Hill Reps . How much long , how much recovery ?

I've done lots of hill reps over the years, especially during base running to build speed without destroying my legs.

Worrying about paces or hitting splits is a formula for misery, especially if you run them week after week. I agree that running up the hill itself is the challenge. You can go by perceived effort (e.g. mile, 5K, 10K effort) but it really doesn't take much to feel like you're working hard.

The other thing is that they tend to feel progressively harder with each rep, whereas if you're running repeats on flat land they feel about the same or even easier as the workout progresses. In my experience it tends to be the opposite with hills. Holding back in the early reps will make a big difference.

I think it's because bad coaches want to make something simple sound very complex, so they can sound like some Running Guru.

this is definitely a thing, and it's difficult to work around this with kids, because they're easily manipulated.

Sometimes I do wonder why I bother. With this hills topic I did get kind of excited because I have had some great trails around here that provide a multitude of ways to organize a workout.

Don’t do repeats for x seconds. Run to and from a visible point (mailbox, tree, mile marker, etc.). Main reason being is you will work harder on the later reps going the full distance instead of the full time. For distance something near 1/10th mile Hill should be significant but not insane. Run it like a stride - roll into it and work up toward your top end. jog down slow (some walking permitted if needed). then make a u-turn and start again.

In the true spirit of LetsRun, I'm hijacking this thread to talk to age 50+ runners. Hill sprints are a great way to boost T and hGH levels if done properly. The OP probably doesn't need that, but if you're 50+, this is an easy way to get a T boost. It's also surprisingly easy to recover to do something the next day as the workout itself is over in only 15 minutes.

The hill should be steep. Steep is defined as too steep to safely run at top speed downhill. Note: Again, "safe" as in safe for an age 50+ runner. The workout is 8 reps of 20 sec uphill with a 90 second walk/jog back recovery. The pace for your 20 second run should be a pace you can hold for maybe 21-22 seconds. In other words, a near sprint. At first, it will hard to get all 8 reps without slowing a lot on the last few reps. Over the next few weeks, increase the time run to 30 seconds. No need to go longer than 30 seconds unless you're training for the 400/800. Form should be tall and powering off with each push. It helps to think of this as a drill and not a pure speed workout. At age 77, I sometimes add 15 seconds recovery to the last 3-4 reps and I always try to make the last rep my best rep.

I've done this workout for nearly 20 years. The risk of injury running uphill sprints are much less than doing near all-out sprints on a track. Do this workout for a month and you can feel the power increase in your legs!

Avoid super steep hills at first because there is a risk of Achilles injury by putting the Achilles under a lot of stress in a hyper dorsiflexed position.