This is Ask Coach Parry and today we have another Comrades Marathon question. We’ve been asked the question about hill training quite often, particularly from people who live in areas that are very, very flat, and they were asking how to go about doing hill training for a race like the Comrades Marathon.

We’ve got a question in from Brett Fouche today, which is the complete opposite. Brett says he lives in an area that has a lot of hills, so much so that he doesn’t have one flat training route in any of his training runs. There are tons of hills in all of his training. Is it necessary for him to do the specified hill training that you put in your training programs?

Brad Brown:  This is Ask Coach Parry and today we have another Comrades Marathon question. We’ve been asked the question about hill training quite often, particularly from people who live in areas that are very, very flat, and they were asking how to go about doing hill training for a race like the Comrades Marathon.

We’ve got a question in from Brett Fouche today, which is the complete opposite. Brett says he lives in an area that has a lot of hills, so much so that he doesn’t have one flat training route in any of his training runs. There are tons of hills in all of his training. Is it necessary for him to do the specified hill training that you put in your training programs?

Can Too Much Hill Running Hurt?

LINDSEY PARRY: No, it’s definitely not necessary for him to do specific hill training, and to be honest, if he, and if people who live in areas like this do, they are probably going to aggravate their calf or their Achilles tendon at some point through the training program.

So what I would look at doing in a situation like this, if I found myself in an area that was literally just hilly all the time, is perhaps once a week I would choose a run where I would run the hills firm, but still not as like hard as I would in hill repeats type of workout.

And, or if I had a particularly long climb that I could access, I would look at doing that climb once every two weeks or so, and also doing it firm but not hard. That will give you all the strength you need, the mental strength you need and everything else that you need in terms of your Comrades Marathon preparation.

And on the other days, I would be particularly mindful of running quite easy on the hills, just to try and ensure that I don’t get too fatigued training on hills all the time.