Are you ready for a hill workout?
If hills make up part of your normal run, that's great, but a hill workout is where you run up the same incline several times. Do it in place of, not in addition to, your usual run for one day. Also, "you want to have some kind of base," Solkin says, before starting hill workouts: "at least two months of running, somewhat consistently-three or four runs totaling about 12 miles a week." If you're not yet at this level, focus on regular, steady running for now to help your body adapt and prevent injury.

Basic training
A hill workout is a lot like interval training. The interval is the hard part: running up the hill, of course, as your heart rate shoots up. The return trip is your recovery, where your heart rate drops closer to normal. Then you do the whole thing again. Start by finding a fairly short hill with a good surface. Solkin's rule of thumb: It should take you 45 to 60 seconds to climb the hill moving slightly faster than your usual pace. If you usually run at about 75 percent of maximum effort, you should do the hill at closer to 90 percent.

"Just think about going up four times, and when you get to the top, stop, catch your breath and very slowly go down the hill to recover," Solkin says. "Wait till your heart gets to about 65 or 70 percent. Recover a little bit, not too much, and then go again." You cheat yourself out of some the benefit of the workout if you recover too much, but if you're new to hill workouts, more recovery is better than less.

Don't forget to adjust your stride as you tackle that hill. "On your way up, you want to shorten your stride, raise your knees higher and pump your arms more," Solkin says. "When you go down, open up your stride, point your knees down and relax your arms more." Remember: Going up, knees up, arms up. Going down, knees down, arms down.

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