How hill training can be our best friend!

Sunday, May 05, 2013 · Mike Davis

Hill repeats serve many purposes for runners with the obvious being it prepares us for hills! While I like running hills for that reason; I embrace other valuable benefits from hill repeats. For one; hills help us to strengthen both our legs as well as our upper bodies. Utilizing our arms is just as important as moving those feet and that means our core is getting a great workout! Another benefit of running hills is that it enhances our conditioning like no other running workouts. On top of strengthening our whole body running a hill multiple times strengthens our aerobic capacity as well as lactic acid threshold. Finally, running up (and down) hills help us work on running form we can use on all grades. The technique of leaning into the hill and taking shorter stride is exactly the form we should use on flat surfaces. Actually the form this is the same as we should be using all the time no matter up, down or flat. There are other benefits that hill training offers as well, but these 3 top my list for including hill training as part of a personal training plan. Some things that should be focused on as you do hill repeats: - Keep your head up, looking toward the crest - Think form and using your body weight to be efficient - Control your body. Meaning: Don’t let the hill control your speed, take small steps both up and down. Many people burn a lot of glycogen (energy) going to fast down a hill - Do not panic breath, control your breathing. Not easy to do, but force yourself to slow it down - Unless you are a hill expert don’t try and remain at your normal pace going up a hill - Take some time to recover and ease back to your normal pace. If you feel like you have to make up for some lost time, don’t try to do it all at once - Don’t let others pull you up any faster than you’re capable or push you down to fast So now check out the weekly featured workout for a Hill Repeat workout.