Hill Training:
Running to the Top
By Roy Stevenson

Hill Training Benefits and Workouts

Do you approach hills in your races with a sense of dread? Most of us see running hills as a necessary evil and avoid hills whenever possible in training, then we pay the price on them in our races.

It’s not surprising really, because even the simple act of running uphill can feel as exhausting as racing. Research done at the Nike research lab found that running up an incline as small as 1-degree, increases energy costs by a 12%, enough to slow you down by 10 seconds per mile.

Yet, hill training has many physiological benefits to the runner--increased stride length and frequency, stronger upper body musculature, improved lactate tolerance, to name a few.

Renown New Zealand coach Arthur Lydiard integrated hill springing and bounding into his training program 40+ years ago. Today there aren’t many coaches who don’t give their charges some form of hill training at some stage of their yearly development plan.

Here, then, are the benefits of hill training, and what the research says about them. Then we’ll look at the most effective uphill running techniques and learn some great hill workouts. If you try these, you’ll zip up and down the hills leaving dozens of demoralized runners in your wake wondering how you do it.

You’ll Run Hills Better in Races

The principle of specificity dictates that you’ll improve at whatever you practice in training. If you train hard on hills, you’ll run the uphill sections of your races faster. One research paper in the 1977 European Journal of Applied Physiology illustrates this benefit. It concluded that runners doing an intense six-week uphill running program improve their training distances, anaerobic capacity and strength.

Neuromuscular Benefits--Stride Length

Biomechanists and exercise scientists will tell you the two ways a runner can increase speed is by increasing stride length and stride frequency (or both).

Uphill running helps us increase our stride length by increasing our knee lift. Our quadriceps and hip flexor muscle groups become stronger from lifting our knees higher. This effect carries over to when we run on the flat, because high knee lift translates into a slightly longer stride length on level ground.

So, if you run with longer strides using the same effort, it’s logical that you’ll cover a given distance in a shorter time. Here’s an example using the 10K distance for an 8-minutes/mile runner, who covers about 1.1 yards/stride. Simply lengthening the stride length by 1 inch, (multiplied by the 9,090 strides to cover the 10K distance) shaves about 250 yards, or around 1 minute off the time.

Neuromuscular Benefits--Stride Frequency

The faster and more powerful your foot-strike, the faster you’ll run and the more steps you’ll have per minute. Hill sprinting improves the tensile strength of your leg muscles, and thus enhances the recoil or return of energy from each foot compression.

One study examined joint kinematics and stride dynamics involved in high speed running on an inclined treadmill compared with running on flat surfaces. The uphill trained runners performed better than the flat trained runners in all parameters.

Another similar study looked at uphill sprinting on high-speed treadmills—it too, found that high-speed treadmill training on elevations up to 25% is an effective tool for speed training, as part of a conditioning program.

There’s also another way hill running can increase stride frequency—downhill running. If done with short quick strides your neuromuscular system adapts to a faster leg turnover, thus increasing stride frequency.

Metabolic Benefits-AerobicVO2 Max and Energy Costs

Studies show that VO2 max contributes significantly more to uphill running compared with horizontal running. This high VO2 max level incurred during uphill running is partly due to the increased demands of the lower extremity muscles, the largest muscle mass in the body.

Improve Running Economy

As aerobic capacity is improved from uphill training, you‘ll use less energy and oxygen at a given speed, or over longer distances—in other words your running economy improves. This derives from better coordination of your neuromuscular system.

A study in 1992, mentioned in the IOC’s book titled Endurance and Sport, is quoted about runners who did 12 weeks of regular training, plus hill training with bounce running. Their running economy improved by 3%.

Metabolic Benefits--AnaerobicLactate Threshold and Anaerobic Threshold

At the metabolic level, hill trained runners experience an increase in lactate threshold and anaerobic threshold. Lactate threshold is the point where lactic acid produced in the muscle is not metabolized as fast as it is produced, and anaerobic threshold is just a way we measure this for comparative purposes, where blood lactate reaches a level of 4 mmol/L.

Hill running improves the strength and endurance of the quadriceps, hip flexor and hip extensor muscle groups—so the increased ability of these muscle groups to resist fatigue (lactic acid) shows through in the latter stages of races. You’ll slow down less, improving your race times.

