Love 'em or hate 'em, hills improve performance

If there is one element of training that most people dread, it’s hills. I have more stories of training turning sour due to hills than anything else.

There was the time a great runner and friend sat down and refused to go further, pulling our her emergency taxi money and heading home when we were out on a particularly long, wet, hilly training run. It turned out she was pregnant.

Or the time I almost had a mutiny on my hands when I mismeasured a run that took in a long hill and they threatened to never run with me again.

Or the eye-rolls I get every time I incorporate Knockmaroon Hill, near the Phoenix Park in Dublin, which is a particularly punishing 400m hill of between 9.0% - 15.8% incline.

So if we all hate hills so much, why do we include them?

I tried several times to incorporate hill running into my training. Unfortunately never with conviction. There comes a point in a runner's life when we look back and say, ‘Well that didn’t work. What now? Do I continue doing the same thing and keep getting the same results that aren’t working, or will I try something new?’.

Although knowing something, is not always enough. If everyone around you is behaving one way it is very easy to fall in, even when you know that it’s not working. But in 2016 I knew I was ready to try something new. It was spring 2016 and the lead into the Düsseldorf marathon.

I was training for it with my friend Emma and we ran together each Wednesday and Sunday. Our long run was Sunday and we always tried to incorporate some challenging hills. On Wednesdays we alternated between hill sprints and fartlek runs. We had never done this before and it was exciting.

We would run 3 km to get to the base of the hill. The hill we picked was a steep 400m hill. At first we would sprint up two thirds of the way, jog back slowly and wait one minute. If we had recovered we would go again. In the beginning we started with three sprints, two thirds distance. Legs and lungs burning, we were certainly pushing our limits. Ten weeks later we were sprinting the full distance six times.

It was easy to see the impact it was having on our training. The fact that we could now do ten repeats of the full hill, which would have been beyond our abilities the first night out, let me know we were doing something right.

The results on race day backed that up. I took nine minutes off my previous marathon time. Now a convert to hills, I advocate them to anyone who will listen.

What are the benefits?

Hill running is one of the greatest assets a distance runner can have. You only have to Google hill training and you’ll find a long list of benefits. It builds muscular endurance and muscle strength, develops your cardiovascular system, quickens your stride, improves your running economy, reduces your risk of injury,

In short hill running makes you a stronger, faster, healthier runner.

Who should include hill running?

I recommend hill running to most runners. I say most because they don’t suit everyone. In particular, newbie runners. If you’re new to running (have started in the last three months) I would probably say to wait until you have trained up to at least your first 5km distance before adding in hills. This will reduce the risk of getting an injury from pushing too hard too soon. When you are ready, start gradually and build up your tolerance over a few weeks.

How to include hills in your training?

There are lots of ways to add more hills into your training, but these are my go-to training tips.

1. Don’t avoid them when you’re planning your route. I happen to live in a part of Ireland where I couldn’t avoid hills if I tried. Even the driveway up to my house is a 200m steep incline. So whatever direction I go I know I will encounter hills. That wasn’t always the way and I used to have to run to the hills so that I could include them. I recommend intentionally including them in your long runs each week. Nothing too severe, and certainly no sprinting, just get used to the extra effort of hills and you’ll see the benefit when you’re looking for a little extra on race day.

2. Plan a hill day every second week (I alternate with fartlek). Warm up by running at least 3km before starting the hill drills. There are a variety of ways to use the hill on hill day including:
   Timed Repeats: Sprint up the chosen hill for a particular duration (say 60 seconds), jog back down and give yourself a minute to recover. Repeat three to five times. If you haven’t recovered within the minute, don’t go again. Over the following weeks, increase the duration by 15 seconds each time you do hills until you are doing two minute sprints. Go back to 60 seconds and start increasing the number of repeats and build again.
   Distance Repeats: As with the timed repeats, this time you’re going to track your progress by looking at your time over a measured distance. Starting with a distance of about 200m, sprint up the hill, jog back down, rest one minute and repeat. As above, repeat three to five times and only increase the distance on the next hill day. Increase by 50m each visit until you are running the full hill three to five times. Then revert to the 200m hill and start increasing the number of repeats before increasing the distance.
   Trail Hill Run: If you have a hilly trail run within a reasonable distance of home you will get enormous benefit from running on the trails occasionally. When I moved to West Cork I landed in the most spectacular landscape of mountain trails and I try to get out on the trails at least once a month.

3. Mimic the race profile of your next event. If you’ve signed up to a race, take a look at the race profile and if it has a few hills do your best to find a similar profile route where you live. In the Dublin Marathon there is a hill about 34km into the race. Known locally as Heartbreak Hill, after the famous hill in the Boston Marathon, it is the last thing you want looming over you at that stage of the race. However, knowledge is power and you can use this information to your advantage. Armed with this information, the best preparation you can have is to include tough hills towards the end of your long runs to get used to running hills when fatigued. It will stand to you.

4. And, if the landscape surrounding you doesn’t offer hills at every turn, as it does around me, you’re going to have to make them up. Take advantage of doing some hill training on a treadmill if you can’t find one nearby.