I believe this is a long time in coming. It has been a while since I have had the time to sit down and tell you all why the all dreaded running of hills is an important aspect to your training. For those of you who have been aching to get out there and run some hill repeats I apologize for my delay; for everyone else now you have no excuse :)
Can hill running make you stronger, quicker, and more light footed?
The brief answer to this question is YES!
Imagine a weightlifter and/or body builder who is trying to increase his one rep maximum weight. Their workouts wouldn't increase in light-weighted lifts and they wouldn't just do their repetitions at a faster pace; they would increase the weight on the bar. Running works in the same fashion to increase strength we have to increase the maximum amount of force.
"Running up hills forces the knees to lift higher, one of the most desirable developments for any runner, because this governs stride speed and length," wrote Lydiard (with Garth Gilmour) in his book Running With Lydiard. "It also develops the muscle fibers, increasing power."
The brilliance of hills comes from their ability to train and target all three muscle fiber group:
slow twitch-aerobically utilized and slowest to fatigue, intermediate fast twitch-producing more force than slow twitch they help to create the long slow powerful strides as seen in middle distance runners, and fast twitch-function anaerobically and used only in short bursts.
Olympic Coach Joe Vigil looks at hill training from an physiological side: "We use oscillatory terrain to increase the athlete's adaptation to stress, and to teach a more efficient use of glycogen," he says. "It also gives them a nice reactive power that improves their running economy."
You may be thinking "I am a long distance runner why would I need to strengthen by fast twitch muscles?" If you take a second and break down the sections of a race (whether a fun one or competitive one) you find that at some point you will utilize all of your muscle fiber groups.
- Starting gun goes off: Fast twitch muscles activate to get your from a stand still to moving
- Right after the start: intermediate muscles are firing as you get into the groove of the race
- Meat of the race: the most used fibers slow twitch fibers maintain an active state through most of the race as they are the slowest to fatigue.
- Kick: You're a half mile away from the finish line and from hitting the personal record you've been striving for time to kick it into gear. Once again those fast twitch muscle fibers take over propelling you towards the finish line.
As all fibers participate in the process of running it is important to strengthen all so that you have the ability to recruit one or the other when the timing is right.
Ok; you believe in the concept of increasing strength increases the amount of force and power output you can have so why can't you just go to the gym and lift?
Combining strength work with endurance work is very important and this can be obtained from weight training at the gym. While strength training through lifting does increase muscle strength and power it does so in an isolated format by focusing mainly on individual joints and small muscles groups. In contrast hill training forces the muscles in your hips, legs, ankles, and feet to work in a coordinated fashion while supporting your body weight, this leads to your muscles contracting with more power as you continue uphill and in the end results in longer and more powerful strides
MECHANICS OF RUNNING HILLS
Running uphill
There are three key concepts to running uphill.
- Keep you chest straight, stand up tall, and lean into the hill. Think about standing on the balls of your feet and pushing off with your toes.
- Eyes up. One of the biggest mistakes people make with running is general is watching their feet. Looking down drags your shoulders, head, and torso downward putting your energy into the ground instead of propelling you forward.
- Maintain your rhythm going into the hill. Running hills is all about rhythm, by maintaining your step cadence and just making minor adjustments you will find you will stride up the hill with ease.
You've made it up the hill (and powered through the top of it) and now its time to go down. The
key to efficient downhill running is to stay in control:
- Stand up tall: one of the biggest mistakes people make in running down hills is to lean backwards. Leaning back causes you to take pound your heels into the ground and have a forceful front foot slam, both of which are not conducive to staying injury free. Lean forward and let gravity help propel you down.
- As your pace increase equally increase your foot turnover rather than increasing your stride.
- Keep your feet close to the ground and land lightly on your feet.
Hill Workouts
Here are five hill workouts as detailed by Runner's World Magazine, Mastering Hill Workouts via Runner's World Magazine.
- Long Hill Runs: the staple to every runner's training arsenal the long hill run is masterful at increasing the strength of slow twitch muscle recruitment, ankle flexibility, and stride power.
- Long Hill Repeats: everyone's favorite. These force your body to climb the muscle fiber recruitment ladder.
- Short hill Repeats: here your hamstrings and quadriceps learn to coordinate with each other resulting in longer smoother strides.
- Hill bounding: great way to build strength and stride efficiency
- Downhill strides: through eccentric contraction your quadriceps will get a great workout during these strides.
Hills: they are the worst kept secret in the endurance world. Runners of all ages, abilities, and professions love to hate them. Choose to embrace them. Embrace the discomfort, the aching, and gain a strength of mind, body, and spirit. Choose to be a hill seeker!