Psychological Benefits of Hill Training

Hill trained runners don’t fear steep gradients in races because they have improved confidence from training on them. They mentally withstand the extra demands of hills in races and training to the point of eagerly anticipating hilly courses.

Hill Training Techniques

General Advice Before You Start Hill Training:

Hill Running Form and Technique: To maintain the center of gravity over the drive leg you need to shorten your stride slightly. Exaggerate your forward lean by bending at the waist to direct force up the hill, and bring your hands and arms up high (even as high as your ears), as if you were pulling yourself up.

Different gradients require different technique modifications: the steeper the hill, the more you’ll need to lean in to it and drive more powerfully with your arms. Run with exaggerated knee lift and push off hard with your ankles from your toes. Knee lift should be more exaggerated on steeper hills. On slight inclines run with a shorter, faster stride. Breath deeper when you run uphill.

When should hill running be incorporated into your training? It’s an ideal transition phase, between your conditioning build up and your competitive season.

How Often Can You Run Hills? Depending on the topography of your neighborhood, you may not have much choice about running hills every day.

Leg Strengthening: it’s a good idea to do some basic leg strengthening exercises prior to engaging in hill training. The leg musculature will be better able to withstand the rigors of the increased stress, pounding and ground reactive forces that hills present. The resistance training exercises should strengthen the hip, quadriceps, hamstring, and calf muscle groups,

Hill Training Workout #1: Run Your Hills Faster

Okay, I never said it would be easy. When you come to hills on your training routes, accelerate up them gradually, maintaining a sub maximal pace that’s just below your maximal threshold. I.e. you’re running just below the point where, if you speed up any more, you’ll end up walking or slowing down a lot.

This is tough and it will take at least two to three weeks for you to adapt because of the physically and mentally daunting nature of hill running. You’re trying to condition yourself to automatically speed up when you hit hills, so it becomes almost an instinctive reflex.

You’ll find in your early uphill efforts you’ll have to slow down. If you persist with this, going a little further up the hill on each outing at your faster pace, your breathing will get easier and your legs will not feel so fatigued and heavy.

Eventually you’ll be able to crest the hill at the same pace you started at. When starting out, you won’t be able to do this on every hill, so hit every second hill in this manner. As you adjust, bring in the rest of the hills.

Hill Training Workout #2: Treadmill Uphill Running

If you’d prefer to do your initial hill workouts on a treadmill to minimize impact, try the following:
Session #1: set grade to 10%. Run at your standard 5K race pace for 400 meters, concentrating on fast stride tempo and knee lift. Run two sets of 4 repeats.
Session #2: set grade to 5%. Run at 10K pace for 1 mile. Run 3 or 4 repeats.
Session #3: set grade at 3%. Run at 10K pace for 3 minutes, then 3 minutes recovery jog. Run 3 or 4 repeats. Progressively increase number of repeats up to 10.
Session #4: set grade to 4%-run 5 minutes. Set grade to 5%-run for 10 minutes. Set grade to 6%-run for 10 minutes. Set grade to 7%-run for 10 minutes.

Hill Training Workout #3: Hill Repeats

These are basically like track intervals. Select a steady uphill slope up to 5% or 8% grade. It doesn’t need to be really steep. Run a few hundred yards up it for a warm up. Then do a number of repeats up it. Start with 4 uphill fast running bursts over a distance of 100 to 200 meters, or about 30 to 90 seconds. Use a sprinting action. Lean forward and pump your arms strongly. These repeats should be at about 85% effort, or close to your VO2 max.

Walk or jog slowly back down to the start. No hurry here, as you don’t want to jar your legs too much from the downhill running. On subsequent sessions, increase your repetitions to 6, then 8 then finally 10.

Hill Training Workout #3: Advanced Hill Repeats

Lengthen the distance of your uphill bursts to 300, 400 yards, or more, as you adjust to them. These longer repeats should take 2 to 5 minutes each. Progressively increase the length, grade, speed and number of repeats.

Hill Training Workout #5: The Hill Killer

Sprint up sand dunes. Running on sand doubles your energy expenditure over running on a hard surface. Enough said.

Hill Training Workout #6: The Ultimate Hill Workout

Run uphill in snowshoes. Running on snow triples your energy expenditure over running on a hard surface.

The big payoff for your hill training is when you come to a hill in a race. You’ll be hammering up it and delighted to see everyone around you falling by the wayside.

You can find additional running information at my running training tips website.