he'll love them or hate them they can be
a great training tool and if they're in
a race well you've got no avoiding them
so today we're gonna be covering how
best to get up hills of varying
gradients and how to incorporate them in
your training to overall improve your
running performance
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the biggest turnoff when it comes to
Hills is the fact that you're going to
be going slower for the same amount of
effort you've obviously got to battle
the effects of gravity so moving your
body weight forwards becomes a lot
harder and therefore you're gonna be
moving slower so it's an important first
step to adapt your pace accordingly with
that in mind you need to measure your
run by effort as opposed to pace whether
that's by feel and perceived effort or
heart rate or even power if you're using
that you'll get a far more realistic
idea of how hard you're working it's
best to ignore pace altogether unless
it's a hill that you're familiar with
and you know how long it normally takes
you and remember if you are using
heartrate there'll be a slight lag as it
catches up on that increase in effort
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on that note if you're just getting back
to fitness or if you're new to running
it's completely fine to walk up hills is
you're likely to be putting in the same
amount of effort as you would be if you
were jogging gently on the flat now also
it's great for early season running when
you're just trying to get fit as Hills
wouldn't actually work your
cardiovascular system that much harder
without putting as much impact on your
joints as you would do if you're running
on the flat or down the hill there's
more to come on how to train with Hills
but first let's address why what are the
benefits what hills add in gravity and
therefore it acts like resistance
training to your leg muscles
incorporating uphill running will make
you stronger you'll feel your glutes and
your calf muscles and it does change
your gait as you're naturally land more
on your forefoot and you'll start to use
that posterior chain those muscles at
the back of your legs as well as
propelling your body forwards you'll be
taking it uphill so think of it as small
box steps a hill rep session can replace
the leg session in the gym but then flip
that around and if you want to get
better at Hills but don't have any
nearby work on box step ups split squats
and deadlifts to help it's important to
maintain good form when you're running
uphill oh it'll soon become obvious if
you don't have it so you want to focus
on keeping your chest up and your
shoulders back as it will make running
up a hill that much easier and they'll
also reinforce that good technique which
will hopefully stay with you when you
return to the flat and the same goes
with your arms so make sure you use them
to help with your balance but also to
propel you forward and upwards okay I
think I've convinced you and myself that
hills are great so now how do we
incorporate them into your training well
Hill reps are the obvious answer so you
need to find a hill that you like or
more importantly that suits so if it's
power that you want to work on you need
to find something that's shorter and
steeper a good idea for this is to run
hard as you can
20 seconds up a hill and if it's steep
enough that will certainly feel like a
long time and then walk back down for
your recovery repeat that six times
through then take a two minute jog
recovery to loosen out your legs go back
to the bottom and repeat it once more
but do feel free to play around with the
amount of reps or sets and how much rest
you have depending on your fitness you
can progress this as you become fitter
and stronger
building strength and endurance is great
during the winter and important in your
preseason training so for this you want
to find a longer more gradual Hill one
that you can run up at a steady but
strong pace for two minutes and then jog
back down as your recovery now you want
to aim to repeat these four to six times
all is a continuous effort and you want
to try and maintain the same speed and
pace going up the hill each time hills
are also great for variety so think of
adding them into your longer rug they'll
give you that nice mental break as well
as activating different muscles and you
also get the strength component and when
it comes to your long run pace doesn't
matter anyway the final version of Hill
wraps is canyon hills now we've talked
about these in detail
in a previous video so you can check
that out it'll be in the description
below but you need to find a hill or a
route that's on the side of a hill so
you can run up along the top back down
the hill along the bottom to reach the
start of your Hill again and it's a good
idea to work hard on the uphill hard
along the top recover down and then you
can build as you're going back along the
bottom and for this depending on how big
the loop is you can run continuously for
around five minutes and then repeat that
three to four times or the rest after
each five minutes we now need to address
how best to get up these hills whether
that's in training or racing and I've
already mentioned the importance of your
arms to help with the leg drive because
as you're going up hill you can have to
lift your knee and foot higher on each
step in order to overcome the rising
ground that's in front of you it's okay
to shorten your stride when you're
running up the hill and it's a mistake
to actually try and maintain that same
lengthen rhythm you have when you're on
the flats so focus on really keeping
that cadence up and your legs moving and
it's also really important to think
about your gaze and look up the hill
where you're going as this will
naturally help with your posture as well
the best thing about running uphill you
get the descent so make sure you enjoy
it and if you're using Hills in training
then you can use your descent as part of
your recovery and if you're racing then
again use it to recover and get your
legs moving so that they're ready for
that next uphill challenge and if you
want more tips on how to run downhill
we've actually got a video on that which
we'll share with you in the description
below Hills can be a great excuse to run
off road too and discover new areas
because you're going to be going slowly
up a hill so it's easy to check your
footing and also just to enjoy that
surrounding and if
somewhere where there's a lot of mud
that's just gonna make you work even
harder as well well I personally love
using Hills to traders they just take
the pressure off it's enough of a
challenge just to get to the top of the
hill you don't have to worry about pace
you can run to time and it allows you to
just run for the pure joy of it so go
out there and embrace those hills that
they can be our friends I promise you
hopefully you've enjoyed it give us a
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and for a video on canyon hills that we
talked about earlier you can find that
just down here and if you're currently
running 10k but you want to train for a
half math and we've got a great video
for you just here