Workout of the Week: Incline Treadmill Power Hour

Running hills is an excellent way to build run speed, but not everyone has access to good hills to be able to take advantage of this. Running at a steep incline on the treadmill is a good way to simulate hill running and can be done efficiently by excluding the need to go back down the hill to start again!

With this incline treadmill power hour, I challenge athletes to maintain a fixed pace as the incline of the treadmill is progressively increased. This necessitates increasing foot speed and effort. While the workout feels easy for the first few minutes, it rapidly becomes more and more difficult.

Start out slow—think 15-30 seconds/mile above your marathon pace. After warming up for 15 minutes, increase the incline by 1% every 2 minutes over the next 20 minutes. You’ll finish minutes 33 to 35 of the run at 12% incline before dropping back down to a 2% incline and cruising for the rest of the hour.

I will give this workout to athletes anytime once they have established a good base of running fitness and have proven capable of doing speedwork.