The 5 Best Hills to Run in the DMV

Ask any coach for the fastest way to build strength without a track, and they will point you uphill. Hill workouts are resistance training you can do in your running shoes. They force better form, load the glutes and calves the way flat ground never will, and teach your legs to keep firing when they want to quit. The catch, of course, is that you have to run them.

Runners in the DC, Maryland, and Virginia region have it better than most. The area is not flat, whatever the postcards of the Mall suggest, and the best hills to run in the DMV are rarely more than a short drive or a warmup jog away. You can find everything from a lung-busting 30-second wall to a half-mile grind that will have you rethinking your goal pace. Here are five of the best places for hill training around Washington, along with how to actually use them.

1. 13th Street NW, Columbia Heights

Best for: short, maximal reps

This is the one that humbles people. It is among the steepest runnable pitches in the city, short and unrelenting, with no flat stretch to let you catch your breath. Treat it as a strength workout rather than a tempo. Six to eight hard efforts of 30 to 45 seconds, easy walk or jog back down between each, full recovery. Focus on quick feet and a tall posture instead of leaning into the hill from the waist. The skyline waiting at the top is a nice bonus, though you will be too busy gasping to appreciate it the first few times.

2. Tilden Street, Rock Creek Park

Best for: folding hill repeats into an easy day

This is my personal long hill, not far from homebase. It serves as both a hill workout and my end-of-run climb. Rising out of Rock Creek Park behind Peirce Mill, Tilden is a stiff, sustained climb, steeper than most runners expect and a real test of the legs. The real advantage is convenience. If your route already dips into the park, you can hit the climb without reorganizing your whole run, then drop back down and carry on along Beach Drive. Run it once as a hard sustained effort, or loop it two or three times if you are feeling brave.

3. Capitol Hill

Best for: hill repeats with a view

Yes, the Hill is a real hill, and generations of local runners have used it. Both sides work, but the Independence Avenue approach is the steeper of the two, so the classic move is to jog down Constitution Avenue and drive back up Independence. That gives you a clean loop with a hard climb built in. Want something less punishing and more rhythmic? The roughly 1.1-mile perimeter around the Capitol complex rolls just enough to make for a strong progression run or a rolling threshold effort, all of it on wide sidewalks with the dome watching over you.

4. The Washington D.C. Temple Hill, Kensington

Best for: long, sustained climbing

When repeats start to feel too easy, go long. The climb up Stoneybrook Drive toward the Washington D.C. Temple in Kensington is a long, steep grind that earns its reputation. This is not a quick-turnover hill. It is best run as one continuous uphill push of a couple of minutes or more, training your body to hold form and stay relaxed when the incline refuses to end. Save something for the top.

5. Military Road, Arlington

Best for: a hill series

Virginia's contribution to your suffering comes on Military Road, with two back-to-back climbs between 26th Road North and North Glebe Road. That structure makes it less about individual repeats and more about stringing efforts together, which is a different and useful kind of hard. The second climb tests your patience as much as your quads, showing up right when you had hoped the work was finished. Run the pair as a set, jog easy in between, and repeat if your legs still believe in you.

One More for the Back Pocket

Battery Kemble Park in upper Northwest is a grassy climb with a long history as a local cross country racing spot. It connects into the Rock Creek trail system, so it slots naturally into a longer day when you want something soft underfoot instead of asphalt. Enter from the south at MacArthur Boulevard NW and Chain Bridge Road NW.

How to Get the Most Out of Hill Training

Warm up properly before any of these, at least 10 easy minutes, because hills ask a lot of cold muscles. Build the volume gradually across a training block rather than hammering a huge session out of nowhere. Hydration matters more than people expect on a hard hill day, especially in summer, so plan your route around water when you can. And take some comfort in the math: the climbs you curse through the summer humidity are the same ones that will feel like flat ground come race day in the fall.

Once your legs are ready to test that new strength, find your next start line on The Capital Runner Race Calendar.