How often do you do strides + hill sprints during each phase of training?

I do hill sprints once per week every Monday following an easy run. 6-8 seconds with a 3 min recovery. I started with 3 and then added 1 per week until I got to 8. Strides i fit in whenever I can following an easy effort. Anywhere between 1-3 times per week.

I mainly think about doing strides and hill sprints, maybe actually do them once per month. I'm slow af though.

My hillsprints are about 10s with walk down rest. For strides I go a bit longer, 150m to get into the groove, but generous rest like 100m walk and the other 150 real slow trot.

After a jog I always ease into them and do the first 2 real gentle to find out what the legs are up to that day. Usually I do 5 with the last 2 at a good clip.

Usually it comes down to 2x strides and 1x hills a week. If I do something very related like 200s or hill/stairs repeats maybe I skip one.

There is no master plan behind it but feel it really helps legs on the next day.

I do them before and after an easy run like 2-3x a week.

Never. I get worried anything fast (esp on uphill/downhill) is going to injure me. But I have chronic Achilles issues where anything high intensity flares them.

Good topic. I don't exactly do hill sprints, but I do use hills in a strategic way when I'm pointing towards races. Just this morning, halfway through a "season" that has seen me run three 5Ks and one 8-miler and will have me running another three 5Ks and a 10K peak race before it's over, I did a run I haven't gone near in a couple of years. I warm up for 3-5 miles, then run 3 x 60 sec steep hills. I don't have to spring, just get up on the balls of my feet, keep cadence reasonably high, and push through to the top. The whole point of the workout is quad strength. I get to 95% of HR max by the last 15 seconds, but it's not training my CV system in any traditional way. The point is, by the time I do the hills, including, at much lower HR, some uphills and downhills in the warmup portion, I've run 6.3 miles with 500+ feet of vertical.

It's quite possible to do some "hilly" runs of 8 miles with half that much vertical--I've got a doozy that I run regularly--and build some strength. But nothing quite matches the training effect, the bang-for-the-buck effect, of those 60 second steep hills. They quickly help you realize that you've been ignoring a key component of training. When I was younger (I'm 67) and in better shape, I'd do this morning's run as 8+ miles with two sets of 3 x 60 sec steep hills. That was a killer. You just catch your breath at the top, jog slowly down to the bottom, pause briefly, then do it again. A humbling workout. The point is to do it often enough--four or five times--so that it no longer humbles you.

You were asking, though, about periodization: when to do this. Normally I would have started hills earlier, but as I age, and as the Mississippi summers feel hotter, I just can't stomach the hills until it cools down. Hell, I used to run 10 miles midweek--4 miles out to Thacker Mountain, then 3 x 4:00 up the mountain, then run home at threshold pace. Those longer hills, done at threshold pace, with a sprint in the last 30 seconds, build incredible strength. (The Kenyan way, LOL.)

It's ten minutes from my door to a nice trail network. On the way home I have known landmarks where I embed 6x 100-ish meter strides. I haven't done strides standing around after a run in years--much better this way for a busy adult. It happened to work out very well such that the last two strides are up two moderate hills. When I feel good, I push these a little more. I do the whole thing maybe every other day.

I once heard a guy ten years my senior say that once you hit >30 y.o., if you don't do strides you're cooked. I'm quite certain he was right. I've made sure to do them ever since.

i would do strides daily as part of the workout or run at the end. just a handful full recovery relaxed. so the body is not permanently adapting to LSD.

Strides should be done in every phase of training. Start at 70% effort early and then get faster as season progresses. Do before hard workouts and races as your warmup routine and then 2 more times a week after your easy days. Good way to have a little speed in every phase of training.

Lately during my marathon and half marathon builds I do a mixed sessions with threshold and hills. Today I did 10 minutes threshold, 1 minute jog, 4 x 150 m hill reps with jog down, 10 minutes threshold, 4 x 150m hill reps, 10 minutes threshold, 4 x 150m hill reps, 10 minutes threshold. It’s a total of 40 minutes threshold (around 5:25 pace) and 12 150m hill sprints.