Much of what was covered in the videos on speed sessions apply to hill repeats but there are some significant differences that are important to understand.
But before we dive into the differences why should we do hill repeats at all?
Many of the benefits we get from speed sessions we also get from hill sessions
If you remember back in the speed sessions video we mentioned
Increased glycogen storage capacity
Increased myoglobin production ( myoglobin transports O2 to the muscles and mitachondria )
Increased muscle fibre recruitment
Increased mitochondria content
Increased range of movement
Increased blood plasma volume
Increased stroke volume
Stronger muscles bones , tendons and ligaments
Increased VO2 Max
Increased Lactate threshold
Increased running economy
Increased speed at all intensities
Increased fatigue resistance
These all apply for hills
Interestingly we know that runners with good running economy on the flat also have good economy uphills ( at least when tested on treadmills ).
So if we get all the same benefits as speed training then why do we do hills ?
There are a few reasons why hill sessions differ from speed sessions and hence should be part of every athlete’s training.
Lets talk about the two main differences
1. SPEED
The speed at which one can run uphill is obviously slower than one can run on the flat. The steeper the hill the slower the speed. This changes the biomechanics and loading on the body compared to running on the flat. These changes include
– reduced impact forces
– reduced stride length and therefore reduced hip extension and flexion
– longer ground contact time
– increased glute recruitment
– increased arm drive
This has some advantages in that these changes to biomechanics can lower the risk of injury compared to running faster on the flat. For runners coming back from injury or starting some higher intensity work for the first time hill repeats are a good way get started.
This reduced load means most athletes can handle two higher intensity sessions per week ( one flat one hills ) whereas two flat speed sessions may be too much for some athletes from an injury risk perspective.
2. DOWNHILLS
Unless one is doing hill reps on a treadmill there is an associated downhill with every uphill.
This is a key difference to speed sessions. Given that most trail and ultra races have hills, downhill training becomes an important part of conditioning the legs to cope with the downhills in a race. So important that it is likely a key determinant in ultra performance . If you remember in the factors that influence ultramarathon performance video “running downhill sections at higher relative speeds, most likely due to less accentuated fatigue effects, as well as minimizing performance decrease in the later race stages in downhill sections, appears to be a hallmark of the better finishers.”
Downhill running increases the load on our legs ( for the same relative pace as running uphill or flat ) so it’s something we need to be careful about and very gradually increase over time.
But even easy running back down offers a conditioning affect that you wont gain in speed sessions.
HIKE vs RUN ?
Before we get stuck into the details of how to construct a hill session I want to answer a common question – why train to run the hills faster if we are going to hike most of the hills in a race ?
For more elite runners the answer is obvious – they want to run more of the hills and run them faster but for mid or back-of-the-pack runners they will be hiking the vast majority of the hills in races with significant vert so why do running hill reps?
There are several reasons
1. High-intensity running hill sessions not only help increase increase Vo2 max, increase threshold and increase running economy they help increase the pace you can run at lower intensities . Ie they make you faster at all intensities just like speed work does.
2. By running up the hills instead of hiking up you cover more distance within a given time period. Running a greater distance uphill also means more distance downhill compared to if you hiked up and run back down
3. Hiking places less stress on the legs vs running and whilst there is a place for hiking training which we will discuss later , running uphill helps increase ones overall run volume. Higher run volume likely improves ultra performance.
4. It is mentally tough running uphill and anything that can help build mental toughness is valuable when preparing for an ultra!
Not only are there differences between speed and hills sessions from a training adaptions point of view there are also some key programming differences.
Before we dive deep into programming hill sessions let’s step back and remind ourselves of the bigger picture of how hills fit into a periodised program.
PERIODISING HILL REPEATS
Remember periodising our training means we start from the least specific training and move towards most specific training relative to the race we are training for.
For ultras we would start at the high intensity low volume sessions ( eg Vo2 max/ supra-threshold work ) and progress to threshold / tempo work as the race approaches.
For hills we have to think even more about specificity. Assuming an athlete has access to any type of hills the progression of specificity may look like this.
