Hill-Bent on Improvement

Hi, Friends & Fellow Runners:

Hill Repeats are an integral part of most run-related training programs – and with good reason.  When done right and at least once a week for several consecutive weeks, they help improve all three components of effective running: endurance, stamina and speed. 

Like speedwork, a basic objective in doing Repeats is to increase VO2 max – that is, the amount of oxygen your body is capable of absorbing when under severe stress.  They are also designed to convince your brain that you can run through pain and maintain pace even when you’re in serious oxygen debt and your heart is pounding away at extremely high levels.   

Here is what’s involved:

Find a decent site – Look for a hill that ideally is 400 to 600 meters long, with a grade of 6 to 8%.  The shorter the distance within that range, the steeper the grade should be – and vice-versa.

Start with a proper warm up – Always run at a comfortable, conversational pace for one or two kilometres prior to your first Hill Repeat.  The purpose is to get your body ready for the unaccustomed strain of what’s to come, and, more specifically, to raise your heart rate to approximately 120 beats per minute – which, for most runners, is around 70% of Maximum Heart Rate (MHR).

Keep Effort Strong and Consistent – Do all your hill ascents as fast as you can and try to maintain the same pace with each repeat.  Allow yourself, however, to slow down as the hill steepens and speed up as it flattens out, all the while maintaining the same expenditure of effort.  En route you should be reaching levels of exertion that make it impossible to converse (at least a “9” on a perceived exertion scale of one to 10).   In terms of heart rate, this means that you’re in an anaerobic training zone of 90 to 100% of MHR.  This sharp elevation in heart rate, in fact, is the main purpose of the entire exercise.

Don’t Stop – Continue moving until you finish at least a complete circuit of each Hill Repeat.  When you reach the crest of the hill, immediately turn around and start jogging back down.  Your aim, on reaching the bottom of the hill, is to have your heart rate return to the aforementioned level of 120 bpm or thereabouts – which, as noted, is where it was (or should have been) when you completed your initial warm-up and began your first uphill run.  Rest only if you feel your heart rate has not yet dropped back to that level.  For those without a monitor, start back up the hill when you feel sufficiently rested to complete the run to the top at the same speed as your previous climb.

Compete Only with Yourself – Do the warm-up and cool-down runs to and from the hill site with any running partners you may have, but never forget that the Hill Repeats themselves are not a race.  Rather, they are a quality individual workout.  Attack and conquer the hill at your own speed; forget about trying to keep up with (or slowing down for) someone else.  But know that if along the way you’re not feeling some degree of lactic burn in your lungs and legs, then you’re probably not pushing yourself hard enough to achieve the increase in VO2 max that is the desired end result of the training effort.

And Also...

Less important than the foregoing points, but nevertheless worth remembering, are the following:

Take Note of your Stride – As you make your way up the hill, you will naturally assume a shorter stride length that will have the mid-soles of your feet striking the ground directly beneath your body.  This, of course, is precisely the stride action that you should try to replicate on flat terrain.

Maintain Correct Form – Lean forward as far as you can without falling on your face.  But don’t bend at the waist.  Keep your body aligned from heel to head, with back straight, chest up, and hips in.  Bear in mind, as well, that your arms are always in rhythm with your legs; so when your leg turnover starts to slow down near the hill’s crest (as it invariably will), you should pump your arms faster to maintain turnover speed.  This latter point can make the difference between continuing to run and stopping.

Visualize a Flat Plane – The conventional wisdom is to gaze upward as you run, parallel to the surface of the hill.  This helps psychologically because it makes the grade appear less steep than it actually is.  However, if you’re near exhaustion, it also helps to look down every now and then, just to convince your brain that you’re still able to put one foot in front of the other.

Coach Stephen

The Need for Speedwork in Distance Running

Hi, Friends & Fellow Runners:

To understand why speedwork – consisting of short, intense runs measured in meters -- should become an integral part of a training program for a race as long as a  marathon, you have to wrap your mind around an almost counter-intuitive thought.  Sure, they will help you run faster in your goal race, but that’s arguably not their primary purpose.  Perhaps more importantly, interval workouts will also serve to increase your VO2 max and improve your running economy,

With regard to the first of these benefits, U.S. coach Joe Rubio has written: “Short, high quality intervals significantly improve the heart’s ability to move energy-sustaining oxygen via the blood stream throughout the body, resulting in greater potential for improvement, and that’s the main reason you should do them, regardless of your target race distance.” 

And Greg McMillan, another American coach, highlighted the second key benefit of speedwork when he wrote that it helps you master the smooth, fluid motion of front-of-the-pack runners as they seemingly glide over a road’s surface. “As a result,” he said, “intervals effectively improve your running economy (the amount of oxygen consumed at a given pace), and improved running economy is very important in an endurance race.”  He then explained further:  “Think of it as getting better gas mileage – you can go longer before running out of gas.” 

In essence, then, speedwork provides physical gains that converge from two different directions.  It both increases the amount of oxygen that your body can absorb and at the same time reduces your body’s need for that oxygen.  The result is a win-win situation across the board.

Still another purpose of speed intervals is to duplicate your actual race experience by making you feel the same level of discomfort that you will feel in the final stages of the marathon or half-marathon that you plan to run.  The rationale behind this seemingly masochistic effort to court pain has to do with teaching your brain that you can run anaerobically for extended periods without putting yourself in harm’s way – and that you can recruit your fast-twitch muscle fibres in doing do.  In this latter sense, intervals parallel the work that long distance runs do in recruiting your slow-twitch muscle fibres. 

Like all aspects of training, however, speed intervals must be done right if they’re to have maximum impact.  To begin with, you must run each interval much faster than whatever your projected pace may be in your goal race – about 60 to 90 seconds per kilometer faster, in fact.  And under no circumstances (short of injury) should you slow down until you’ve completed the interval and are into a recovery phase.  Then you can simply jog easily or even walk in order to be able to take on the next interval at the same pace as the one before.

It’s essential that you maintain proper form and accelerate leg turnover, rather than over-stride, during the workout.  And, finally, use the intervals to practice techniques of concentration that will prove invaluable in the later stages of your goal race (repeating a favourite mantra, figuratively tying yourself to a runner in front of you, focusing on reaching a landmark up ahead, cadence counting your steps, etc.).

That’s all for now, people.  Stay well and keep moving.

Coach Stephen