Hill repeats: am I doing them 'right'?

Recovery too long jog straght back down the hill and build reps up to 8

These are short hills do some longer ones as well

Not a bad start, but you should mix it up a little bit.

Those are about 160m, you could do them really fast and take a walk down rest between and do about 6-10. Or, as we used to do in mile/5k winter prep, we would do 20-24 x 100m hill at a moderate effort with a jog down rest. Nothing too fast, but it was a great aerobic workout.

Also, my team has a hill that goes like this:

-350m gradual uphill

-200m flat/downhill

-150 uphill steeper

We run the first part moderate, then cruise the middle, and sprint up the last part. We jog down and do it about 4-6 times.

We also have a long hill of about 1000m that we go up and down for about 25-30 minutes at a time.

To work on turnover/speed, do about 3 downhills on alternate weeks (or half of total uphills). Better in grass at first if you can find a place. Work on going fast as possible without face planting so be VERY careful at first. There is an art - which I have never mastered - to 'falling' downhill but in control. Awesome to see a runner who can do this.

squarelyjc wrote:

I just added hill repeats to my workout schedule. I plan to do them every other week. I started with 5 last week and will work my way up over time.

The hill I chose is a 7.4% average grade and is 1/10th of a mile long. I am able to run this at 10k pace consistently for 5 reps currently.

After I run up the hill, I jog at a very easy pace around the block downhill (about twice as long as the hill itself) to get back where I started, and repeat.

My goals are to build my aerobic system more and be prepared for hills in races. I'm focused on the 12k - Half Marathon distances.

Is the hill long enough? Am I recovering long enough? I'm open to any tips and ideas.

You are thinking too much.

ukathleticscoach wrote:

Recovery too long jog straght back down the hill and build reps up to 8

These are short hills do some longer ones as well

Not true. If he's doing short hill reps for speed development he should take all the rest in the world. As much as he needs. The point would be to hammer them hard on plenty of rest.

crete wrote:

ukathleticscoach wrote:

Recovery too long jog straght back down the hill and build reps up to 8

These are short hills do some longer ones as well

Not true. If he's doing short hill reps for speed development he should take all the rest in the world. As much as he needs. The point would be to hammer them hard on plenty of rest.

I understand both points. I would argue that he can pick a better hill workout for each of these. go short and fast. go long and steady. it is that simple.

crete wrote:

ukathleticscoach wrote:

Recovery too long jog straght back down the hill and build reps up to 8

These are short hills do some longer ones as well

Not true. If he's doing short hill reps for speed development he should take all the rest in the world. As much as he needs. The point would be to hammer them hard on plenty of rest.

He stated that they are for aerobic development. So yes the rest is way too long. You need to recover by running easy down hill, then turn and right back up.

Progression should be repetitions, then intensity, and with increased intensity drop the reps then build them back up.

This is an early base building/ conditioning workout. Once you have moved into a phase that you are cutting your workload in preparation for an event, this should be the first cut. You will see an immediate bump in performance at that point.

Thanks for the feedback everyone.

It sounds like I need to cut out the around-the-block jog to build my aerobic system more. Speed is not my emphasis at this point - I've been in a base building phase for about 6 weeks so far and and mixing things up a bit to avoid a bunch of boring miles.

Typically after I do this workout I continue on a 4-5 mile jog on hilly terrain. So there comes in more (yet much, much less intense) hill running.

If you're doing short hills for muscle fiber recruitment, then do it at 99% effort and for less than 8 seconds. Walk until you're good to go again.

If you're doing it for aerobic ability or lactate clearing, then there are about a million ways to do it. Your current strategy isn't bad. You can take most interval workouts, slow the pace, consider whether to increase recovery, and do them on an uphill. It's less impact, even!