Posted: March 24, 2006

Athletics: Hill Training Basics

Hill Training will take your running to new heights!

There are three main ways to improve your running:
* Get your muscles stronger with hill repeats and weight training so that your muscle fibers are bigger and can sustain high intensity exercise for a longer period.
* Run for greater distances, i.e. for a longer period of time to improve your endurance and running economy. Wear a water bottle holder with a 24 ounce container for runs of over 40 minutes. Include carbs if you’re going over 70 minutes.
* Do portions of your mileage at relatively high intensity, including hill repeats, anaerobic threshold running and Interval training.

Long runs teach your cells to adapt: Your mitochondria will synthesize more ATP to fuel your movement. Add 5 minutes to your longest run every other week and you can move up from 40 to do 80 minute runs after 16 weeks. Then alternate 80 minute runs with 60 minute runs on Sundays and you’ll show huge improvements to your oxygen take-up and distribution systems. Your VO2 maximum will improve. To keep running for that long, your stride length will probably decrease and you’ll force yourself to land gently. Maintain the same legspeed and your running efficiency will also improve.
You’ll need to do most of your easy running at 70 percent of maximum heartrate, or one to 1.5 minutes per mile slower than 5K pace.

As Arthur Lydiard said, “Hill training builds power and endurance.”
Percy Cerutty said that, “resistance training in the form of sand and hills is too important to be ignored” so lets get to hill training.

You don’t have to hurt during hill repeats.
Hill repeats are not just for Olympic champions. They are not even painful…provided you follow the guidelines of this web page. Hill repeats will improve your 5-Ks and 10-Ks though, while also reducing your risk of injury.
Hill training builds muscle strength, speed and character...provided you choose the right grade for your fitness level. Run small hills gently to start. Run steeper sections later.
You’ve done a few 5-K races by now. Hills are the ideal resistance training for competent 5-K running because they’ll make you stronger while also developing your knee lift. However, striders in mud, bounding across sand or long grass will give you most of the benefits. It is prudent to do some sessions up a gentle, asphalt hill though to perfect your psychomotor skills (that is, your running form) at race pace. See the plyometrics page too.

The ideal effort to run hill repeats is 5K intensity. You only need to get your heartrate up to 95 percent of your maximum during your first 10 sessions. Start with about 5 minutes worth of repeats, and build toward 12 minutes worth. Do repeats of 40 to 60 seconds for one session, then find a different hill for 90 to 120 second repeats for alternate sessions. To encourage yourself to come back for more sessions, it’s important to enjoy hill repeats. A gradual build up of hill training at the right intensity gives you the benefits without stressing your mind or your body.

One day though, you’ll feel ready to encounter some hurt. When you’ve done a session of hill reps every other week for 5 or 6 months you can increase intensity for the second half of your sessions to reach 98 percent of your maximum heartrate. If you were running on the flat, your pace would have increased by 10 to 15 seconds per mile, so you’re still a long way short of sprinting. However, you have just made your hill session into really serious training, so only do a few repeats at the higher intensity.
The other way to add intensity to hill training is with longer repeats at 5K effort. Three to 5 minute repeats to total 15 minutes of up-hill running is doable for experienced runners. Do the session once a month in rotation with shorter reps at 3K intensity.

Now, lets get back to your first hill session.
You’ll need a 15 minute warm up before stretching and a few 100 meter striders, then cruise up the hill at 5K effort. You’ll time all repeats, so use definite start and finish points such as a large tree or a specific lamppost. Avoid points within 25 meters of a turn, bend or junction. Your entire repeat should have no cross streets or turns, which will help you avoid electric vehicles at 50 miles per hour.
Practice good running form but with a slightly exaggerated knee lift, faster leg turnover and more forceful arm action. Do not sprint. You should not be gasping for breath at the end of your hill repeat.
Walk a few feet as you regain composure, and then land gently as you run back down the hill on grass or dirt if possible. Reset your stopwatch (or chronograph) to zero, and stride back up the hill. Immediately after stopping your watch at the top, check your heartrate to make sure you’re only at 95 percent of your maximum.
Another option if you have a long hill is to drop a bicycle off close to the top. Drive back down and warmup on the flat. Do your 5 to 10 hill repeats interspersed with walking to reach your bike. Ride down at modest legspeed and the first part of your warmdown has saved your joints from downhill running. You’ll need another 15 minutes or two miles of easy running for your cooldown.
Treadmills make the logistics of hill training a bit easier so check that web page.

Don’t run hill repeats the week before a significant race. Two weeks before is fine, but do a couple repeats less than usual. This session would be to reinforce your hill running skills and to confirm your strength rather than to make yourself stronger. It takes more than two weeks for the physiological benefits of hill training to show up as improved strength. Running hills too close to your race will leave fatigue in your legs, yet by backing off on the hill session by 20 percent you’ll be resting up for a race.
The worst training schedule I saw in the first week of June 2,004 was a 4 week walking program which had its participants do hill training Monday through Thursday. If your goal is to ruin your Achilles, then do the same type of high intensity day after day. If you still want to be running next month, do a variety of training, including hill repeats once a week for some parts of the year, and once every two weeks for most of the year.

