Shocking Results of Running Only Hills for 4 Weeks

Triathlon Taren spent four weeks doing all of his run workouts on hills, comparing 5k run time trials before and after, he ended up doing a sub 20 minute 5k run after all the hill running workouts.
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[@Runnerrwe]

Hill work is speed work in disguise . love your videos. I am not triathlete but as a runner I learn a lot.

[@Tethysmeer]

I only run hills, 300m up fast, walk down. It's so beneficial especially healthwise.

[@nordicwilly6650]

Very similar for me. So much less impact on these old joints

[@jonathanwentworth3761]

I love that you always (or almost always) start "Morning Traniacs!" Encourages us to get going in the a.m.

[@CaptainBrash]

I live in Wales so all of my runs are hill runs! xD can't wait to spend some time somewhere flat with nice roads/trails for a bit to see how my times compare.

[@Mrwoddle]

I'm running over 25 years and in that time I've become allergic to hills. You've got me sold on giving them another go and I can double your sample size 😅 I'm doing a 1 mile Time Trial tonight for my channel and I'll use that as my baseline. Very interesting vid and always good to explore. Thanks

[@rickwilson3032]

You have just given everyone the secret! I did the Calgary 70.3 8 times with my best time being 5:25 In 2018 I did hills for 2 months and shaved my time down to 4:58 Thanks for the reminder. I'm 195 pounds and on sept 26 I'll be 175 and on the line in pentiction. Thanks for the inspiration.

[@underthefigtreefarms9293]

I really appreciate this video. I live in a part of the Middle East which is all hills and mountains. I used to feel discouraged by this, but have noticed that the hills really add a lot of strength to my running and cycling. Looking forward to a chance to test myself in a race again someday. Thanks Taren for spending time on this video!

[@TheIvylee1]

Thank you. Just what I needed to get going again :)

[@roadracer46]

Great information - thanks.

[@theathleteblog]

Great experiment, thanks for putting this out there! I found that hills work best for the off- and early-season to build base strength in supportive muscles and activate hamstrings & glutes. When it's closer to race day and the aerobic base is good, longer tempo efforts tend to give even more improvements

[@trepidati0n533]

There was a highschool basically located in the middle of a bowl (e.g. surrounded by hills). The athletes coming out of there were always top notch for track/cross country...the secret..the coach made them do hills ALL the time.

[@nikitaw1982]

Thank u. I live around hills and valleys. I've been walking a lot and just did first run up down hills this morning. Not sore so far so try to do 5k every 48 hours see how long till get shin splints hahaha.

[@TheLoamGnome171]

Can confirm, I'm an ultra-marathoner and when I first started doing this I came from a 5k XC background so I tried to immediately jump into 50 mile hill training weeks. I destroyed my body and ended up having to pause my training to recover, and then ease myself into it before I got back to doing 50 - 60 mile weeks with 8 - 10 thousand feet of vert. It can be frustrating to take things slow and feel like you're under training, but it's worth it to not take yourself out. And you'll feel a lot more frustrated if you overtrain and then have to pause in order to recover.

[@kennethlandgraff4718]

Literally only one hill in Winnipeg, maybe two. I guess Bison Butte may be longer than Garbage Hill, definitely steeper. Great vid! I loved hill training in my marathon days. I found that this type of strength training always made a huge difference.

[@shawncharland3160]

Haha.. I was going to say the same thing: " There's hills in Winnipeg?!"

[@kukitubers9673]

i have been running for a week now 4/5k uphills and jog down …. and im feeling preety fine 😅

[@stevendaddyrue8026]

Awesome, don’t you think that chopping your steps up on the hills will help with leg turn over as well?

[@scout9930]

Hey Taren. I’m in Winnipeg and always looking for hills to run other than city bridges, garbage hill or the areas off of graven road / birds hill - any suggestions? Pretty much yes - only one hill in Winnipeg LOL but I see you do Fort Whyte have you found any other ones?

[@billboyle7886]

39 seconds is a very impressive improvement. It appears you did build your leg strength, a great place to build ones legs is a hilly golf course.

[@jazzle6944]

Im injured :(( my ankles have been hurting when i run is been a week and a half of recoveey and i can run a little bit without pain and i havent ran too much because i dont want to injure it more. Do you think it'll heal in time before june 14?

[@lisarunsfast7368]

My area has mostly hills so hill running is always there for me!!!!! It does make a difference! When I run a flat race, I’m flying!

[@thepsychologist8159]

Well as they say "running up hills is like sprinting in disguise".

[@hendomas7435]

6:09 I thought dude was over 100 years old for a sec

[@alexheatzig7731]

Any idea the impact of how weight loss over those 4 weeks may have played an effect? I’ve heard that 1lb = :02 seconds/mile for marathon pace.

[@yrussq]

I think it's both and it's more than 02 per mile, like 02 per km. But if you are not in the fittest form ever then it may improve you speeds even more, especially if you train your belly (i'm sorry i meant core) hard :) Just from my experience

[@seancday]

The "trainiac gear" link is not working for me.

[@neon-3467]

I like this

[@polski1986]

I actually just googled 5k training plan lol

[@kevinn9069]

Noticed Tarens no longer training for triathlon even though races are open. Are Canadians not able to travel for non-essential trips?

[@viktorshevchuk3268]

is it 5 miles or 5 km ?

[@MarioatSA]

I think the reason so many of us avoid hills is because we can not maintain our planned paces for the workout. So it gives us a false sense of insecurity. "If I want to break 20 in a 5km I need to be running faster than 4min/km and I'm not managing that with all these hills!!" "It's messing with my Strava stats!"

[@lucaantony3452]

I started running September of 2020 and I recently ran at 17:40 5km. I really want to run a sub 3 hours for my first marathon! This week I’ll be trying the 10km distance, who knows whether I’ll be able hold a pace close to my 5km. Cheers!

[@Ligerpride]

That's very impressive. How are things going?

[@nathanluther39]

Hill running or "Hell" running? LOL

[@mrgq2000]

Hills pay the bills

[@YokNg]

or you could buy a pair of vaporflies next% for the same results haha

[@freoishome]

I'm confused what you are NOW proposing. In the past you have been promulgating long low intensity, and that as your identifying coaching philosophy. Albeit for those who read your material more in depth you also emphasis including HIIT, where H means very hard, in essence Polarized periodization, 80% long low intensity + 20%ish VO2Max type plus minimal if any in the intermediate zone. That intermediate zone is your fun zone, ie, what you do in an endurance event, or when you just want to go for a run or ride. In this video your references to intensity are casual, ie, not intentional as one would expect in a training situation.

[@RJLOVE123]

Booooooooo