This morning’s hill workout reminded me why I love hills – it’s the perfect combination of really hard and totally satisfying. Hill training is tough – but it’s an important component to training, even if you aren’t planning to run a hilly race. Hill training is hugely beneficial to runners, and enables the body to adapt to new levels. If you do it once/week, your body begins to adapt to the stresses. In other words, you become a stronger and faster runner!
Stronger
Hills can be intimidating because they take more work than running on a flat surface. When running up hill, your legs have to recruit more muscles fibers, which causes the muscles to fatigue faster. However, if you incorporate weekly hill training into your program, your body adapts to the stresses – and becomes stronger. Just like leg extensions increase fast twitch muscle fibers – hill training utilizes the same muscles, and make you stronger runner.
Faster
Often called speed training in disguise, hill training can quickly increase your speed. The muscles you recruit to run up a hill are the same ones used for sprinting, and over time, will build strength and speed. When incorporated into your weekly training schedule, hill training will improve anaerobic fitness and develop maximum strength (to improve speed).
my favorite hill
It is important to remember that hill training, like speed or tempo training, should only be utilized once/week. Living near the Custis and Washington & Old Dominion Trails, I am fortunate to have many hill options. Below is my favorite hill workout – keeping in mind that this workout can be modified according to your training schedule & abilities.
Sample Workout
1-2 mile warm-up
6-8 x 400m hill sprints; followed by 30 second recovery run (continue running through hill, if possible); turnaround and pick-up pace as your run downhill
15 seconds rest (at the bottom of the hill)
(Optional: 10 push-ups before next repeat)
Repeat
1 – 2 mile cool-down
Hit the Hills with perfect form*:
1. Drive hard with your arms
Increase your armswing as if you’re pulling yourself quickly up a rope.
2. Press forward with your hips
As you run up, think about pressing your hips into the hill to avoid bending at the waist.
3. Run with high knees
This will help increase your stride rate and further help you maintain good posture.
4. Spring up from your toes
Push off your toes to create an upward lift that will help propel you forward.
Do you have a favorite hill workout?
*Adapted from Runner’s World Magazine
I’m not a big fan of repeats in general but really lucky that the Univeristy I work at has a really hilly main campus. We do the annual staff and postrgrad Fun Run (more like a hill workout) on a 4km loop. I do that 2.5 times for 10km and it gives me a nice mix of climbs (and downhills too) and I run the flats as recovery.
The loop has one long 800m climb, an undulating 400m section, and 2 really steep short ~50m hills. So over 10kms I squeeze in 2X800, 2X400, 5X50m, and over the last 2km I reverse to head to my office and finish with one of the downhills in reverse. It’s a slow poisinous climb around 500m, so I get 10 climbs of varying grades of difficulty, particularly that last one right at the end of the session!
This is a great post! Thanks so much for sharing. I need to start incorporating hills into my regular routine as I have some hilly races coming up in the near future that I don’t want to die during!!!
Hills are hard to find here in chitown. There is a “hill” kind of by my house that I often do strides up but it honestly takes about 10 seconds max to get to the top and this is the largest hill in the city. But I suppose I’m okay with that but hills kick my booty and I don’t know if I could withstand a 400 meter climb, you’re a machine girl!
The Custis Trail is definitely one of the best spots in Arlington for running hills. I’ve done this stretch on a bike, I imagine it’s a tough run.
Best spot I’ve found in the Pentagon/Crystal City area is where 23rd Street South crosses South Arlington Ridge Road.
I live close to Pentagon/Crystal City (in Clarendon) – I’ll have to check out your favorite spot! Thanks!
I love hills! Too bad I had to miss this week and I will have to miss next week. I definitely agree with all of the benefits you described!
I am not a fan of hills. But it seems that the majority of my races have involved hills, so training on them, or at least going on hikes, have been a huge help to help me power uphill.
Fantastic post. I love hills too and have a ton in and around my neighborhood that I have been running on for three years. Great advice and words of wisdom. Thanks!!
I’m not a huge hill fan but living in New England you quickly learn that NOTHING is flat!! I usually have at least 3 hills to conquer on each run. I like to get up them as fast as I can…makes me feel like doing the Rocky dance at the top!
awesome post! and THAT HILL — I am so familiar with that hill on the WOD! What a great and terrible hill all at the same time 🙂 We are so blessed to have this trail where we live. I was running on it out in Ashburn/Leesburg over the weekend and was amazed at how different it looks out there, so shady and the scenery is so different. There were cow pastures and beautiful creeks and, of course, more hills! I definitely have a love/hate relationship with hills and need to incorporate more hill-focused workouts into my routine. xoxo
I don’t like repeats or rather I’ve found that injuries follow when I do repeats. My hill training is running an extremely hilly route and I do this about twice a week.
I don’t have a favorite hill workout yet but I plan making one. I have a few races coming up that has some major hills so I need to get doing them.