Obviously most athletes dont have access to any length of hills so we have to modify this according to what hills they do have access to.
HILL LENGTH
Unlike speed sessions where the length of the interval can be as long as we desire , hills reps are limited by the length of the longest hill our athlete has access to . For some that might be as short as 90 seconds or less and for others it might be an hour or more .
I’ve had an athlete train for Tor Des Geants who only had access to a 15 second hill and trained athletes living in Nepal or Switzerland who have hills that take more than an hour to climb . I trained for UTMB living in London where the longest trail hill was 90 seconds and longest road hill was around 4 minutes . You can make any distance hill an effective training session if you know how to adjust the key variables.
Lets look at these and how they change based on the length of the hill.
RECOVERY
We have two options for recovery depending on the length of the hill.
The first is the run back down the hill to start the next rep and the second is continuing up the hill for a specified interval before resuming the next effort.
SHORTER HILLS
When running on shorter hills they are often not long enough to continue up for recovery so the only option is to run back down to the start.
The length of the hill sets the work : recovery ratio. You will recall in speed sessions we can adjust this ratio from 1:1 to 20:1 and anything in-between depending on what intensity we wanted to target.
For hills we only have limited control of the duration it takes to run back down the hill before the start of the next rep , we can make recovery as long as we want but we cant make it any shorter than the time it takes to run back down the hill !
For example a hill that takes 3 minutes to run up may take anywhere from 90 seconds to 4 minutes to run back down.
For speed sessions we could use 3 minutes intervals and do a session of 6 x 3 minutes hard with 3 minutes recovery or 10 x 3 minutes with 1 minutes recovery and the intensity would be very different. With a 3 minute recovery the session would be a VO2 max session and with 1 minutes recovery more a threshold session. We dont have that option when using shorter hills.
So how can we change the session to suit specific intensities ?
Let’s use some example scenarios to help develop our understanding.
I’m going to use Watts as it will be consistent with effort on any gradient but dont get confused if not familiar with power – just think of Watts as the higher the number the harder you are working.
Let’s take an athlete who only has access to a 3 minute hill .
If we want to give them a VO2max session then it’s easy as in VO2 max sessions a 1:1 work rest ratio works well. So the workout might be 6 x 3 minutes @ 300-310W with very easy back down recovery and resting at the bottom until 3 minutes has passed since they reached the top.
What about if we want to give them a threshold session like 8-10 x 3 minutes @ 270-280W with 1 minutes recovery ?
We have three options.
Option 1
Keep intensity the same
Eg 8-10 x 3 minutes @ 270-280W with easy back down recovery
In this case even though the athletes threshold might be in the 270-280W range , the longer recovery periods between each effort will have the overall load of the sessions be lower than the equivalent session on the flat.
Eg 8-10 x 3 minutes @270-280W with 1 minutes recovery on the flat is going to feel much harder than 8-10 x 3 minutes @270-280W uphill with 3 minutes easy back down recovery . The overall load is likely not high enough to be considered a threshold session.
Option 2
Increase Intensity
We can increase the intensity of the uphill efforts. We cant increase too much as even with the long recovery the athlete wont be able to do 8-10 reps at 300-310W ( ie VO2 Max ) but they may be able hold 290-300W. The session then becomes 8-10 x 3 minutes @ 290-300W with 3 minutes easy back down recovery
Whether this is a good thing or not depends on the goal of the session . If you are trying to increase threshold then you don’t want to go too far above threshold intensity so it may not be the best approach. But if you are wanting to work at an intensity above threshold then this approach can work well.
You need to do more reps to spend more time at intensity to gain the benefit though. Ie if they can do 6 reps @ 300-310W the if you decrease the intensity to 290-300W you need to increase the reps to make it an affective session.
Option 3
Increase the intensity of the downhills.
Instead of making it easy back down recovery we can set shorter recovery periods forcing the athlete to run faster downhill .
Eg 8-10 x 3 minutes uphill at 270-280W and then give the athlete 2 minutes to get back down before the next rep.
