Hill repeat question

Howdy,

I'm doing the intermediate Strength Endurance plan, and one day's main set calls for 3 rounds of 6-minute hill repeats with 2-3 minute RIs. Should I always be going UP the hill for those six minutes, or can I turn around and go down so long as I stay in the right heart rate zone? I ask solely because I don't think there are any hills around here that are tall enough to sustain constant upward motion for the duration of that set!

Thanks,

Joe

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Permalink Reply by Eric Orton on January 16, 2012 at 9:37am

Hi Joe - great question. No, do not turn around and continue back down the hill as part of your interval time. You will not be able to maintain that HR and therefore be running way too hard. So, find the longest hill you have and just add more intervals to meet the cumulative time of the entire MS interval time. So if you are doing 3 X 6 min for a total of 18 min - and you can only find a hill that takes 3-4 min, do 6 X 3-4 min repeats. But the longer the interval the better with these.

Hope that helps - E

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Permalink Reply by Joe Gaiteri on January 16, 2012 at 9:38am

Thanks Eric!

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Permalink Reply by Jenn Kast on January 22, 2012 at 5:45am

So I've been doing my 8 minute repeats on the treadmill. Is it better to do more of the shorter intervals? I'm not a fan of the treadmill but there are no 8 minute hills near me!