Importance of Hill Repeats

well,. wrote:

Just Another Hobby Jogger wrote:

Well, tell that to this guy who suffered from proximal hamstring tendinopathy by running too much on hills.

http://www.running-physio.com/pht-rehab/

Maybe you are one of the rare people who have undestructable hips. The mere mortals should be cautious about doing too much of any training.

A hobby jogger got injured. So what?

I assume you are not a hobby jogger. So how much prize money did you earn last year? How much is your sponsorship worth?

Unfortunately, the rest of us need a day job to finance our hobby. Does that make us more injury prone?

Just Another Hobby Jogger wrote:

[quote]well,. wrote:

[quote]Precious Roy wrote:

You just cannot do enough running on hills.

Well, tell that to this guy who suffered from proximal hamstring tendinopathy by running too much on hills.

This is in the first paragraph...

"To recap, the problem developed after a week of hill running"

Too much, too soon is a problem for any kind of training. frankly, i think incorporating hill running into a training program is a good way to prevent injury since it forces you to vary the muscles being used.

pita1 wrote:

frankly, i think incorporating hill running into a training program is a good way to prevent injury since it forces you to vary the muscles being used.

I don't disagree. What I disagree is that you cannot possibly run enough on hills. Any training can be counterproductive if it is emphasized too much.

Name2 wrote:

Hills are not normally essential; what is essential is to train specifically for the conditions of competition. Therefore, if your race includes hills, it may be of value to include hill work of a similar incline/distance.

Totally agree with this. The fact that everyone's calling this a dumb post shows how low the level of rational thought is here on letsrun. Seriously what's not to agree with? Pretty much no one type of workout or training is essential. Hills, tempos, fartleks, long runs, high mileage, all of them are useful but none of them are essential in a general sense. Hills may be critical training tools for one person and largely useless to the next, just like any other aspect of training. Bob Kennedy didn't do long runs. Mark Nenow supposedly rarely did interval workouts, Lagat doesn't do high mileage, Bill Rodgers didn't seem to do tempos, etc (I could be wrong on a couple of these, doesn't detract from my point).

Personally I don't find that I really respond well to hills. I do them occasionally just for a change of pace, or in the winter when I might not have access to a track.

bigtool05 wrote:

Personally I don't find that I really respond well to hills. I do them occasionally just for a change of pace, or in the winter when I might not have access to a track.

Hills or die.

We live in the flatlands, therefore rarely run hills during cross. We have a lot of success on hilly courses because when we run hills, we do them specifically in a way that mimics what they might do in a race.

There is a "hill" (about 90m, fairly steep on private property. We have permission to run there) about 2 miles from the school. Our "repeats" on the hill are about 300m. the first 150 is flat, the next 90 uphill, the last 60 the kids crest the hill and accelereate into a gradual downhill. They turn around and jog back to the start. So, the repeats are not really repeats. The instructions for the workout are, "run at about 5k intensity on the hard part of the run, turn around and jog back. the run is continuous". My varsity kids will do 8-12 of these on an almost weekly basis for the first 6-8 weeks of the season.

For my beginners, who are not strong enough to run 2 miles wu/cd + a hill workout, there is a park built into a drainage basin about 1/2 mile from school. the bottom of the basin is about 10 feet lower than the top. I have a 400m loop there that goes up and down the sides of the basin twice per lap. Kids will either do interval workouts there or short tempo runs there to learn to deal with the constant changing of pace required in cross.

For us, there is no such thing as going out and just doing a hilly run for the sake of doing a hilly run. For us, the times we go to the hills need to be very puposeful.

2nd fastest 200m guy of all-time training on the hill:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3RjCePTLjY

I've seen this and other videos of the Jamaicans training on hills. Whoever said they didn't is uninformed.

47+9

I agee with your input. The late Dr Bengt Saltin carried out research which discovered that runners who trained on hills have much higher concentrations of aerobic enzymes – the chemicals which allow your muscles to function at high intensity for long periods without fatigue – in their quadriceps muscles than those who did all their running on flat terrain.

I believe a combination of hill repeats with vaiations of 120m, 150m and 600m hill repeats at rythym pace make all the difference. Hill's build character, tenacity and physical ability to change gears and finish strong in races. Personally, I do most of my millage on hills. The primary risk is in not implementing adequate recovery to minimise lactate acid accumulation. I repeat each rep only when HB/M drop to 115. Hills make Champions.

SlowFatMaster wrote:

2nd fastest 200m guy of all-time training on the hill:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3RjCePTLjY

Not much of a hill and that guy was and likely still is a doper.