My coach said something in 2022 that I have been chewing on for three years: "the marathon is won on the hills, even on a flat course." I didn't believe him at first. I was training for the Tata Mumbai Marathon, which is famously pancake-flat, and I thought hills were a Sahyadri sport. Three marathons later I understand what he meant. Hills don't teach you to run hills. They teach you what your legs are made of.
This is a piece about why hill training belongs in your marathon plan, even if your race has no climb. Especially if your race has no climb.
The hill is honest in a way the flat road is not
On flat ground you can hide. Your stride can be sloppy, your cadence can drift, you can lean on your watch and call the pace your coach. On a hill, all the lies stop. The hill takes whatever you bring and shows you the residue. If your hip flexors are weak, the hill will find them. If your glutes are sleeping, the hill will wake them up loudly.
The first time it hit me
It was Sinhagad fort road, outside Pune. A familiar climb for the city's runners. My friend, who has run a 3:15 marathon and is built like a wire, scampered up. I, who had been pleased with my flat 10K times, walked the last kilometre. The hill had quietly accounted for every shortcut I had taken in my training. It does this to everyone, the first time. It is the great auditor.
What hills actually train
Without getting clinical about it: hills build leg strength under conditions of high cardiovascular demand. They train your posterior chain - glutes, hamstrings, calves - to fire under the kind of fatigue that marathon kilometres 30 to 42 produce. They develop running economy because the inefficiencies that don't matter on flat road cost you visibly on a 7% gradient. Read the longer piece in our Running Lab.
Three kinds of hill sessions, three kinds of effect
I think of hill training as a vocabulary. Different sessions, different words, different conversations with your body.
Short hill repeats (the strength-power conversation)
These are 30-60 second efforts up a moderately steep hill (6-10% gradient), recovered by jogging or walking back down. Six to ten reps, two or three times a week in a base phase. They build leg strength, neuromuscular recruitment, and the ability to sustain power output. They are the gym session for runners who don't go to the gym. In Indian cities with limited hill geography, a parking ramp or a flyover can substitute. The bridge to Worli sea-link service road in Mumbai has a workable incline. Cubbon Park's small inclines work for Bengaluru runners.
Long hill repeats (the marathon-specific conversation)
These are 3-5 minute efforts up a longer, more moderate hill, recovered by jogging. Four to six reps, once a week in build-up. They simulate the metabolic demands of the late marathon - sustained effort above lactate threshold while the legs are fatigued. They teach your body to keep producing power when the easy gear is gone.
Long runs with hills (the integration conversation)
This is where it all comes together. A 25-32 km long run on a route that has rolling hills, not because hills are the point, but because real marathon legs are made on uneven terrain. The Aravallis around Delhi, the ghats around Pune, the Western Ghats around Mumbai, the Nilgiris around Coimbatore - all viable. Even a city route with a few flyovers and underpasses introduces enough variation.
How to fold hills into a marathon plan
This isn't an abstract question. Here is what an integration looks like across the macrocycle.
Base phase (weeks 1-6)
One short hill session per week. Mostly easy mileage with one quality session. The goal is to introduce hill volume safely. Your tendons need time to adapt; the literature on Achilles tendinopathy is clear that hill running stresses the Achilles meaningfully and you cannot crash-course it. Use our types of run guide to understand the role of each session.
Build phase (weeks 7-12)
Short hill repeats stay. Add long hill repeats once every 7-10 days. Tempo and threshold runs may move onto rolling terrain. Long runs include 200-400 metres of elevation gain.
Specific phase (weeks 13-16)
Reduce hill volume. Sharpen the engine. If your race is flat (Tata Mumbai, Delhi), your last 4-6 weeks should mostly be on flat. If your race has hills (Bengaluru's TCS World 10K, Pune Running Beyond Myself, Hyderabad marathon's hilly sections), keep hill specificity high.
Taper
Almost no hills in the last 10 days. Save the legs. Plan it out in our plan generator with the relevant marathon plans.
What hills won't fix
There is a romance to hill training that overpromises. Let me cut a few cords.
Hills are not a substitute for tempo work
The metabolic adaptations from threshold and tempo running - clearing lactate, raising your sustainable pace - are not fully replicated by hills. You still need flat tempo sessions. Hills supplement; they don't replace. The Daniels VDOT framework helps calibrate the rest.
Hills are not the answer to a weak aerobic engine
If your base mileage is low, no amount of hill work fixes it. Hills add stress. Stress without aerobic foundation is injury. Build the base first, then layer hills on top.
Hills don't help if you can't recover
Hill sessions are high-stress sessions. Two a week is the upper limit for most amateurs. More than that, in our city schedules with poor sleep and high work stress, produces breakdown rather than adaptation. Use the load calculators to keep yourself honest.
The one workout that taught me the most
I want to end with a single session, not a system. Last September, three weeks before a marathon, my coach gave me this: 8 x 400 metres uphill, on a 5% gradient, at 5K effort, with jog-down recovery. Forty minutes of work, total. I came home shaking. The next day, my easy run pace dropped by 15 seconds per kilometre with the same effort. The hills had unlocked a gear I didn't know I had.
That session is in our Running Lab's deep reads, with variations for different fitness levels.
One last thing
The reason to add hills to your marathon plan is not because hills make you faster on hills. It is because hills make you a different kind of runner. Tougher in the small muscles that determine kilometre 35. Better at managing effort when the watch lies. More honest about what your body is doing. The hills find you out. That is the gift.