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I can run 21k in 1 hour and 36 minutes. It WAS NOT easy getting to where I'm at now with my fitness. It took alot of dedication and hard work. But I used my laser-like aspergian focus to become very good at a sport that I now excell at which is long distance trail running. My secret to building endurance is that I always run at an incline. It helps build more muscle in your legs and increases endurance more than if you were just running on a flat surface.

^^ Yes! Running uphill, with weights. There's a popular hiking trail about 15 minutes from my house. The summit is at 3000 feet. The trail is extremely well maintained with an even gravel surface and 6-10 feet wide, so I can run it full speed without tripping over stuff or bumping into hikers. That run has done a lot for my cardio conditioning!

Is that a 21K trail course? Do you warm up on fairly level surfaces? Most of the pundits and coaches advise some use of level surfaces for building base aerobic fitness. Hill running is usually a component, sometimes emphasized at a certain portion of the training period. Supposedly running hill work mimics the muscle activity involved in sprinting. It seems like a lot of eccentric loading on the muscles. Do whatever works for you I guess. Just don't learn the hard way.

I suspect these hills in my neck of the woods played a role in that calf tear I developed about three years ago. Probably insufficient warming up on my part also. I was able to run through a couple half marathon with that injury finishing the flat one in 1:22:28. Pain would set it somewhere down the road, by the 10K mark. I'd make a few adjustments if I could do that season over.

That makes sense, hills would be more anaerobic, which would not be what you should emphasize while training for a mostly aerobic sport. For example, a 2km rowing race lasts less than 7mins but most of our training is long distance low intensity work because the race is still 80% aerobic. If you were to train by doing high intensity 2km pieces all the time, you'd get destroyed at any regatta.

The one hour and thirty six minutes is my all out speed on a level surface of 1% on a treadmill. I use the treadmill to test and track my progress in regards to trail running. Now if I were to run 21k through the mountains my time could range from 1 hr 30 min - 2hr 15 min depending on the terrain.