1. HILLS, HILLS, HILLS.

HILLS, HILLS, HILLS. I live in Pennsylvania and have access to lots of mountains, which I greatly enjoy running all year round. I’m 38 and have run a dozen marathons, none of them faster than 3:33. A friend keeps telling me that I’d be a lot faster in marathons if I gave up some of my mountain running and concentrated on doing hill work at a more modest angle than the mountainsides I love. Is there any evidence that this guy’s right?

Larry Lordes, Scranton, Penn.

HILLS ARE great for strength, for flexibility, for the views, and for the sheer enjoyment, which I entirely share. But the only way to run faster is by running faster. You have to include some sessions at race speed, and some at faster than race speed. I did my best training in Wellington, New Zealand, and ran big hills several times a week; but I also ran twice a week fast intervals on grass or road. There is no way I could have run a 2:18 marathon at age 41 without that leg speed and practice at race-pace breathing.

Roger Robinson, a former M&B columnist, is a world-class age-group marathoner and professor of English living in New Zealand.

MANY YEARS ago I had a coach whose axiom was “the best thing for running’s running.” Similarly, I think the best thing for running (faster) marathons is training over terrain similar to the average marathon course. I suspect that Larry would be formidable over the Pike’s Peak Marathon course. But most marathon courses these days are relatively flat. I would even include the Boston course, which has a few little hills. Therefore, I suspect that Larry’s friend is right. I personally train some of the time over a long, hilly course above Stanford University, which I much enjoy. But I find this increases stamina rather than speed in the marathon. So I include shorter, faster runs over flat terrain in my training program.

Dr. Peter Wood is the chairman of this magazine’s Science Advisory Board, a former professor at Stanford, and the veteran of 100+ marathons.

OPTIMAL TRAINING occurs when the body is allowed adequate rest following more difficult workouts. Overtraining occurs when too much arduous running takes place at the expense of slower, easier recovery runs. Thus, too much hill running will have an adverse effect on your marathon racing because you’ll show up at the starting line as damaged goods. To obtain your best results, mix in one or two hill runs a week with a combination of lactate threshold training and moderately hilly to flat runs at about 55% of maximum heart rate. The severe pounding caused by repeated downhill running not only deadens the legs but also leads to injury. Be careful with your hilly runs!

Mark Conover was an Olympic marathoner and is currently a coach at CalPoly in San Luis Obispo; he coaches via the Internet.

THE BENEFITS of training are specific—training on mountainous terrain prepares you well for racing on mountainous terrain, doing quarters on the track will help your mile times, and so on. Although I know of no evidence that your friend is right, I suspect he is, because getting on more moderate inclines is likely to better simulate what you will face in your marathons—conquerable terrain where pace matters and where your form isn’t significantly compromised. I lived for a year in a section of Connecticut where massive hills on a daily basis were unavoidable. Friends who would visit would voice envy during our runs about how “strong” the topography must be making me. Perhaps, but it also made me slow. That is, I became pretty good at running up and down severe hills, but I became worse at running quickly over the flatter terrain that most races feature.

Scott Douglas is M&B’s “On The Road” columnist and former editor of Running Times.

MY SUGGESTION would be to incorporate some flat speed work into your program. Repetition miles, halves, even quarters would help you develop the quick leg turnover that running up the sides of mountains takes away. Seeing how easily you can run sub-8:00 miles with the strength that running up mountains has already provided would give you the confidence that you can string 26 of them together in upcoming marathons.

Jim Whiting, former editor of Northwest Running, has been an active runner most of his life and in 1998 ran his first marathon—in Greece.