Hill Workouts (part 3 of 3)

Time to talk about what hill workouts I advocate.

Rolling Hills Run

One can try to run hills at a constant pace or at a constant effort. Trail races are generally set up in such a way as to make constant pace impossible, but it's a useful approach for some road races and one can apply it to minor hills in a trail race. The rolling hills run is simply a moderate paced run (for those who follow Jack Daniels, tempo or marathon pace) done over a hilly course, done at constant speed. Golf courses are the preferred place to start doing these, to get a feel for gentle undulations. One then works up to cross-country ski trails, which can seem like roller coasters. The better one gets at this, the tougher a hill one can disregard in a race.

Sprints

Sprinting for distance runners has come back in vogue since Brad Hudson's book. Sprinters use a large number of tricks to increase their top-end speed and one of these is downhill sprinting, which can force the body to move at speeds impossible on flats. This is very demanding on the body - sore glutes are automatic - and one should stop at the first sign that any body part hurts. The sprints should be very short, 5-15 seconds, just to get to top speed. Start with sprinting on level ground, then when used to that, move on to a very gentle slope with solid and soft footing. The best way to measure progress I've found is to use a GPS unit that records maximum velocity; when one stops improving, move to a steeper slope.

Intervals

Any interval workout can be translated into a hill workout and, given how much most people hate running intervals on a track, that should make these popular. Those who race 10K or longer try to reach (or reach and hold) their maximum oxygen uptake threshold, which is the same as running at or near maximum heart rate. Those who run shorter races do lactic acid tolerance repeats and these are also done at or near maximum heart rate; the difference being mostly in the starting speed. One can find one's maximum heart rate by using a heart rate monitor and running up a long steep hill as hard as possible as long as possible. I do these workouts with a monitor set up with an alarm that sounds when I go over 95% of my maximum heart rate.

The beauty of hills is that one reaches maximum heart rate much sooner than on flat ground and at a much slower pace, so it stresses the heart without stressing other muscles nearly as much.

If one only has short hills available, it's best to extend the hill by running hard to the base of the hill. I don't recommend running stairs, as they're hard and can lead to impact injuries; also, one lands on horizontal surfaces rather than slanted, and every step is the same.

Stamina

These are the bread and butter of ultramarathoning trail runners. Upon running for hours up and down a hill, one finds that one's heart rate climbs when just walking uphill, so one has to learn how to walk quickly and efficiently. Also, as one tires, one brakes more on the downhills and this greatly fatigues some muscles, particularly the quadriceps. "Fried quads" are the bane of ultrarunners. Running downhill strengthens these muscles, which may be one reason it's more common to see muscular ultrarunners than muscular road marathoners.

What I've found works well is to run one third of the total elevation climb of one's goal race on a slope that makes the total about one fourth of the race distance, which, assuming the race has flat sections, approximates the course. The Superior Sawtooth 100, for example, has 20200 feet of climb. One third of that is about 6700 feet. My favorite hill (Brickyard) is 240 feet high, which requires 28 trips to get to 6700. Thirty times the hill's length of 0.4 miles times 2 (for up and down) equals 24 miles. Training for Hardrock: 140 times the Hyland ski jump hill (not the north ski hill, which most run there) = 25 miles.

Fartlek

(Pronounced fahrt-laik, it's guaranteed to make junior high school runners giggle.) Essentially, this is an unstructured run which incorporates elements of each of the above workouts. It is so misunderstood and so easily turned into a too-easy or too-hard workout that I don't recommend it and won't describe it in detail. Most runners, if running on a trail, will incorporate similar training without planning it. It's obvious: if you're going to race on trails, you should often train on trails.

Hill Running Technique (part 2 of 3)

People tend to think that there's no skill involved in running - that, unlike perfecting a golf swing, it's pretty much just putting one foot in front of another. This post will try to detail the nuances of hill running technique that come usually without thought and through practice. Anyone who's seen my ungainly running style will be surprised that I've ever thought about it.

Uphills

Running uphill requires one to shorten one's stride; if trying to keep a steady pace, it requires an increased cadence. Taller runners often overstride on uphills, which leads to muscle fatigue. One should push off with the back foot, rather than reaching with the front one.

Uphills require increased knee lift, compared to flat ground, just to keep one's toes from catching the angle of the hill.

