Running: How to hill train

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If you have an aversion to hills in your training or your competitions, you are not alone.

Taking part recently in a half marathon there was an incline placed at the 12 mile mark, and the only sound, besides heavy breathing, was a lot of grunting and cursing as the runners made their way (very slowly!) up the dreaded hill.

With this in mind, you soon realise why hill sessions are a very useful aspect of your training, and can even provide some much needed change to your running route.

The benefits

Hill training has long been thought to provide important benefits to running, by increasing leg- muscle strength, and improving your cardiovascular fitness, not to mention strengthening your mental clout, making you overall a better, stronger runner. In as little as six weeks of hill training, your muscle power and strength can improve.

At the Karolinska Institute, Sweden, one major study on marathon runners found that after 12 weeks of twice-weekly hill sessions, there was an improvement of three percent in the athletes’ running economy, meaning that they would be able to knock off about six minutes off their marathon time! Yes please.

The plan

So if you’re looking to cash in on some of these benefits and hit a new PB, it’s time to hit those hills. Start by incorporating one hill training session per week, increasing to two if you feel up for it.

Here is an example plan:

- Warm-up with a light 10-15 minute jog. Then follow this with a set of intervals on a steep slope if you’re outdoors, or a steep incline if you’re on the treadmill.

- Run hard up the hill (no more than 1-2 mins), then gently jog back down, once you’re recovered run back up the hill. Try not to kill yourself in the first 20 seconds - it’s all about pace!

- Start with 4-5 intervals, gradually building up interval sets as your leg-power improves. Hill sessions also give you quicker, longer strides.

The key to hill sessions, as to running in general, is consistency. If you incorporate hill sessions into your training, you will notice increased power and running economy within a relatively short space of time.

So bring on those hills!

Bianca Fermi, Sportsister
The Women’s Sports Magazine

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