Hello guys,
I want to discuss with you about hill training. I think almost all of us used or use hill training in their schedule, and there are many kind of possible session we can do running up the hills, from all out 30m sprints up to 2hr hilly long runs.
So I want to discuss why we use hills and how.
To me, there are at least 5 kind of hills training session:
1)Hill sprints: simple as that, pure sprints, up to 50m(10s), with 3' rest: this is an alternative to speed development on the track, and it's nice to reintroduce speed development with an hill session, because allow us to run with a better form using the arms, and has a minor impact on the harmstrings(I still have to find someone who pulled an harmstring on a hill sprint). Ideally the incline of the hill should be about 8-12%, if it's more than that probably the rep has to bee limited to 8s in length
2) Speed endurance hills rep: similar to hill sprints, but longer reps, from 12s-15s up to 25-30s, 4-8 reps, plenty of recovery(3-4 mins). The goal is to try run as efficient as possible while moving fast and of course at the end of the session you will deal with lactic fatigue, but the aim of this session is not to go too lactic, but to extend the efficiency at high speed. The steepness is the same of hill sprints
3) Lactate capacitance/power hills: these are my favourite especially in winter when preparing for the indoor season in cold weather: if you can't risk to go doing your lactate power and lactate capacitance on the track because we have less than 0° Celsius, just adapt your workout up an hill. For these kind of workouts one can use the same 8-12% hill, but in this case, limit the length of the rep to 25-30s. You do 8 of these with 2-3' recovery and you have done basically your 200-300 at 800m race effort. With a lighter hill(4-6%) we can go up to 300m reps, an maybe to enforce lactate tolerance doing something like 4x2x300m with jog recovery and 4' between sets fast, at 800m race effort. I prefer to do this kind of workouts on the track, but if you don't have access to an indoor facility it's a good replacement. And also, if this is the first time you touch these pace/efforts, running up a hill is not taxing as running on the track, because you go slower, and it's good to reintroduce these kind of stimulus
4)VO2 max hills: on the same 4-6% degree hill you can do up to 60s reps with jog recovery not too slow about 3K effort down to 2K effort by the end of the session. I like to go 8-12 reps, and since the recovery is more than the normal 1:1 ratio, I find useful to cutdown sometimes to an effort similar to mile pace. If you can find a grass hill to do this stuff it's even better in the cross country season.
5)5K/10K pace hills or Kenyan Hills: not everywhere you can do a kenyan hills type of workout where you run about 800m, you recovery on a flat surface and you go again. Usually we have to come back jogging. If you can find a sufficiently long hill, up to a 1km, doing 6-7 of these with jog recovery at 10K effort down to 5K effort is very good to get you in shape for cross country. You don't need a steep hill, from 3% up to 6% is enough
6)Hilly tempos/steady runs/long runs: if you live in a place where there are many short hills you can do your tempo/steady work up and down, but it's very imprtant not to overcook yourself on these kind of continuous 20-40mins sessions, so I suggest to wear an HR monitor to check if it's too hard. I don't use these kind of session much, sometimes I find useful running a long run in a tough environment to enforce mental strength, but for middle distance runners that's not always necessary.
So, let's jump into the reason of doing hills reps/session.
The hills help our heart to go to high values faster, so they can become an excellent tool for aerobic sessions. Also, hills help to run with a better form, and up to lactate capacitance/power workouts, they are easier to recover. You don't feel destroyed the day after 8x30s with 3', but if you do 8x300m with 3' on the track at 800m pace you definetely need more recover. But we must pay attention to longer hills, because they become harder to recover.
I use hills especially in the fall and in the winter, while in spring and summer, when the outdoor season approaches, I use hills once every 2-3 weeks as a shock to the system.
And know I want to know how do you use hills in your trining sessions, and why.
Let's discuss