Week 10: Hills

Ah yes, the dreaded hill workouts. In my opinion, there aren't many workouts that I dislike more than hills. BUT! They get the job done. Hills are in the category of strength training, where running these reps on a hill builds up your endurance and power for a race. If you can run up a hill, you can survive a race. In hill running, the athlete is using their body weight as a resistance to push against, so the driving muscles from which their leg power is derived have to work harder. The technique to aim for is a "bouncy" style where the athlete has a good knee lift and maximum range of movement in the ankle. Hill workouts in general are great because they help develop power and muscle elasticity, improve stride length and frequency, improves running form, and develops control, stabilization, and controlled speed. This week I'll touch upon three different types of hill workouts, including short length, middle, and long distance. 


Short hills are those which take about 30 seconds to completely run up. It doesn't have to be incredibly steep, but there definitely should be a significant incline. Because they're so short, short hills are the ones where the runner should really focus on improving their form: pumping their arms at a 90 degree angle and driving their knees up and down. Essentially short hill repetitions should be done between eight to ten times. Moreover, these hills should be between 150-200 meters long. Once again, these reps should be done at around 30 seconds.  


Mid length hills take between 30 to 90 seconds to run up. This is the length of hill is a good distance for the middle-distance runner, because it combines the benefits of the short hills with the stresses on local muscular endurance. These are the most competitively ran types of hills because they're basically the perfect length for a quality team workout. They're ran fast. Because of this, it's important to develop a long-stride, high- knee lift type of form. This exerts the most power and carries over best in a race. With medium length hills, you can do six to eight runs of 45 seconds, followed by some 10 second sprints on a steeper hill. A more challenging workout is to do 12 to 15 runs of about 70 seconds (the equivalent of interval training).


A long hill is one which takes from 90 seconds to three minutes plus.Normally, I run long hills at the beginning of the running season to build a quality base for strength training, but long hills can also be done as a pre-meet workout to really tire out the body for the upcoming race. Now I know that sounds bad, but putting your body through this type of workout before a race makes you that much stronger afterwards, so it works out. They are particularly good for the cross country or road runner who is running distances of 10,000 meters and upwards. A session of, say eight three minutes, with a run back of four or five minutes will make a good hard workout. 


I hope you enjoy these hill workouts and try not to despise them as much as I do! I mean, six years and eighteen seasons can really make you hate hills sometimes. They're quality workouts and you really do feel great after you complete them!