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The Secret of Hills
I believe that hill running must always be part and parcel of the endurance runner’s program. A well known distance running coach, Arthur Lydiard, once said: "For the middle and long distance athlete hills are like money, you should worry about the lack of it!" I also believe that the success of the Kenian and East African athletes, and the success of the British distance runners, is largely due to the hilly country they do their distance running on, and by doing that improve the strength endurance of their bodies. I. The Advantages of Hills We know that the endurance runner, from the 800m to 10000m, and also on the road and in cross-country, needs a lot of stamina (general and specific endurance work), as well as strength endurance. To have a balanced program the athlete needs all five S’s of physical fitness, namely stamina, speed, strength, suppleness and skill. Unfortunately a lot of distance athletes neglect strength work. We can improve strength either by developing it in a natural way against our own body weight as resistance, like in circuit training, Polish fartlek (a circuit of 1 to 2 km with 8 to 10 training stations and with hard running between the stations), or hill running. Then we can make use of weights, or other resistance like harness running, steps etc. I prefer hill running as one of the best methods to improve not only strength endurance, but also speed endurance, running style and leg strength. Hill running can serve a lot of purposes: II. Where and When An athlete can include hills in the normal distance runs, but I believe in going to a specific hill, run 4 to 5 km as part of the warmup, then do the number of repetitions against the hill and jog back home, exhausted but satisfied and motivated. I prefer a hill of 5% to 15% for the longer hill sessions (± 300 to 1000m), and a little steeper, 15% to 35%, for the shorter sessions (60 to 150m). Strength endurance plays an important role in the distance athlete’s program throughout the year, so I recommend hills once a week throughout the year. The track athlete will do either hills, circuits or jumps during the competition season once a week to maintain strength. I normally do hills on Saturdays with the track athletes if there is no competition, but the best day to do hills is on Tuesday. It must be far away from the races, so that the athlete has enough time to recover to run a good race. III. Different methods Variation, even when doing hills, is an important factor in a training program. A. Long hill repetitions A long hill is a hill 300 to 1000m with a 5 to 15% slope. The athlete does 5 to 8 repetitions in a fast, yet relaxed way. Drive hard by using the arms, lean into the hill and work simultaneously with the legs. A high and fast leg lift and arm drive improves leg drive and stride frequency. As the athlete’s fitness and adaptation to hill work improves, he can increase the number of repetitions. B. Short hill repetitions A short hill is from 60 to 200m, and it is here that the athlete must concentrate on speed. Work hard, but try to stay relaxed. An example is 8 to 10 x 150m very hard, with a very easy jogging recovery. The slope is 15 to 35%. C. Tempo hills Here you divide the hill into 2-3 sections, for instance a 400m hill into 3 x 133m and an easy recovery jog after each set (3 x 133m). D. Whistle hills Here the athlete preferably needs the assistance of a coach, although it can be done alone. On the whistle the athlete sprints up the hill for 10 sec., then jogs back to the starting line, then sprints up 15 sec., jogs back, then sprints up 20 sec., jogs back, then 25 sec. with a jogging recovery to the start. A series will be 6 to 10 (10, 15, 20, 25 sec.) with a jogging recovery back to start between reps. and a 3 to 4 min. jogging recovery between series. With the help of the coach the athlete can have a specific recovery between reps, e.g. 6 to 10 (10, 15, 20, 25 sec.) with 20 sec. jog recovery between reps and 3 min. between series. The coach blows the whistle after each sprint, the athlete turns and jogs down the hill for 20 sec. before the coach blows his whistle again for the next sprint. E. Follow the leader The group of athletes appoint a leader which calls e.g. a 50m sprint, then 30 sec. jog, then 100m sprint ... up the hill! F. A hill circuit Select a course containing several varying hills and run on a continuous circuit for 1 to 1.5 hours. G. Hill bounding and skipping For this purpose a grass hill of 50 to 80m is very good. The run includes a series of bounding, skipping and jumping exercises. Hill skipping, by driving fast up and down with the legs was one of Arthur Lydiard’s famous strength conditioning methods with his athletes. Hill bounding and one or two leg jumping exercises are also very good, but the athlete must first be conditioned to it. H. Hill relays Any number of athletes are spread around a hill or series of hills with any number of teams. The relay runs for 5 to 20 minutes. This is especially recommended for young athletes who enjoy this sort of competition in training. I. Down hills In Cross Country and road races the athlete must also learn to run downhill. So, sometimes a hilly circuit must be included in the program where the athlete must concentrate on working hard on the down stretches, using the arms to balance the body flow and running without breaking of speed. Use grassy routes and soft surfaces to do this type of training, as hard surfaces like roads are hard on the joints. IV. Conclusion The success of the Kenians, New Zealanders, Australians and British in distance running has a lot to do with strength and speed endurance. Hill running has played a very significant role in their success! To quote the well known distance running coach of Oregon, Bill Delinger: "You can never run a hill too hard. Your body will collapse before you can harm it!" By A. de Swardt, 1994.
Copyright 2001 - http://thefastlane.borghoms.com Last updated on 25 June 2002 |
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