Hill sprints vs hill repeats (benefits differences)

I'm interested to see where this goes; I too am looking to improve my 5k time.

What does the rest of your week/cycle include? Maybe that will help people provide more useful insights.

jtface wrote:

What does the rest of your week/cycle include? Maybe that will help people provide more useful insights.

I run 3 times a week: 5K, long run (now 7K and rising up to 10K or 1 hour), and one variant running workout (intervals / hills / etc.). Also I do half an hour pilates core exercises once a week.

My 5K PR is 22:06

The best thing to do is to alternate. Do one session in the first week and the other in the second.

Alaa wrote:

jtface wrote:

What does the rest of your week/cycle include? Maybe that will help people provide more useful insights.

I run 3 times a week: 5K, long run (now 7K and rising up to 10K or 1 hour), and one variant running workout (intervals / hills / etc.). Also I do half an hour pilates core exercises once a week.

My 5K PR is 22:06

Neither will give you as much benefit as 3-4 more runs of 3-6 miles per week.

Just go out, run six days a week for a month and set an insane season best.

Inconsistent hill sprints without aerobic capacity will only impress crossfitters. The 5k rewards everyday effort over workouts

Depends what your body responds to, and if your long or middle distanced based.

My 5k times come down rapidly if I add in a session of 8/10 x 30s hill repeats or substitute it for a typical track session. Shorter track sessions benefit me more than longer ones. Long steady runs don't do much at all for me other than general strength and fitness.

I also do 3 x 10s flat out uphill sprints at the end of my longer hill session.

Hill sprints can be done after a easy run, as it doesn't produce alot of lactate, I would recommend you only do 3-5, with unlimited rest(1 min+) for now. If you want to do more, time yourself, and stop when you start slowing down. They are good for strength, speed and some other stuff, has a low "cost", but my coach says flat running is better for speed. Because of the low cost I would recommend them to any long distance runner.

Hill repeats will likely produce alot of lactate, at least how I run them, so they are a workout that stands on it's own. Hill repeats will increase your strength endurance and lactate tollerance alot. They are especially used allot in different forms by 800m runners, but I think they are good for 5k too.

Search for Pete Magill 5k and you will have your answers....

To improve at 5 k demands the same as for 800m-marathon. The most important factors are maxVO2-pace, treshold-pace and best individual aerob pace.....to better up your all out sprint speed mostly for 800m-1500m you have to do specific sprint work once or twice in the week.

Short hill sprints injure me, longer hard controlled reps even pushing the last 5-10seconds don't. So, short reps are not "low cost" for everyone.

Greater hormonal response in the latter, also targets both anaerobic and aerobic capacities. Shorter version for anaerobic capacity, assuming that long recoveries used. Both could have it´s place.

Thanks for the pro advice yall !!

Alaa wrote:

Hi all

I'm wondering what different benefits I would get from hill sprints (10-12 sec 100% effort) vs hill repeats (30 sec 95% effort).

My goal is to improve speed for 5K.

Thank you!

Renato Canova posted a great summary of his thoughts on the benefits of short hill sprints here.

From here, roughly speaking, longer hills work the cardiovascular system more -- hard repeats in the 90-180 sec range will blow up your ability to hammer middle distance -- while still building leg strength.

Depends as well on how aerobically fit you are. Most runners would benefit from longer hill reps as it gives the desired strength from doing hills as well as building endurance

You will injure yourself sprinting up the hill. Back off to 80%. Will be good enough. Do a lot of them.

blamb61 wrote:

You will injure yourself sprinting up the hill. Back off to 80%. Will be good enough. Do a lot of them.

your achilles tendon is at risk sprinting up them.

blamb61 wrote:

blamb61 wrote:

You will injure yourself sprinting up the hill. Back off to 80%. Will be good enough. Do a lot of them.

your achilles tendon is at risk sprinting up them.

The idea is to get stronger.

That's why it's important to do toe raises and

place the forefeet flat against the floor (for shine)

and press down. Those have helped me.

You should have a good endurance base before doing the hills.

I'm interested in hearing responses, too. I've mostly run two sorts of repeats: 4-6 x 60 seconds very steep hill, not too fast, just putting in the time and then striding out at the bottom. It's for quad and calf strength, and thus for extension--stride length and power--and it works wonders for me.

The other sort of hill workout uses longer reps, around 90 seconds, on a not-too-steep hill, and they're run hard and fast, so that you're holding on and maxed out for that last 30 seconds. Those feel to me as though they're more about aerobic power and anaerobic capacity, depending in how hard you run them. I used to run most of the long hill on the NW corner of Central Park 6-10 times like this, until my fingers tingled.

I never quite got the 10-15 second max-intensity thing. It didn't work for me. The others paid off quite visibly in faster times and faster paces feeling easier.