This is the kit for the hill workout: a warm-up jog to the bottom, a set of hard climbs with an easy jog back down after each one, and a cool-down home. It takes two hills. One is Summit Road in South Mountain Park/Preserve in Phoenix, which the city closes to cars on Sunday mornings. The other is Heartbreak Hill on Commonwealth Avenue in Newton, Massachusetts, the last of the Newton Hills on the Boston Marathon course.
The thesis is that hill repeats need less gear than almost any run, so each piece has to earn its place. A Puma Deviate NITRO 4 that likes to go fast and grips on the way down. A Polar H10 strap, because wrist heart rate lags on short reps. A rabbit Tempo Tank and Pacer Hybrid Shorts. Stance Run Light Tab socks. A CamelBak Podium Chill bottle that waits at the bottom, SKLZ cones to mark the top, a Petzl Actik for the dark start, and a ROLL Recovery R8 for the calves afterward. On the wrist, a Polar Vantage M3 that splits every climb for you and a Brew Metric chronograph you start with your thumb.
Note.
Warm up before the first rep and stop if your form falls apart. Run on the side of the road facing traffic, and expect cyclists coming down fast. On Summit Road, city staff, tower workers, and emergency vehicles may be on the road at any time, even when it is closed to cars. Check the park’s hours and closures before you go. Confirm current pricing at the retailer.
PodiumRunner · Feb 19, 2019
Don’t race the hills.
“I do stress to the team not to race the hills.”
PodiumRunner (now Run, by Outside) — My Favorite Hill: The Boston Marathon’s Heartbreak Hill (Jonathan Beverly)
Mark Coogan, a former Olympian and New Balance’s elite coach and manager, told PodiumRunner that he sends members of the New Balance Track Club up Heartbreak “at least once every two weeks during their build-up phases.” His workout there is 8 to 10 repeats at 3K to 5K pace with a jog down for recovery. “We usually start the season running them a little slower and try to keep the under control,” he says. “As the fall season progresses they will do them a little faster.”
He likes the hill because it is not too steep: “This grade is perfect because we really can run as fast as we want,” he says. “If it was much steeper we would not be able to run as fast.” His dream hill is a longer one: “I would love to find a dirt hill that takes 3 minutes to get to top but you can get back down in 90 seconds.” Then he adds, “They are hard to find.” This kit is for the hill you have.
Read PodiumRunner · My Favorite Hill: Heartbreak Hill
The session
From Runner’s World (Monique Lebrun, May 8, 2025): coach Seth Funderburg says the best way to make hill running easier is “to focus on your effort rather than your pace, heart rate, or any other metric you may be accustomed to tracking on the run.” The article’s guide puts a 5K effort at 8 or 9 out of 10.
To start, coach Tyler Morey suggests hill strides after an easy run: “Simply run up a hill for 30 seconds, six to eight times at a 5K effort, and jog back down in between intervals.” His mantra for the climb: “take the hill.”
Runner’s World · 4 Simple Ways to Make Hill Running Easier
Arizona · Phoenix / South Mountain
Summit Road on a Silent Sunday
“…the park’s roadways are reserved for non-motorized activities such as walking, cycling, jogging, hiking, etc.”
City of Phoenix — South Mountain Park/Preserve, Silent Sunday
The city calls South Mountain Park/Preserve “one of the largest municipally managed parks in the nation,” at more than 16,000 acres. Summit Road climbs toward Dobbins Lookout, which the city lists at 2,330 feet, the highest point in the park open to the public. On the 4th Sunday of every month, Silent Sunday closes Summit Road to cars all day, 5 a.m. to 7 p.m. On the other Sundays, it closes from 5 a.m. until 10 a.m. at the 1.0 mile marker. Drivers turn into the Activity Complex and park there. Sun, Oct 25, 2026 is a 4th Sunday. Pick a stretch that takes about a minute to climb and put a cone at the top. The city’s warning still applies: the roads have “many blind corners, narrow sections and treacherous drop-offs,” and cyclists love them.
Phoenix · South Mountain Park/Preserve
Massachusetts · Newton / Commonwealth Avenue
Heartbreak Hill
“With carriage road access, you don’t have to worry about traffic.”
TheStringbean — Top 12 Running Hills of (Greater) Boston
PodiumRunner lists Coogan’s Heartbreak repeat at 600m long with 83 feet of gain, a 5% average grade, on pavement or grass. TheStringbean, a Boston mountain runner’s blog, puts the Strava segment at 0.34 miles and 4.5%, and notes that “The entire Heartbreak Hill actually has 95 feet of elevation gain.” The same writer prefers “to run Heartbreak starting at Grant Ave to avoid a busy intersection.” Heartbreak Hill Running Company’s Newton store, at 638 Commonwealth Ave, says it is “just steps from the base of Heartbreak Hill,” and its Saturday long run leaves from there at 8:00 a.m.
