Im heading to Dallas for a summer job and need some hills to train on...I have been there once before and covered a good deal of the metroplex but saw very few hills.
Any Dallas natives here have any suggestions for some decent places to get in some hill training...preferably on the east side...neighborhoods? parks? etc.
Thanks!
Flagpole Hill.
Norbuck Park at Northwest Hwy. & Buckner Blvd is fine for hill intervals. Note this is basically across the street from Flagpole Hill.
The best hill for repeats in Dallas is Loma Vista Drive, which is in the Lake Highlands area near the intersection of Abrams Road and Royal Lane. The guy who turned me onto it, about a quarter of a century ago, was none other than John Kellogg.
Living in the Past wrote:
The best hill for repeats in Dallas is Loma Vista Drive, which is in the Lake Highlands area near the intersection of Abrams Road and Royal Lane.
Yes sir. I ran at St. Mark's back in the late 1980s and we used to run loops out there starting at the corner of Arborside and Loma Vista, heading East on Loma Vista uphill 300 meters at a hard pace to Club Meadows, then a right turn and a slow jog on a slight downhill South to Summer Glen, then a right turn and a freewheeling pickup down the not too steep hill of Summer Glen, then another right turn and a slow jog back North on Arborside to the starting point. Do that 8 or 10 times and you've got a good workout if you don't pound too hard down Summer Glen. You can do the same kind of workout at Norbuck Park on grass and some of the hills are about the same length, but the uphills and downhills are pretty much the same grade and not really steep enough for the uphills. Loma Vista is darn near perfect for a set of sustained hard uphills.
Another good loop we did used the long uphill section of Mason Dells Drive, which is bounded by Royal Lane and Forest Lane South to North and by Hillcrest and Central Expwy West to East. Start at Mason Dells and Valleydale and head uphill on Mason Dells going West, then turn right on St. Michaels and head North. That curves East and becomes Valleydale, which continues to bend back South to the start. Doing 3-5 loops of that is great for progressive tempo runs with a long hill every loop, and if you drive out there, you can warm up on a flatter section either at the bottom or the top of that area.
Google maps will point out where these streets are. I had to look up the street names on the map myself since it's been about 19 years since I was in school there, but I remember the loops well. I moved out of Dallas in the early 1990s, but back then, those were fairly quiet areas traffic wise, for Dallas anyway. The hills are about as good as you'll get in that town.
SM Lion Alum wrote:
Yes sir. I ran at St. Mark's back in the late 1980s
You did? Email me. You must have been on my high school team.
If you go to the Duncanville area, there are good hills there. I'm thinking of Camp Wisdom Road in particular.
wow, thanks for all of the great responses. I did not think I would get much....another question...Im really not looking to do that much in the way of hill intervals in dallas just wanting to get 2-3 runs in per week over some pretty hilly stuff. The places mentioned, I assume I can just do loops and get around 10-11 miles on them? Any other areas y'all think of would be great! Thanks for the info.
white rock lake has some mild hills; it's a good 10-mile loop.
The ten mile loop around White Rock lake is flat as a pancake. The neighborhoods surrounding the lake have some rolling hills.
And for trail check out this site
nttr.org
The Lake Highlands neighborhood north of Flagpole Hill on either side of Audelia Road and south of Walnut Hill has some hilly terrain. You could even incorporate Flagpole Hill into the run if you take White Rock Trail.