The following article was written by a Run For Kids friend and veteran marathoner, Don Leeman.

Hill workouts: a Necessity of Marathon Life

The Marine Corps Marathon is an incredibly popular race, especially among first-time marathoners. One of the reasons is that the course is really an easy one: it's quite flat! Yet, in spite of the general flatness of the route, there are still some "grades" that you will have to climb, and then there is THE HILL at Iwo Jima to conquer at mile 25+. That's right. After running over 25 miles, you' re going to have a hill staring you in the face. Presuming that you've run the whole way, you don't want to cave in here!

The best way to be sure of yourself in October is to start building more leg strength NOW, in May! And then you want to continue to build power in those legs as you go along. What to do?

The best way to build up the running muscles that are needed for hills is by....running hills! Sounds simple enough, yet many runners overlook this very important aspect of training. They stick to running on flat terrain all the time, and then wonder why they cave in when their legs turn into mush at mile 23. They just do not have the strength to finish because they never ran hills.

Here's an example for a good Hill Workout: Do a decent warm-up run of perhaps 2 miles. Do this at an easy, relaxed pace, until you feel nice and loose. Now you're ready to run some hills! But...How? Some people think that all they need to do is find one very long hill and gun it to the top. Bad idea, especially in the beginning! Rather, pick a medium length hill, perhaps 100-200 meters long. Run it at your 5K race pace. It's very much like the feel you would have of going into a "kick" at the end of a shorter race. You know the finish line is in sight, and you want to finish a race strong. Yet, if you start to "kick" too soon, you may be walking at the end! You don't have either the strength or the aerobic capacity to "kick" for a long stretch. Treat those hills in the same fashion, in the beginning. Run up, and then turn around and walk/jog down to the bottom. Then, repeat the run to the top. Once there, turn around and walk/jog back down again. Notice what is happening here. You are working hard when going up, but "resting" when coming down. The idea or "hard, easy, hard, easy" is one that weigh-lifters can understand very easily! They may go hard with biceps one day, and do nothing with biceps the next! By alternating days in that fashion, they give their muscles a day to heal. After the "off day", they are ready to do biceps again.

Throughout your training for the Marathon, there is one thing that you MUST keep in mind: NEVER, but NEVER have two hard runs on consecutive days! Running hills constitutes a "hard run". Running "long" also constitutes a "hard" run, regardless of how fast you are running. Eventually, you will start doing "speed" workouts, which will also constitute "hard" runs. However, that is not part of the plan at this stage of training. Why? Let's face it: if you don't have the strength, you won't be able to run fast! So, you have to build strength FIRST.  The days before your hill workout should be an "easy" day. The distance may be short, or the pace might be relaxed but not too long.

You will be hearing about "Fartlek" runs from several of the RFK coaches, and they are GREAT ideas. Yet, I've seen coaches who vary their fartlek workouts. Some will use hills specifically for part of a fartlek run. That's okay. My own preference is to turn fartlek into more of a "fun" run that gets a bit off the wall. Let's suppose, for example, you have a planned route of 3 miles (and it's mostly flat!). As you run along the street, you notice a side street that you've never run on before, and you see that it's a hill! Go run up that hill, and do so at a pace that feels like you are really working. When you get to the top, turn around and walk/jog down to the bottom. That walk/jog, by the way, is meant as a "rest", and gives you time to get some wind back into yourself. That will make the next stage of your run that much easier. When you get to the bottom, resume your planned course. Another half mile down the road, you might find another side street, and this one is fairly flat. Turn onto it, and run hard for perhaps 100-200 meters. Perhaps use a couple of telephone poles as your yardsticks.  What you are really doing is just adding an extra effort to what would otherwise have been an ordinary run. You will find yourself changing your speed, just for the fun of it. That's okay, too.

An important lesson here: After every stage, there must be a period of "recovery". That is, you need time to rest and allow your body to recover from whatever level of effort you have put forth. This is why you don't do hard runs on consecutive days. The risk of injury is always hanging over the heads of endurance runners, so they have to be smart about what they are doing.

As you make progress towards the marathon, the pattern of your workouts should be more easily discernible. Hard days might be Sunday (YES!), Tuesday, and Thursday, while the easy days will probably wind up as Monday, Wednesday, Friday, with an optional day of total rest or a VERY easy run on Saturday. Since 3 of the 4 days just prior to Tuesday would have been easier days, then you might want to use Tuesday for your Hill Runs. That is a pattern which many marathon runners fall into. Why? Well, a lot of marathons are on  Sundays (such as the MCM!), so they plan their long runs of the week for Sundays, with Saturday having been an optional day of rest or just a light run, and Monday being an easy day, Tuesday seems almost ideal for the Hill workout.

Once again, I've thrown a lot at you, especially if you are a first-timer. Yet, the importance of hill workouts is paramount. Your legs have to take you 26.2 miles! They better have the strength to do it! Otherwise, you might not get to the Finish line without a lift from a race official (bad way to finish!).

An upcoming article will be focusing on the importance of diet. You are going to be burning off more calories than you have ever done in your entire life. Your body will become almost a machine. Like most machines (such as cars), you need good fuel. Thus, diet will become critical, especially as your Long Run increases each week. If you can find it, look for the book "Diet for Runners" by Doctor Nathan Pritikin. I've used his guidelines, and they work!

Until next time, keep running, and remember to do those hills!

Anyone with questions, please feel free to contact me at Don's Mail Bag.