Today was one of this weeks hard sessions due! Hill and speed work! I decided to start the day with some cycling as a cross training so I can keep the speed workout short but very effective without risking overload.
My main target is to gradually build sufficient strenght for the Jungfrau Marathon which has 1900 m climbing (almost all in the second half of the race). My goal is not to chase a specific time on this race but just to best all hills running rather than having to switch to power walking. This means hills are going to be on the menu frequently.
Todays session combined hill repeats with speed work (as my other goal is to do a sub 3 h flat marathon in 2026). While my overall endurance is strong, I am still building a base on hills.
Therefore my assignment today was:
- 4x 20 sec flat (strides)
- 6x +/- 20 sec on hills (with increase of 12%)
I do feel the urge to pick a steeper hill, or to do longer intervals, but chose to trust the process today!
4x 20 sec flat (60 sec jogging / walking rest in between sets)
After the warming up my first stride went pretty oke (3.15 / km = 18.5 km/h), I felt pretty energetic so I decided to push the next few strides a bit harder (best stride 2:40 / km = 22.5 km/h)
Fun, but it was time to go towards the hill!
This was my climb for today - not the steepest in the area but with the % climb that matched my goal for today!
My results (columns: time / distance / speed)
The hill was strong enough to make me tired fast! I put in quite some effort to run the hill with good technique and a strong pace. While I planned to do only 6 repeats - I felt the impact after the 5th go. I decided to give one last attempt and made it, but I could not maintain the speed of the earlier reps!
After the last rep, time to do a brief cooling down and enjoy the beautiful environment!
Happy running!