Love, Hate, Death, and Hills

"Hills are speedwork in disguise." Frank Shorter

Let's talk about long distance training. While we're at it, let's cut through the crap. Is everyone OK with that? If you want to want to pick flowers and blow kisses, come back when we have something nice to say. If you want to improve and do your best, read on. Running hurts. Let's just admit that and get it over with.

While a good base for long distance running includes a lot of easy running, all good training plans include hard work in the form of "speed", long-runs, mileage, and hills. It's just a fact. There is no shortcut. There is no easy way. Champions are made, not born.

Before we get any further, I have an assignment for you. Read This. It is probably the most concise and complete treatise on distance running that I have read.

Let's talk just briefly about "speed." If you want to race fast, you will have to train fast - intervals, tempo runs, hill sprints, anything. But it won't be slow, and it won't be easy. You can race, you can do some on/off miles, sprints, fartleks, intervals and repeats of many types. They are all good. They all have a purpose, and they are useful in season. When I say "in season," of course you know I am referring to periodization in your training. If you do nothing but 400m repeats, with the same rest/recovery, you will get to be really good at 400m repeats. But the training must be designed with the individual, the season, and the result in mind.

There is one training element you can incorporate into your training year round. We're talking about hills. Hilly easy runs, hilly tempo runs, hills deep into your long run. These are all good. And if you want to improve your racing, you are going to have to train on some hills. If you want to improve your race times over hilly courses, you are going to have to train on some hills. If you are planning on racing a marathon (or just running one, or completing one), you will incorporate some hill running in your training. Hills are good. Hills are gold. We seek out the hilly routes. We run over hills. It's not easy, but you'll learn to like it.

"The introduction of resistance in form of sand and hill is too important to be ignored." Percy Cerutty

How, then, should we work hills into our training?

We should start where all good training starts: the base. A runner should run on all available surfaces; trail, cross-country, bike path, cow-path, treadmill, gravel, dirt, track and road. This strengthens the runner and reduces occurrence of injury. The variety will harden the runner both physically and mentally, while providing relief from single-surface training. A well-rounded runner will also train on every slope available. Up, down, with long lazy inclines and short steep bursts - both up and down. Combine this base-training running over every slope and every available surface, and you are well on your way to becoming a better runner.

Hill training is strength training - resistance training. It is weightlifting for the runner. But more than just brute strength or ability to accomplish work, hillwork (when done correctly) can produce increases in power. Power is the rate at which we accomplish work. We must push off the toe, snap the foot through the ankle, propel with our quadriceps, swing harder through the arm, and lift the knee higher than in our typical running. One way to work the hill for power is to incorporate hill sprints - short bursts of 10 to 30 seconds up a steep hill.

Sprint, recover, repeat.

Bounding and springing exercises can help runners (like me) who need more flexibility and greater extension in the stride. These exercises are good for strength, but they will improve your form, too. Now is the time you google "hill bounding" or "hill training" or "hill bounding training" because there are so many reams of articles written about it that I really don't have much to add.

"It is suicidal for other runners to copy my hill sessions without adequate background." Pekka Vasala, Finnish Middle Distance Runner who outkicked Kip Keino at Munich Olympics in 1972 winning the 1500 meters in 3:36.3

Lastly, hills can be used in our anaerobic development. We push beyond our aerobic threshold, and enter into a state where internal energy sources are not oxidized in an state of equilibrium. We produce "lactic acids" faster than our bodies can use them. That's a not a bad thing - it's a good thing! It teaches our bodies to metabolize this new energy source and use it for fuel. You run a hill hard, feel the burn, and cruise on through - running now within your aerobic capacity and using the excess lactate. In summary, lactate is released from the working muscle, circulated to the liver, and converted into glucose (by the liver), which glucose in turn is used by the muscle. And that, my friends, is a beautiful thing. It just hurts a bit when you do it.

Through training, our bodies learn to perform this lactate conversion faster and more efficiently. The body learns to recover from a hill on the flat or downhill while we are running. By incrementally increasing the quantity (hill time X slope) of lactate produced, and reducing recovery time and increasing recovery pace, the body learns to "run faster." This complex bio-chemical process occurs when you do a tempo run or race over hills. This process would be phased into your training and you might concentrate on this aspect of training for somewhere between 4 and 12 weeks, before sharpening or tapering. You can accomplish a similar effect with longer hill repeats (somewhere between 45 seconds and 2 minutes, with slopes between 2% and 7%)

I know I've barely touched on the subject. But it is time some of you got off your rears, off the flat running trails, and onto some hills.

"If the hill has its own name, then it's probably a pretty tough hill." Marty Stern