TheStringbean · Boston running hills ·
PodiumRunner · Heartbreak Hill ·
Heartbreak Hill Running Co.
Smartwatch + Analog
Watch Desk
Two ways to time a hill. The Polar Vantage M3 finds every climb on its own and gives you the numbers later. The Brew Metric is a chronograph you start at the bottom and stop at the cone, and the only number it shows you is time.
Smartwatch · AMOLED, barometer, Hill Splitter
Polar Vantage M3
GPS multisport watch with an AMOLED display, dual-frequency GPS, offline maps, and a barometer. DC Rainmaker lists it at 53g, 44mm wide, and 12mm thick. Polar lists it at $499.99. It launched at $399. Photographed: Vantage M3, Night Black.
DC Rainmaker’s Ray Maker on an interval run: “virtually spot-on, albeit with a few second delay on some of the interval recovery pieces.”
DC Rainmaker — Polar Vantage M3: Everything New You Need To Know! · Oct 23, 2024
Why Vantage M3 here: Polar says Hill Splitter “automatically detects all uphills and downhills by using your GPS-based speed and distance, and barometric altitude data,” with “no need to take laps manually.” On a repeat day, that means every climb shows up as its own split without a button press at the bottom. Polar says the smallest hill it counts on a run is 10 meters of ascent, so use a hill that tall or taller. Honest caveat from the same review: Maker writes that Polar “really need to expand and invest more in their firmware (and platform) development teams.” Pair the H10 for heart rate on short reps.
Analog · meca-quartz chronograph
Brew Metric Retro Dial
~$475 · 36 mm · black dial · steel bracelet ·
Buy at Brew36mm steel chronograph with a Seiko VK68 meca-quartz movement, a 60-minute chronograph counter, a sapphire crystal, and 50 meters of water resistance on an integrated bracelet. Photographed: Metric, Retro Dial.
Hodinkee’s James Stacey: “the accuracy and cost savings of quartz but the feel and reset behavior of a mechanical chronograph.”
Hodinkee — Lean Into The ’70s Of It All With The New Brew Metric · Jul 28, 2021
Why go analog on hill repeats: Funderburg’s advice in Runner’s World is to focus on effort, not pace, and Coogan tells his runners not to race the hills. A chronograph does the one job a repeat needs: press at the bottom, press at the cone, reset, and jog down. There is no pace on the dial to chase. Brew says the dial was designed for timing an espresso shot, and Time+Tide’s Tom Austin found it “clear and concise enough to use as an effective timer.” He also notes that “the chronograph can only be run for an hour before automatically stopping,” longer than most hill sessions. Honest caveats from the same piece: the bracelet “does rattle slightly in the hand and pinches the odd hair now and again,” and it is a 50-meter watch, so rinse it, do not swim it. Hodinkee’s launch price was $395. Brew now lists it at $475.
Pair them. The Vantage M3 and H10 record the session and split every climb. The Metric times the rep you are on. Coogan’s workout is PodiumRunner’s “My Favorite Hill: The Boston Marathon’s Heartbreak Hill” (Feb 19, 2019).
Some buy links are affiliate. We may earn a commission. The price you pay does not change. Gear stays on the kit only if it survives the job. Full disclosure → /disclosure
PUMA
Deviate NITRO 4: a plated lightweight trainer for faster days.
puma.comPolar
Vantage M3 and the H10 strap, with Hill Splitter for every climb.
polar.comrabbit
Running apparel designed in California, from tanks to hybrid shorts.
runinrabbit.comROLL Recovery
The R8 and other recovery tools for legs after hard days.
rollrecovery.comSKLZ
Cones and training tools for drills and workouts.
sklz.comBrew
NYC-based, coffee-obsessed watch brand. The Metric’s dial was built to time an espresso shot.
brew-watches.com
PodiumRunner · Feb 2019
Coogan’s Heartbreak
Mark Coogan on sending the New Balance Track Club up Heartbreak Hill, and why he tells them not to race it.
Runner’s World · May 2025
Effort, not pace
Monique Lebrun with coaches Seth Funderburg and Tyler Morey on making hills easier.
Doctors of Running · Jan 2026
A plated trainer that likes speed
David Salas on the Deviate NITRO 4’s responsive foam and very stiff forefoot plate.