The arms are used to drive uphill, especially if one is reduced to walking. Fast arm motions increase stride rate and shorten stride almost automatically. Elbows should be tucked in close to the body and the arms swing more from the elbow and less from the shoulder.

Lean forward to keep your center of gravity correct, keeping perpendicular to the flat ground at the bottom of the hill. To do this, bend at the hips, not at the waist, or one will stress back muscles; this requires flexible hamstrings. Focusing uphill, not at one's feet will aid in keeping the back straight.

Hills have a crest, so the top usually flattens out and one increases the rhythm of steps near the top to take advantage of this. Some runners pause at the top of hills, so it's a good idea to practice running past the top of the hill, which effectively makes it a longer hill.

Downhills

On downhills, arms are used mostly for balance, rather than for driving forward. The elbows are held out from the body, arms carried lower than on the uphill. On steep hills, the elbows may be well behind the torso (the weight of the arms acting as a counterbalance), the arms pumping as in tricep curls.

One should land on the heel or flat-footed, to avoid snagging roots or rocks with the toes. Landing on the heels tends to cause overstriding and increases the landing shock to muscles and joints, so one should land with the knee kept slightly bent and one should roll forward on one's plant foot and "pop" off quickly. Too long of a stride causes a loss of balance and can lead to a fall.

Lean slightly backward (again, keeping perpendicular to flat ground) to keep an even speed. Digging in the heels and taking shorter steps allows one to brake without stressing the quadriceps; short steps require faster strides. The idea is to let gravity do the work, to "flow" down the hill, but to keep in control.

Near the bottom of a long steep hill, the ground flattens out and one can take more advantage of the "free speed" of the downhill without undue risk. The higher one lifts the knee, the longer one's step and the faster one moves.
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No one thinks much about these things when running, of course, or all the fun would go out of it, but occasionally focusing on one aspect during a hill workout will help a poor hill runner become better.

The Whys of Hill Running (part 1 of 3)

Anyone who's been reading this blog knows I do a lot of running on hills, but I realize that I've never really addressed why. The simple answer: unless racing on a track, there's going to be hills and that means that it's a good idea to know how to run them. I'd always been an expert at running downhill in short road races, so I was shocked to find that I'm execrable at it on trails. When I first wondered (aloud) why that was, people tended to respond that trail races simply have more, longer and steeper hills; it took some time for me to see that the real problem was one of technique: one can "freewheel" down hills on roads because the ground is solid, but on trails, the ground shifts - it's soft, uneven, full of obstacles and the slope changes erratically. Freewheeling on trails leads to falling. One has to relearn how to run hills on trails.

Most competitive runners end up choosing some "expert" to follow, whether or not that expert knows what they're talking about. If you watch runners training on a hill, you can see whose plan they follow. The Lydiard pack do odd bounding and skipping exercises on the hills, exaggerating one component of proper form at a time. Those who just bought Hudson's book sprint uphill for exactly 15 seconds. Daniels' followers do all their uphill running on a treadmill, as he claims downhills do nothing but increase the risk of injury. None of this is irrational, but one needs to understand the why's and not just blindly follow a plan.

Physically, running against the pull of gravity should be the same as accelerating on level ground, though the musculature is being used differently. Wearing a heart rate monitor while running on a hill will show that one's heart rate tends to fall during the downhills, no matter how fast one runs (if one accelerates or has to make odd motions to keep balance, this doesn't hold); the heart actually measures work in its classical definition - I know this doesn't mean anything to most people, but I find it interesting.

Running hills can substitute for interval workouts and that's one reason people do them. Interval workouts are designed to get one's heart and lungs working at or near maximum and it takes time for one to go from resting to all-out. On a hill, that lag time is shortened. Also, on an uphill, there's decreased landing shock to the joints and muscles, so it's good for those coming back from injuries or prone to them. The downside is that every hill is different and it's hard to evaluate progress; on a track, you can know exactly how one workout compares to another.

Running hills is resistance training and thus has similarities to weight lifting. Many runners incorporate weight lifting as a way to improve their ability to run hills, but I prefer the specificity of actually running hills. In weight lifting, each rep is the same, whereas every step of a hill can be different, requiring balance and agility as well as strength and endurance.

[I may add to this post. The next one should be about technique and the third about specific hill workouts and why I do them.]