I have a real love/hate relationship with hills!
Hill running is a great way to get the body stronger, build endurance, increase strength, improve speed, power and your form. Think of hill running as resistance training because your quads, calfs, hamstrings and glutes are working more than if you was running on flat ground. Hills make your body stronger it also toughens the mind it takes endurance stamina to make it to the top.
Try mixing your training up and add a new stimulus with some hill intervals. Here are some hill sessions I have used in my own training over the years and how adding hill training to your plan can help.
With all sessions, start with a warm up 15 – 20 minutes easy jog followed by dynamic drills then 4 x 15 second strides. Make sure you concentrate on your form and drive up the hill and keeping the hills nice and controlled, especially on the longer hill reps.
Week 1 – 15 x 30 seconds
Week 2 – 12 x 60 seconds
Week 3 – 10 x 90 seconds
Week 4 – 4 x 90 seconds, 4 x 1 minute, 4 x 30 seconds
Week 5 – 1 x 2 minutes , 1 x 1 min 30, 1 x 1 minute, 1 x 45 seconds, 1 x 30 seconds, 1 x 15 seconds x 2
There are so many variations to play with and you may also wish to run your hills off road for an added challenge on trail or grass.
If you are still unsure when to add hill sessions into your training and need some further guidance, why not check out our one to one running coaching plans, they are personalised to you and take into account work and family commitments, planning the training around your schedule and making sure you build up progressively and safely or alternatively purchase our hill/maintenance plan for just $9.99.