If you’re opting for a bit of hurt by training at faster than 5K intensity, you should associate with your muscles discomfort by focusing on your body. When you’re in a large training group or a race you can use spells of disassociation from your body by focusing on other runners. You still need to use a piece of your mind for the task of running at high intensity, but being with other runners can make your task seem easier. Get into a zone while with others, and practice finding that zone on solo training days.
Visualization also helps during races and training to improve your running form. Imagine yourself running next to a world record breaker with perfect form. Think about how you will feel at each half mile for a 5K race, and practice the art of pace judgment to feel that way.
Good running rhythm will make difficult sessions seem easier…provided you don’t make sudden changes to your training. Some days you’ll have to kick out negative thoughts about being fatigued: tell yourself you’ve:
* Run this fast or faster before;
* Run steeper hills before;
* Been waiting three days for this special session;
* Done half of the session; achieved five-eighths of the session; mastered good form for three-quarters of the session.

Downhill striders on a gentle grass or smooth dirt slope are great for improving running form and developing the leg extensor muscles, including the gluteus crew & hamstrings, plus the soleus.
Don’t sprint them, but run down a 2 or 3 percent grade with good form and a quick leg turnover. Keep the knees nicely bent at landing and pull the planet back with your toes to propel yourself down the hill at close to mile race pace while making only 5K effort. Run 3 or 4 efforts during fartlek sessions.

5-K Race Training schedule incorporating hill repeats.

Week One:
Sat – Up to 12 minutes of short hill repeats (the 12 minutes is the
actual up-hill running; don’t count the downhill recovery)
Sun – 40 minutes easy, but see the first part of this page and consider
increasing the length of this run by 10 minutes per month.
Mon – Gentle fartlek session.
Wed – Threshold pace for 20 minutes. Do long repeats at 25 to 35
seconds per mile slower than 5K pace, plus 10 minutes warmup
and cooldown at easy pace.
Thurs – 40 minutes easy.

Week Two:
Sat – Up to 12 minutes worth of long hill repeats;
Sun – 40 to 80 minutes easy;
Mon – Cruise 16 x 200 meters;
Wed – 20 minute sustained or tempo run at 35 seconds per mile
slower than 5K pace.
Thurs – 40 minutes easy;

Of course, you’ll also do two sessions of cross training every week. Sometimes you’ll cross train straight after your running, such as a bike ride or spinning class. Sometimes you’ll do a separate session 6 hours or more before or after the run.
Want to give yourself a really good laugh? Do your weight training session a few minutes after you finish your warmdown from hill repeats. Take a note of the muscles which feel tired during this weight training session because they are the ones which you stimulated during your hill session. Hint: lift 5 to 10 pounds less than usual and don’t rush the repeats. Keep good form. If you normally do 15 reps, do 12s. Do one set instead of two sets the first time you do this back to back strength session.

Stairs and stadium steps.
Add step climbing by taking two stairs at a time for several flights of stairs to give yourself more leg strength. Go down in the elevator and walk up again. Don’t allow the knee of your front leg to extend beyond your toes.
Restrict yourself to 25 levels the first time you do stadiums, but walk back down and do 4 to 6 sets. A week later, move up to the 30th or 35th row of seats and higher over ensuing weeks as your legs get used to running or walking stadiums. Do the steps walking two at time with deep lunges; the next trip up the stadium run the steps one at a time. You may need to look down at your feet.

During the rest of your strength training, looking down is probably the worst way to cope with hill running. Looking down ruins your running form, which gives you fewer meters per calorie, and fewer meters per liter of air. Be positive about the hill. Look up to a point about 50 meters ahead to keep yourself perpendicular to the slope, then enjoy the gradient and run at appropriate intensity or heartrate so as not to hurt yourself.
Make hill running fun by thinking about fluid movement as you cruise up the slope, whether at steady effort in 40 minute runs or at 5K intensity when doing hill repeats. Develop flow. Bring your mental and physical resources to efficiently flow up the hill.
* Avoid excessively high knees even though you’ll use slightly higher knees during some repeats to develop strength.
* Avoid excessively fast legspeed. You’re not sprinting up the hill at 210 steps per minute to prepare for a 400 meter race. Cruise up at 190 steps per minute and at 5K to 2-mile intensity, or 95 to 98 percent of your maximum heartrate.
Do remember to push off rapidly from your toes and whip your leg through and up for the next stride.

While many runners do 12 weeks of hill training per year to finish off their winter training, I believe you should also:
* Run hill repeats once every 2 weeks during base training while gaining strength.
* Run hill repeats once every three weeks during a racing season to help maintain strength.
* Which still gives a mere 27 sessions of hill repeats per year.

Actually, running can be simpler than that. Just continue with hill repeats twice a month for the rest of your life, and you’ll maintain your leg strength.

Copyright David Holt 2006 - Posted with permission

Adapted from 5K Fitness Run, ISBN 0965889750 by its author David Holt, Get 230 pages for $14.95, from Amazon.com

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