Running Hills

[Aaron Clement]

Just recently I've started running hills.  It was recommended to do this to increase my speed.  I'm a little confused how to intergrate my long runs with the hill training, though.  I'm also a little worried as last week I went for a 17km at midday and then in the evening ran some hills... but strained my calf doing so. (Ran hills prior week with no injury).  My question is, how much hill training is too much?  How do I work my long runs into my running week?  I'm worried that if I don't run enough miles each week I won't be ready for the marathon (December 6).  At the same time, I know I should be running hills to increase my speed...

I completed a marathon in May and already have a milage base of about 50miles per week... should I sacrifice the miles per week in order to run hills... or don't run hills at all?  I'd love to hear peoples thoughts on this.

Much thanks!

Aaron from Singapore

[Jon Allen]

Aaron- hill work is a good way to improve leg strength and speed, but it is just part of the equation.  It's not like you won't get faster if you don't do hills.  It can help, but not doing it doesn't mean you won't run a good race.  That being said, hills are a good workout.

The best way to integrate hills is to simply run a hilly route as part of your normal runs.  If you want, maybe work harder on the uphills, then recover on the downhills.  I like to do normal runs on rolling hill courses.  Make sure they aren't so steep that they slow you to a crawl.  Running a moderately hilly route on your long run can really help you, as well.

Another way to do hills is repeats, kind of like trackwork.  Find a hill that takes you anywhere from 30 sec to 2 min to run up, and run up it hard a number of times (rest on downhill again).

Like you discovered, hills are hard on your calfs and achilles and can lead to injury.  Start with small workouts and gradually build up- 1 or 2 moderately hilly runs per week is enough, or even 1 every other week.  I know my only achilles injury came when I did 4 miles at 10% grade on a treadmill- too much, too soon. 

I do not think you need to reduce mileage to do some decent hill training- just incorporate them into your normal runs.

Runners World has some good hill ideas-
http://www.runnersworld.com/subtopic/0,7123,s6-238-263-264-0,00.html

[Aaron Clement]

Thanks Jon,

It makes a lot of sense what you mentioned.  I checked out the link to 'Runner's World' as well... some really interesting articles. 
I get the impression you shouldn't over do hills... like you said, it's only part of the equation.  It's interesting reading one of the
articles at 'Runner's World' they mentioned running downhill helps as well... A number of the articles mentioned gradually adding
hills... so I'm starting to see the big picture now. 

I like your suggestion about choosing a moderately hilly slop to run my long runs on... I know a place here in Singapore where i can
do that. 

So yeah, will keep it at one or two hill sessions max per week...

thanks for the feedback.

[Sasha Pachev]

Any one single training method is only a part of the equation, and will do more harm than good if overdone. There needs to be a balance that is adapted to your current fitness level to take it a step higher. It can be tricky to figure out that balance.

[Aaron Clement]

Thanks Sasha...

I think your right... my body is still getting use to the hill training I'm now introducing. 
I guess I just need to give my body time to adjust.
I went for a long 28km run over hills in the weekend... My body held up quite well...
but had mild cramping at the very end... but am back to 100 percent again today(has been two days).

So I'll monitor the intergration of this long run done on rolling hills (around the MacRitchie Reservoir).
And see how it goes... so far so good... but don't think I'll run hills any more than twice a week.
(is just too much too soon).

Cheers,

Aaron

[ChromeDome Steve]

I just watched a DVD that changed my view entirely about running hills.

http://www.amazon.com/Evolution-Running-Faster-Fewer-Injuries/dp/B000A7GEGW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1251741192&sr=8-1

I can't cover everything in this video, (I am going to review it in another post) but the hill section mentions a few tips.  Until now I have not found any coaching on *how* to run hills. People just say to go run up/down hills ... nothing else.

This video instructs:

Uphill:  Take shorter strides going uphill and maintain your cadence. Your effort and mechanics should not change. You should think about driving your forward knee up higher, in conjunction with how steep the hill is you are climbing. This forces your rear leg to thrust forward as well as up, to help you climb the hill. The video says that the most common mistake for runners is to drive harder from the calf/ankle, which is incorrect.

Downhill:  Keep the same stride mechanics but lean forward so that your feet strike the ground behind your center of mass. Your stride rate should dramatically increase if you relax and let it. Your only concern should just be churning your legs as fast as possible while maintaining your form and balance -- they claim it is very difficult at first to get the feel of, but that you can reap tremendous speed rewards by learning to do this.

In a nutshell the method described in the video stresses that your form and the muscles used to execute your form should not vary, whether running flat, up, or downhill. The fact that you ran hills and your calves suddenly became sore shows that you changed your mechanics and put a lot of extra strain on your calf.

[Sasha Pachev]

A better way to fix your uphill/downhill form:

Find a hill about 200 meters long. Warm up, then start doing repetitions alternating directions.  Put in a good effort, so you cannot easily cheat by putting in more effort to get a faster time. But at the same time do not quite go all out. Do those repetitions, maybe 4-5 in each direction, and try to hit the fastest possible time on each without going overboard on muscular effort. Once in a while you will randomly get a faster than usual time for the effort. It will usually correlate with a certain sense of smoothness. Try to duplicate that sense in the next repeat.

Maybe do this workout once a week until you feel you've learned enough. Revisit it once in a while preferably  on the exact same stretch to see what is happening with your form.

[Aaron Clement]

Okay, thanks Steve.  I have heard about decreasing your leg stride when running up hill... It does help like you say.  It's interesting you mentioned about leaning forward when running down hill... I always thought you had to be strait up and down.  I was advised it's good to run on the ball of your foot or the middle when running up and down hill. 

Okay, I didn't think about driving my knees up higher... I knew about the short stride, though... will give this a try.

Yes your right, my calf strain was a direct result of running the hill... and pushed it too hard on the day... I was running with seasoned hill runners and tried to keep up... not a good idea... of course they were very fast up and down the hill. 

Actually it's funny you mention that, Sasha, because that's pretty much what my hill club has been doing just recently... a few days ago we ran a hill loop that goes up hill on one side and then back down on the other... We do this 6 times.  Each hill loop takes us about 8-10 minutes to complete.  This time I didn't make the mistake of running with the elite runners (the seasoned runners).  And this time I completed the training session without an injury... there was actually a good turn out this time and there were a lot of other runners more my speed I could run with... so as long as I run with them, I think I should be safe...

I'll be running the Mt Faber hill again tomorrow.  I'm looking forward to it... I'll post back here in the near future with the results of my hill training... So far so good... no more injuries for the time being.  Thanks again you guys for the feedback.