My coach says we should incorporate one workout where we run hills once a week.Is He a fool for this idea?

Your coach sounds like an idiot. No one, and I mean NO ONE, recommends hill workouts!

Hill are alive with the sound wrote:

So we are in a mostly flat area of the country.So our coach has us do one workout a week where we do something on the hills .It might be running to the hill in the middle of an 8 mile run to do 12 explosive hill efforts.This hill is only 60 -70 meters but steep.Like i said we are in Florida and we don't have a lot of hills.He said explosive hill reps are to be done on a short hill anyway.He says if we include this year around we will have less injuries and gain leg strength.Does he know what he is talking about?I have run for 10 years and don't think so.

you are stupid, your coach is right

Walk me through how your form changes during these hill workouts, particularly the more explosive ones.

Listen to your coach. If you don't have faith in him you're going nowhere.

I googled it and couldn't find a single hit about hill running being good and couldn't find a single reference to any coaches ever using hills in their programs. Seems like your coach is spot on. Don't listen to him!

Hill workouts are great for you. They are a form of resistance training and build strength and speed quickly. Listen to your coach.

Hill are alive with the sound wrote:

He says if we include this year around we will have less injuries and gain leg strength.

Are you sure he said "less injuries" and not "fewer injuries"? If the former, he is an idiot, but not because of the hill workout thing. If the latter, you are the idiot on both counts.

Nice sarcastic Henry Rono reference:

http://www.runnersworld.com/newswire/study-all-hill-repeats-improve-5-k-performance

Hills are a major 🔑 especially for middle distance runners or anyone trying to improve their form (knee drive & arm swing) also works quick cadence. If done correctly you should see results in your speed & form. Of course doing them consistently will give you maximum gains.

Are you serious? Hill workouts for athletes racing one mile and shorter is one of the training methods in which Arthur Lydiard and Peter Coe/David Martin agreed.

Why don't you ask the best distance runners around... the Kenyans. I think hill running helps them kick everybody's butt.

Casually I went to this thread. You are totally wrong. I use with my athletes, including WR holders like Shaheen, Florence Kiplagat, Moses Mosop, and World Champions as Abel Kirui, Caleb Ndiku, Dorcus Inzikuru (and many, many others) ALWAYS short sprints uphill at max speed. This for athletes of EVERY EVENT, from 800m till Marathon.

The reason is to increase the ability to recruit the higher percentage of fast fibers. It's possible to do it ONLY using the max intensity, and with runners I personally prefer a DYNAMIC WAY with sprints running, than lifting weights near maximal personal possibility, because this is a more STATIC type of training.

Try to look in google in a better way, and you can find a lot of references about sprints uphill.

Sarcasm in print is not always easy to pick up.

Renato Canova wrote:

Casually I went to this thread. You are totally wrong. I use with my athletes, including WR holders like Shaheen, Florence Kiplagat, Moses Mosop, and World Champions as Abel Kirui, Caleb Ndiku, Dorcus Inzikuru (and many, many others) ALWAYS short sprints uphill at max speed. This for athletes of EVERY EVENT, from 800m till Marathon.

The reason is to increase the ability to recruit the higher percentage of fast fibers. It's possible to do it ONLY using the max intensity, and with runners I personally prefer a DYNAMIC WAY with sprints running, than lifting weights near maximal personal possibility, because this is a more STATIC type of training.

Try to look in google in a better way, and you can find a lot of references about sprints uphill.

Great post. For the first time ever, I spent several month weight lifting truly hard this indoor season and got injured.

In the future I am sticking with hill sprints, which are injury-free and build RUNNING SPECIFIC strength, not strength to deadlift some weight eight times.

When you are doing it any exercise, ask yourself, does it FEEL like it will help running? Hills get a yes. Deadlifting 300 pounds gets a no. Same with dynamic core.

1/10 +1 for all the serious responses. Would have been 0/10.

Dumbas wrote:

1/10 +1 for all the serious responses. Would have been 0/10.

Terrible rating. Anything getting a response from Canova is at a MINIMUM 8/10.

Appreciate you taking the time to post!

Hill repeats are an essential part of training for African runners. Doing hill repeats of 10 x 10-15 seconds will building up your leg strength, and increase your speed.

They should be done at tempo pace, and you should jog down the hill after each repeat for recovery.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sW0dih0ecC4

Also, you can simulate hill running by increasing the incline on a treadmill, and do the same repeats.