This means the downs are only a partial recovery. The flat equivalent would be 8 -10 x 3 minutes at 4 minutes k pace with 2 minutes recovery at 4:30-5:30 min ks. That session is going to feel a lot harder than doing a walk or very slow jog for 2 minutes recovery between efforts
The speed at which one can run downhill is going to vary according to the gradient and the athletes downhill skill level. Also keep in mind there is a higher risk of injury when running faster downhill so it may not be suitable for all athletes and most athletes will have to ease into it , gradually building the downhill speed over time.
One easy method to doing this is to first of all just program recovery as easy jog back down, Note how long it takes them and over time reduce that time in 10-15 second increments .
For example if they run the downhill in 3 minutes ( after a 3 min uphill ) then you can change the session to a 2:45 minutes downhill recovery period , if they get down in 2:30 then they earn themselves 15 seconds or recovery before they have to go again.
Eventually they will reach a point where even running fast they only just get to the bottom before they have to go again. Once that happens you may need to add some recovery in at the bottom of each rep or every second or third rep .
To understand this consider the work effort to consist of both an up and downhill component.
Instead of thinking of it as 8 x 3 minutes uphill – in reality it is more like an 8 x 5 minutes ( 3 up 2 down) session. Unless you want them to run continuously up and down for 40 minutes you can program a recovery period at the bottom of each rep in the same way you would in speed sessions . The session then becomes
8 x 3 minutes hard up , fast back down with 90 seconds recovery at the bottom .
If you only have really short hills to work with then you can program multiple reps before a recovery period .
Eg 3 x 2 minutes hard up fast back down – after 3 reps have 90 seconds recovery at the bottom .
This is likely to work out to around 10 mins of work ( 2 up 1:30 down x 3 )
Lets look at how those sessions might progress to give a better understanding
For this example we will use a 2 minutes hill and will give some power targets so you can see the slight change in intensity as the sessions progress
1. 12 x 2 minutes hard up @290-300W, easy back down with 30 seconds recovery at the bottom before next rep
2. 12 x 2 minutes hard up @290-300W repeating every 4 minutes ( ie if they get down in 1:50 they get 10 seconds recovery )
3. 12 x 2 minutes Hard up @290-300W repeating every 3:45 ( if they get down in 1:35 then they get 10 seconds recovery at the bottom before they go again )
4. 6 sets of 2 reps of 2 minutes hard up @ 285-295W , fast back down with 60 seconds recovery after every second rep ( at this point you can see they are having to run relatively fast to get back down in the previous session so this progression means no rest at the bottom for every second rep and the downhill pace is slightly faster than the previous session )
5. 4 sets of 3 reps of 2 minutes hard up @ 280-290W , fast back down with 60 seconds recovery after every third rep ( now they have to do 3 reps non stop before they get a recovery )
6. 3 sets of 4 reps of 2 minutes hard up @280-290W, fast back down with 90 seconds recovery after every fourth rep
7. 2 sets of 6 reps of 2 minutes hard up @ 280-290W , fast back down with 2 minutes recovery after every sixth rep
This progression may take 12-24 weeks to more to work through and there is plenty of in between steps you can use to gradually progress your athlete. For example a more gradual increase in downhill speed and differing recovery times at the bottom.
LONGER HILLS
When the athlete has access to longer hills we have a few more options
We can still do the running back down after end of each interval as before but now we can make that interval as long as the hill is – for example if the athlete has a 7 minute hill then can be 4 x 7 minutes up , easy back down recovery .
But we also have the option of a recovery continuing up the hill. That means we can effectively program exactly the same as we would a speed session.
Eg 10 x 3 minutes hard 1 minutes easy on the flat can be exactly the same IF you have a 40 minutes hill , you just do 3 minutes hard then continue up the hill for 1 minute as recovery .
If not then you have to do more sets – eg if only have a 20 minutes hill you can only get 5 hard reps in each climb
The session then becomes
5 x 3 minutes hard 1 minutes easy – easy back down recovery ( taking approx 15 Minutes )
repeat once more to make 10 reps.
