Canova's hill sprints: working into a workout and into a week

nj wrote:

start with 10 and add two each week

In his book, Brad Hudson recommends that you should start with only one or two. Remember that these are SPRINTS. You should run at absolutely maximum speed. They are not hill reps like the ones most runners do.

It's hard to figure out how someone could run 10-15 hill sprints at 100% effort without serious CNS fatigue.

It's like Usain Bolt would run 10 sub-10 100m with 2 min recovery. Is it even possible?

From my own experience 10x10 seconds at "really" maximum speed is very hard work even if you rest as long as 3 minutes. I feel it`s better to do them for about 5-6 seconds but run like hell. If I go longer my speed declines an it becomes to hard. I wonder if anyone experiences the same.

Renato Canova wrote:

...As is very difficult for an African to have in his mind at the same time more than one problem, the first effect is they become confused, and quit training.

as an African, I agree with you 100%!!!

Just one question for Canova...

Are these hills supposed to be at max speed OR max effort with a bit of bounding action?

I think Max speed and max effort, bounding is something else entirely.

I always feel better the day after short hill sprints-it's like my legs are "firing" better and everything is back in alignment.

Is there something to be said for doing something like 1houreasy/moderate+3-5 hill sprints every single day? Sometimes when doing 20-30X10s I feel like it is too much and would be better off spreading the load. I know aouita did 4X10X100m but that is too much for most people to handle.

I've ran well off of such a schedule before, the hour works on endurance and then the few hill sprints open up the stride and provide some speed. Maybe one day go longer and one day do some intervals instead but most days just do 1hour+a few hill sprints. I can't imagine a training schedule with such low risk and yet decent training benefits.

Or maybe an hour in the morning and then alternating pylometrics and hill sprints for the afternoon sessions, with just a long run/long fartlek/long progression or maybe intervals on Sunday. So many ways to structure the week! Any thoughts?

fUrCeOsNhN wrote:

I know aouita did 4X10X100m but that is too much for most people to handle.

That's the first I've heard of that, have a link?

According to "training distance runners", Seb Coe worked up to 40x up a steep 180 yard hill in 20-21 seconds.

That's a 3:20 mile pace though, so the hill was probably more like 110 yards.

Whoops, the book says it was 180 meters, which is 197 yards.

In 20-21 seconds.

3:03 pace. :)

Sorry for the triple post.

Apparently the 40 reps is an example, for 100 meters in 20-21 seconds.

It says Coe's hill was very steep and only 180 m long, with a varying gradient.

There is no mention of the number of reps that he did.

This thread is great. Judging from most contributors' comments when I have done hill sprints in the past I believe they've been a) too long, and b) had insufficient rest between reps to maintain the necessary intensity needed to get maximum benefit from them. Some very good ideas on implementing them into the week as well.

Do you think that if he could not it is due to Central (CNS) fatigue. I think you need to clarify or give us solid evidence that fatigue during this type of event, or any brief eintense exercise is due to CNS fatigue.

I would be interested in reading any references you have for this.

J.R. wrote:

fUrCeOsNhN wrote:

I know aouita did 4X10X100m but that is too much for most people to handle.

That's the first I've heard of that, have a link?

just about every week in the base phase, 4X10X100m w/ jogbacks between reps and 5 minutes between sets. Looks to be about the only running done during the day, presumeably there is a warmup and cooldown but none is listed.

Also I have read that some of the other top Morrocans occasionally do 20X400m hills in the morning then 20X400m fast on the track in the afternoon-different then short hill sprints but very hard nonetheless. El G used to do 10X300m once a week and Coe did 30X100m on grass. The Ethiopians generally do a lot of very short but all out hills (<100m)while the Kenyans prefer 200m and 300m efforts. The Ethiopian method seems produce better results over the last lap.

Sorry if I missed this during the thread, but how steep should these hills be and does it matter if there is a flat part within the hill (so 2-3 second hill sprint, 2-3 second flatland then 3-5 second hill sprint)

fUrCeOsNhN wrote:

http://www.baysiderunners.com.au/aouita.htm

[/link

Thanks.

The hills I run are a 10% grade for sprints, and a 6% grade for longer uphills and downhills.

J.R. wrote:

fUrCeOsNhN wrote:

I know aouita did 4X10X100m but that is too much for most people to handle.

That's the first I've heard of that, have a link?

According to "training distance runners", Seb Coe worked up to 40x up a steep 180 yard hill in 20-21 seconds.

That's a 3:20 mile pace though, so the hill was probably more like 110 yards.

Again: those were not SPRINTS! Coe was famous for doing a lot of hill reps, but he -like most runners - didn´t have complete recovery so it was more of a speed endurance session.

No problem. Aouita was a beast. Didn't do high mileage but most of his mileage was very intense.

I use 10% during the winter as well, it is a challenging gradient but is not steep enough that it changes the mechanics too much. I have a 400m hill that is close to 15% which is good workout (split into 4 sections of 100m) but doesn't seem to help mechanics as much. It is good for knee lift though-I feel like I need to drive my knees up to around shoulder height just to get up the damn thing.

As the competitive season gets closer I switch to a lower volume of 3-5% sprints as well as strides and sprints on the track-where I feel like I am driving the knee forward rather then up, and that is where speed comes from.

I see many people make confusion between the different distances, nothing to do with SHORT sprints. The common denominator is not the fact that different distances are on the hill, but that the speed MUST BE at 100%, because our final goal is TO RECRUIT THE HIGHEST PERCENTAGE OF FIBRES.

We don't want to produce lactate (little quantity only, that is possible to remove using the OXYDATIVE SYSTEM, so short sprints uphill are an AEROBIC WORKOUT, according to the researches of Finnish scientists Vikho and Komi, together with the Italian Carmelo Bosco),but look for a NERVOUS goal.

How many sprints an athlete have to do ? You have to control your time on the same distance, for example 10.0.

When you are no more able to run close to that time because you feel nervously tired and exhausted, is time to stop. BECAUSE IT'S IMPORTANT TO RUN AT MAX SPEED, recovery time is not important.

Of course, we use also long hills (200 - 400 and also 600m), but the final goal and their mean is completely different.

We must have PHYSIOLOGICAL goals in our training, not mixing a lot of things without knowing the effects on your body. Remember that the reason because you can run faster after a period of good training is that THIS TRAINING GOES TO MODIFY YOUR PHYSIOLOGY, so your final values (for example, of the blood) become different.

Don't forget we have 2 different engines :

a) The MECHANICAL engine, producing work (muscles etc.), that means we have to take care of our muscular power in all the particulars

b) The ORGANIC engine, that must allow an athlete in lasting at high intensity for long time. In this case, we go to provoke enzymatic and mythocondrial changes in our body, chenging our METABOLIC ability.

Different is to use specific CIRCUITS uphill for increasing the STRENGTH ENDURANCE.

For example, sprint 60m + 40m bounding + 60m sprints + 40m heels-to-buttocks + 60m sprinting + 40m skipping + 100msprint at max intensity, and when you stop 10 times squat-jump using the max energy you can (400m climbing).

In this case, we have to use the max intensity, and recovery must be very long, because your fibres become full of lactate.

For increasing in the final sprint, you must increase your ability in RECRUITING FIBRES already full of lactate, nothing to do with the max speed you have.

The use of circuits for strength endurance has exactly this final goal : to enhance the ability in recruiting fibres already saturated of lactate.

Renato

is the main aim in the fundamental period to raise strength endurance? Would you use that circuit during the fundamental period? Also when you use hills for climbing or longer reps during this period, are they at max intensity?

Renato,

Thanks for clarifying and posting again.