Treadmill Workouts for Hills and Speedwork

I’m pretty excited, guys. I got a treadmill! And all the sudden a whole new world of options has opened up to me. I can do runs inside, outside, half inside and half outside, when it’s dark, hot, or hurricane-y. And for someone who lives in the low country — I now have artificial hills. I’m adding this list of treadmill workouts to my own.

You know, if I stopped being scared of going fast on the dang thing.

Treadmill Workouts

1. Men’s Health: 6 Tough Treadmill Workouts That Will Kick Your Ass

Six different workouts:

“Turn up the Tempo” (max aerobic effort)
Progression run
Half mile intervals
“Horrible Hill”
Commercial repeats based on the show you’re watching
Progressive intervals

These workouts up the difficulty without being super complicated. Also, increasing difficulty can sometimes decrease boredom. At least you’ll be done sooner!

2. This Runner’s Recipes: The Benefits of Hill Running and a Treadmill Hill Workout

This Runner’s Recipes wrote a blog post that details the benefits of hill running. They also describe three different types of hill workouts — hill repeats, rolling hills, and hill sprints (yikes!).

I like the handy chart to recreate some rolling hills if your treadmill doesn’t already have one programmed.

3. The Run S.M.A.R.T. Project’s Sample Treadmill Workout from Dr. Jack Daniels

An insane hill workout… where you jump on and off a treadmill at 15 or 20% grade. I’m not sure if I’m trying this precarious workout anytime soon.

Note the speed isn’t super fast, 6MPH and you can adjust it to your fitness ability. The incline is the hard work. It’s speed training in disguise, powering up your muscles to fire hard and fast during your race.