Locate a hill where you can train. The hill on Federal Street that peaks at the Harriet Beecher Stowe House is a suitable hill to train on. The goal is to sprint up the hill from base to summit and then slowly jog to the bottom repeating the ascent. Initially attempt to run for 10 minutes with your goal eventually to increase to 20 minutes. Conclude your hill training with a casual 1-mile run.
HILL TRAINING BENEFITS
Hill training is important for a number of reasons. In a nutshell, hills are important because they create variety and intensity, which improves your endurance, anaerobic capacity, speed, power, running economy, and overall strength.
For obvious reasons, hills increase the difficulty or the intensity of a run. Climbing a hill naturally increases heart rate, which improves both your aerobic (endurance) and your anaerobic capacity. In this way, hills can actually be used as a form of speedwork because they can simulate the heart rate intensity of a track workout but without the actual speed of the track.
Hills also strengthen your muscular system, improving your running form. Running uphill forces you to lift up your knees higher than usual, which improves stride length and speed. This also aids muscle development to increase power.
Hill training forces your nervous system to change your firing pattern rate as your running gait changes for ascending and descending hills. This change in firing pattern helps recruit your fast-twitch muscle fibers, improves leg turnover rate, and appears to help you fight off central nervous system fatigue. Research indicates that when running the same pace, with the same gait, and the same leg turnover rate, the brain becomes fatigued from receiving the same stimulus information over and over.