An effective way to improve your running is to train regularly on hills.

Including hill repeats in your running regimen will make you stronger and faster. Running hills increases strength in the glutes, calves and core, and it builds more power. It also increases arm action that will eventually improve fluidity in your form. All good things!

You can include a hill repeat running session one time per week, year round.

The length of the hill repeats can be longer during the off-season and pre-season: anywhere from 2 min to 10 min. In contrast — during the racing season — the length of your hill repeats should be reduced to 20 sec to 90 sec.

Keep in mind, the distance dictates the intensity of your effort. Your effort should be moderately hard during the early season and hard to very hard during the competitive season. The following workout is example is during the competitive season.

If you start integrating hill running into your workouts, let me know how it goes and get in touch with me on Facebook or Twitter.

Dave

Warm Up

12 min

Include 5 x 20 sec pick-ups with 40 sec easy jog between each.

1st Set

Find a hill with a gradient between 3% and 5%.

3 x 30 sec on the hill. Jog down RI 15 sec.

Build each effort concentrating on the following:

1) Head High

2) Belly Drawn In

3) Hips Underneath Body

4) Toes Open

5) Shoulders Relaxed

6) Grab and Lift Your Feet on Contact with the Ground

 

Main Set

Get to the base of your hill:

2 x 50 sec

4 x 35 sec

3 x 20 sec

At the top of each interval, turn and run down the hill hard for 10 sec and then easily to the bottom.

Rest Interval 1 min after each repeat.

Increase the tempo on the shorter duration repeats; after the third segment of 20 sec, hold 1 km at aerobic pace.

Return to the hill with an easy jog and repeat the entire set.

Cool Down

6 min easy

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