Now though we have a long break between then two sets of 5 x 3 reps ( ie an easy 15 minutes downhill)
Its like doing 5 x 3 minutes fast on the flat with a 1 minutes recovery, after 5 reps do a slow 15 minutes run then repeat once more
Obviously easier than doing 10 x 3 with 1 minutes recovery all in a row.
To make the session harder we have 2 choices
1. Increase the intensity of the uphill recovery
2. Increase the intensity of the downhill recovery
Uphill recovery
Recovery uphill can be in the form of hiking or running depending on the gradient and the fitness level of the athlete.
So the session could change to
5 x 3 minutes hard with 1 minutes partial recovery at usual long run intensity then easy back down recovery after 5 reps and repeat once more
So in this case instead of recovery being super easy slow walk or jog its at the athletes usual long run intensity ( which might be hiking or running depending on the gradient of the hill and the fitness of the athlete )
Looking at a flat speed session comparison its like comparing
5 x 3 minutes @ 4 min ks with 1 minutes walk jog recovery
Vs
5 x 3 minutes @ 4 min ks with 1 minutes at 5:30 min ks recovery
The second option is obviously harder and goes in part to make up for the easy recovery back down the 15 minutes hill before the next set of 5
Downhill recovery
In the same away we increased the downhill speed in the shorter hill we can do the same in the longer hills . The difference here is instead of running downhill for 1-3 minutes the athlete may be running down for 10 minutes or longer.
This will usually mean we need to be a little more cautious in our progression of downhill speeds to avoid injury compared to the shorter hills .
Which is better – a 60 minutes hill or 2 x 30 minutes hills ?
At first thought you might think thats the same as comparing a 60 minutes tempo run with 2 x 30 min tempo runs with a short recovery but remember a 30 minutes uphill requires a 20+ minutes downhill before going again.
So is a hill rep session up a 60 minutes hill better than breaking it up in the middle with some downhill ?
As discussed earlier the 2 x 30 session means you can push slightly higher intensity due to the downhill recovery between.
An analogy would be if you had to do two park runs with a 20 minutes recovery between the two. Would you be able to run a faster time than running 10km non stop? Most likely yes .
But in this case we have a downhill run to consider. That downhill run even at easy pace will add some fatigue to the legs and at a hard pace will add a lot of fatigue to the legs.
Now we have a few considerations to make – lets assume athlete does have access to a very long hill – should we get them doing the session in one continuous climb or add some downhills ?
The benefit of adding in a downhill or two is it means the later part of the session you trying to push hard uphill after running downhill – ie same as what happens in races.
So even though your race may have very long hills , training to run down and then head back up another hill is very specific training. One is not necessarily better than the other and there may be a place for both options in training if the athlete has access to longer hills.
Gradient
There is no ideal gradient for hill repeats as it depends on the goal of the session, the race the athlete is training for and the strengths and weaknesses of the athlete.
But there are a few considerations to understand when it come to the different gradients.
Douche grade ( 3-6% ) ie a very runnable hill.
Speed can be much faster uphill
The recovery downhill will likely take longer than uphill unless pushing hard
Runnable gradients 6-12%
For most athletes this is still all runnable. The steeper it gets the quicker the downhills and some athletes at the steeper gradients will be able to descend significantly quicker at a low intensity than they can ascend.
12-18% Steep just runnable gradients
Once it gets above approx 12% some slower runners will start to struggle to run non stop up the longer climbs but for most athletes these gradients are runnable but at a much slower pace and can feel a bit like you are running on the spot
This kind of gradient is great for mixing running with hiking efforts
18+% hiking gradients
All but the elite will be hiking gradients this steep. Downhill speeds are often more a test of ones descending skill that fitness or leg conditioning.
All these different gradients can have a place in ones training program.
If one has access to a range of gradients then you would start at lower gradients and as the race approaches move to steeper ones – how steep depends on the race you are training for.
Whilst all gradients have similar benefits there are differences
Shallower gradients are better at developing leg speed
Middle gradients are good for mixing up hiking and running intervals and conditioning the legs for downhill
Steep gradients are good for hiking reps and developing downhill skills
But many athletes dont have much of a choice on gradients to train on so you have to work with what they have and adjust accordingly.
