Train for the Landscape Upon Which You’ll Be Running

This story has an odd start, but bear with me, you’ll see the point later on.

I grew up in Florida. Central Florida, as in “the flat part”. The only thing that resembled hills were the causeways over the bays. My sister moved to Tennessee when I was still a teenager. In contrast to Florida, Tennessee has lots of hills. When I was in my 20’s, I didn’t run as much but I was a weight-lifting fiend. On a particular visit to my sister in Tennessee, we went on a hike in the mountains. Oddly, it seemed that my sister’s family, who didn’t do weightlifting, was having an easier time on the long uphill hike back to the car than was I, the Weightlifter. “Why?” “I work out!” “I can squat more than my own bodyweight!” It turns out that my occasional weightlifting in the flatlands of Florida was no match for living everyday life in the ups and downs of Tennessee. My sister’s family simply had more endurance in their legs because they lived their everyday lives walking up and down hills, while my daily walking never changed altitude.

So what’s the point of that story? As runners trying to perform well, we need to remember to train on terrain that resembles that upon which we will be racing. So, if you live in the flats of Delaware like I do, and you are training for a race in hilly Wilmington, DE or Austin, TX, you need to go find some hills and use them to train on!

Here are some examples.

This is an elevation map of a typical run around my home:

This is an elevation map of the Delaware Running Festival Half Marathon:

Note the difference. They aren’t mountains, but there are some significant climbs when the terrain you’re used to is the first picture.

So, how did I change my training? This is an elevation map of a long run in training for the DRFHM:

Obviously, the elevation changes in training were not as drastic as those in the race. But what you should notice is that there is a significant amount of elevation change compared to the typical training run around my home. What did I do? I used a highway overpass and a switchback down to a canal towpath to add elevation changes to my typical training route. They were small changes in elevation, but the elevation was constantly changing during the middle part of my training run. Changing my training made the difference between fearing hills during the race and dominating them.

Here’s one other thing, the elevation map of the Austin, TX marathon which I ran in February 2018:

Wow! That makes the DRFHM hills look insignificant. How did I train for that? I changed all three of my weekly training runs – intervals, tempo, long – and made them hilly. Flat intervals at a specific pace became hill intervals as fast as I could manage. I also remember one day of short intervals with a set of squats at the end of each interval! Flat tempo runs became tempo runs to the top of a nearby hill (Yes! An actual hill!) and back. For long runs I found every overpass and local hill I could find and added them to my route. Did it make a difference? I believe it did. In the hilly Austin Marathon I came within 35 seconds of my PR, which was set the year before at a very flat Coastal Delaware course. During training for Coastal Delaware, I did not seek out elevation changes. They were not necessary; here’s the elevation map for that race:

Set your mind to training on terrain that’s as similar as you can to what you’re going to be racing on. Use your imagination. Work with what you’ve got. Conquer your next race.