downhill strider, etc. Seems like you're trying to get used to the downhills, so I think this might strengthen the muscles that you use for this.

But like I said, I think that the best thing you can do is have a hilly tempo.

try 15x150m fast up steep hills with jog recovery as part of your weekly training schedule. Alternatives include 100m plus steep hills on tempo runs once a week, or even running up stairs of appartment blocks. All good for improving leg strength and getting used to hills when racing. Remember head up, high knee lifts and wear spikes if over country and or mud.

Guys, thanks for the advice.

What about running the downhills when doing tempo runs? Keep the pace the same? run the downhill hard to prepare the legs? run it easier to get used to pulling back so I don't get crazy on race day?

Thanks again.

TWC wrote:

Guys, thanks for the advice.

What about running the downhills when doing tempo runs? Keep the pace the same? run the downhill hard to prepare the legs? run it easier to get used to pulling back so I don't get crazy on race day?

Thanks again.

Down hills will kill your quads, and take a long long time to recover. I've run Boston 4x. The one thing people do not tell you is that "the hills start after you are tired." The hills are; up, flat, up, flat, and then another hill around 22mi (Boston Collage)

Do the hill repeats, but after a 6-8 mile tempo run. Anyone can run them when they are fresh.

PattiDillon(then Catalano) ran something similar to this ladder work out once a week. Being from the area she used the famous Heartbreak Hill as her hill. .

3 sets of 440,880,1320 first uphill, second downhill and third uphill again, Then finish the workout with a mile run 30 seconds faster than your target marathon pace.

would recommend keeping pace same downhill to avoid injury.

the uphills are NOT the problem. It is the DOWNHILL running those first 10 miles (though it is gradual), that have your quads feeling like dead meat at around 18 miles. Practice downhill running.

Move to Leadville.

Run, in any direction.

Good hills.

Real hills.

Run.

The best prep I ever had for Boston was when I propped up a treadmill and ran down hill (roughly 6-8 degrees) for up to 90 minutes. I did this once per week. The first 3-4 times you do this, you will not be able to get past 2-3 miles because it beats up your quads so badly. When that would occur, I would flatten the treadmill out for a mile or two and then drop it down again.

I did this by taking two 2 X 4 blocks of wood and screwing them together. I would lift the rear of the treadmill up and put a double block under each of the back foot pads. The treamill won't move at all....you won't fall off the blocks.

This worked perfectly for me. Quads were fine late in the race.

are they long steady downhills or hard downhills?

beentoBoston,

Why not run real hills? Ya know, like outside?

Erbli wrote:

beentoBoston,

Why not run real hills? Ya know, like outside?

I can't imagine that there are many places where you can run for 90 minutes on a continuous downgrade. I'm no fan of the treadmill, but this seems like one of the few good uses for it.

Ah...sorry. I live in the Pacific Northwest. We have hills.

The obvious is to build a continuous downhill long run in the preceding few months.

I believe you have to put pressure on your quads and keep it on for long periods.

Downhill repeats,rolling hills etc. give your legs a chance to rest from the downhill bashing.

Running the Boston Marathon course wont.

For the record I ran rolling Hill courses(8-10 miles) 3 times a week

and did downhill reps in the leadup to Boston.

Result:Stopped with leg cramps at 22 miles.

28 mins outside of p.r.

Also, one idea is to do at least one of your runs ona course with a long uphill or series of them after ~15 miles, followed by a long downhill. That sort of simulates the 17-23 mile stage of the race. May not help you run it, but at least you'll know what to expect

Train on the course.

Two days later, Beardsley was scheduled to run seven repeats up and down Heartbreak Hill, except a freak April storm covered Boston with a foot of snow. Squires looked out the window and suggested they postpone the workout, but Beardsley insisted he wanted to run. Road conditions were so bad, Squires had difficulty driving to the area, so Beardsley jumped out of the car and promised to meet him later at Boston College.

Beardsley remembers the workout: "It was sleeting and snowing and blowing and miserable and cold. I couldn't run the main course on Heartbreak Hill because of the snow, so I ran on the parallel frontage road. I couldn't go very fast. I had to run with my head down, but I ran that workout saying, `There is nobody out running today! There is nobody who could do this workout! There is nobody alive this tough!' The confidence I got from that one workout is one of the reasons I was able to stick with Alberto at that point in the marathon race."

is anyone familiar enough with the area to confirm that it is possible to run the race course during normal traffic to act as a long run?

Define "normal traffic". I wouldn't go out there at 5 pm on Monday, but you'll see lots of people running out on the course on Sunday mornings for long runs.