Is there benefit on training on steeper gradients than is found in the race ?
As always the answer is it depends !
If a race has hills of gradients 10% or less would training on hills of 15% or more be helpful ? Steeper gradients more more hiking and more downhill skill development required – if thats something your athlete can improve on and would benefit the race then by all means get them doing some steeper hills. But in general using hills around the same as the race is preferred. Many races have a mix of inclines anyway so training on a mix is often beneficial.
What type of hill is best – road, firetrail, singletrack, technical ?
Again it depends on what training effect you are after.
On one end of the spectrum road will mean greater speeds but little skill development whereas a technical trail will work on skill development but intensity might be compromised.
If your athlete has a choice of trails then you can pick what you want depending on the training goal.
From a periodisation point of view starting with road and moving towards trail and tech trail ( if the race demands it ) is the way to go.
PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER
We have covered a lot above and with the different hill lengths indifferent gradients it can be confusing about how to program hill reps so I’m going to break it down to hopefully an easy to understand blueprint of how to approach hill reps with your athlete. NOTE – I havent covered hiking hill reps or downhill specific hill reps yet – thats the next video.
Whenever you are planning a workout your first thought should be what training adaption are you hoping to achieve. To determine that consider the phase of training the athlete is in ( base, build, peak , taper ) , the race they retraining for and the athletes strengths and weaknesses. But to simplify it let’s look at general recommendations for each phase.
Remember we look at a guide to intensity in each phase earlier
Lets get a little more specific
Remember in the speed videos we talked about starting with approx 15-20 minutes of intensity at above threshold intensity and gradually progressing that to longer durations and lower intensity to end up with long threshold and tempo sessions. Eg We could progress from 10 x 90 seconds at high intensity to 3 x 20 minutes at tempo intensity.
The same frame work applies for hills
As different athletes have different hill lengths I’m going to give some different examples for each phase to help guide your prescription.
BASE PHASE – goal here is introduce higher intensity hill repeats and if needed progress into some VO2 max workouts .
Interval Duration – 1- 3 minutes
Recovery – very easy back down
Intensity – above threshold to VO2 max
Total time at intensity – 15-20 minutes
Gradient – 4-8%
Example sessions
10 x 90 seconds , easy back down recovery
5 x 3 minutes , easy back down recovery
2 x 4 minutes easy back down recovery
2 x 3 minutes easy back down recovery
2 x 2 minutes easy back down recovery
2 x 1 minutes easy back down recovery
BUILD PHASE – goal here increase duration at intensity
Interval Duration – 1- 6 minutes
Recovery -starts with the easy back down but as that gets faster can give 30-60 seconds recovery at the bottom
Downhills – start easy and gradually increase
Intensity – Above threshold
Total time at intensity – 20-30 minutes
Gradient 6-12%
Example sessions
15 x 90 seconds , easy back down recovery
8 x 3 minutes , easy back down recovery
2 x 6 minutes easy back down recovery
2 x 2 minutes easy back down recovery
2 x 2 minutes easy back down recovery
6 x 4 minutes with 2 minutes easy hiking continuing up the hill
PEAK PHASE – increase duration , decreasing recovery , increasing overall volume
Interval Duration – 1- 20 minutes
Recovery – very easy hike or jog
Intensity – threshold – tempo
Total time at intensity – 30-60 minutes
Gradient – race specific
Example sessions
15 x 90 seconds , fast back down
60 second recovery after every 3rd rep
8 x 3 minutes ,fast back down
90 seconds recovery after every second rep
3 x 5 minutes easy 90 seconds hike between then fast back down after 3 reps
90 secondary at the bottom – repeat once more
15 x 3 minutes with 1 minutes easy hiking continuing up the hill
5 x 2 minutes hard running 2 minutes hard hiking , fast back downhill , 2 minutes recovery at the bottom and then repeat once more
TAPER PHASE
In the taper we keep all downhills very very easy and gradually reduce the duration at intensity from the 40-60 minutes in PEAK phase down to 5-10 minutes in the last 7 days pre race.