I have a perfect place in my hood to run quarter-mile hill repeats. I like to run them once per week, anywhere from 8-13 reps in any training cycle.
I have been told two different things: 1. that hill repeats are actually safer than normal hard intervals, because your foot doesn’t have as far to fall to hit the road, and 2. That I should NOT do them every week because I am more likely to get injured.
I’d love your $.02. Please include where you received your Sports Medicine degree 
I honestly can’t see how they can make you mopre likely to get injured. They are perfect for building strength and power for the run, however I max out at 8 when I do mine. I don’t see the point in going to 13. but usually I do a 3k warm up 4-8 hill reps with a 3km warm down. but yes keep hill reps in your training for each week.
I1. that hill repeats are actually safer than normal hard intervals, because your foot doesn’t have as far to fall to hit the road
Safer? Not sure how to measure that. As far as not having to fall… True- as long as you don’t have to run back down.
I1. that hill repeats are actually safer than normal hard intervals, because your foot doesn’t have as far to fall to hit the road
Safer? Not sure how to measure that. As far as not having to fall… True- as long as you don’t have to run back down.
Actually, that WAS part of the anti-frequent-hill person’s point…that the running back down is more stressful on joints (and that the intensity of uphills made a muscle strain more likely). So, as a serious answer to what I think was a serious question, I take an easy jog back down the other side of the hill (back and forth over both sides of the hill), partly to limit stress on joints, and partly because I am tired as crap
My sports med degree…the school of trial and error!
What are your running goals is my first question? Hill repeats will certainly help build power, but for speed I’m not so sure.
I don’t usually run repeats but do run a good number of hill thoughout the week. Very few of my runs are flat, I prefer to mix in long steady hills. For me I believe going up improves power while allowing me to focus on form and going back down works on leg speed.
At the risk of hijacking my own thread, would you please tell me the difference btwn power and speed in the context of running?
Goals: 10k and halfs mainly; eventually wanna BQ. I have been running for about 3 years…former defensive lineman, down from 275 to 215 lbs. Wanna break 40 min 10k (ran 42 today) and 90 min Half (currently 1:35 flat)… If that helps 
My definition of power and speed is overly simplistic but it’s how I see my own running style.
Power for me is defined as being able to hold a given pace, say 6:30, going up hill. Not necessarily running up hill faster, just not dropping your pace without your HR going through the roof and you blowing through your VO2max
Speed = leg turn over + stride length. I would hazard a guess that you have a normal running cadence, which at a given effort you run a certain pace. Now to speed up I wouldn’t suggest just increasing your cadence, but you also need to lengthen your stride, but don’t over stride. The trick is holding your form so as to not risk injury or tiring out too soon from crappy form.
I’m a firm believer in the BarryP Plan (modified to meet my needs), do a forum search on it. It’s simple and for me was the magic bullet to push my running to a new level. The last two years I’ve set a PR at every distance from 5K to full marathon and my run times in triathlons have plummeted drastically. Not to toot my own horn but two years ago my stand alone 13.1 PR was 1:25:XX, this year I went 1:21XX and most recently I ran 1:28:00 on the run leg at Oceanside. So the plan works. But with any running plan, patience is key, don’t expect huge drops in time right away. Another aspect of the BarryP Plan is I’ve remained almost injury free with the exception of a few tweeks here and there.
Certainly safer from a biomechanical perspective but not necessarily from a physiological one.
As with intervals and any high intensity work, hills take a greater toll on the body. Central (cardiovascular) and local (muscular) demands are high and, thus, repeated sessions without sufficient recovery will, at the very least, lessen the desired adaptations (power and strength). Adaptation depends upon rest (which , for sake of this discussion, also includes low intensity work in s/b/r ).
Consider repeated , high intensity hill intervals the same as you would any other high intensity work. Hard, strong and “infrequent” (definition of which depends on your training cycle and fitness level- for most people 1-3x/week) reap the benefits best.
No sports med degree , but 2x B.S. in ex phys and kines.
I have a perfect place in my hood to run quarter-mile hill repeats. I like to run them once per week, anywhere from 8-13 reps in any training cycle.
I have been told two different things: 1. that hill repeats are actually safer than normal hard intervals, because your foot doesn’t have as far to fall to hit the road, and 2. That I should NOT do them every week because I am more likely to get injured.
I’d love your $.02. Please include where you received your Sports Medicine degree
Doing hill repeats make you faster at running up hills. Are your races hilly? Then do hill repeats. Are your races flat? Don’t do hill repeats. Pretty simple in my book. I did (up)hill repeats for my first Boston and never (by choice) since. I find them harder on the body and its harder to put an individual workout into the context of your training. Perceived effort is a wonderful tool, but you can’t hide on a 400m oval.
As an aside: when you BQ, don’t do uphill repeats. Do downhill repeats. Your quads will thank me during the last 10K. No sports medicine degrees, but I’m working on my third degree and am a relatively mediocre distance runner.
-2c
I can only speak for my coaches philsophy here.
Our squad (includes a World Cup starter and another guy who has raced some WTS stuff) frequently uses hills.
Running off the bike is more strength than speed based, for sprint distance I am running closer to 10k pace and for 10k off the bike, I’m closer to HM. In other words I don’t run that ‘fast’.
We generally run hills twice a week, during the months leading up to the season, not necessarily during the season. A typical session would be something like an 80min run with 10x30s V.Hard, or 10x1-2mins at 10k intensity.
Another session we do during the season is something like 10x100m (uphill) at 3k pace, 180degree turn and then 20s at MAX downhill. This is a dangerous session, but it closerly mimiks running off the bike (fatigued quads), helping to build leg speed.
Hope that helps
I have a perfect place in my hood to run quarter-mile hill repeats. I like to run them once per week, anywhere from 8-13 reps in any training cycle.
I have been told two different things: 1. that hill repeats are actually safer than normal hard intervals, because your foot doesn’t have as far to fall to hit the road, and 2. That I should NOT do them every week because I am more likely to get injured.
I’d love your $.02. Please include where you received your Sports Medicine degree
I just run hills as much as I can. Aside from track workouts where I want to measure my time and aim for specific paces, I try to make most runs as hilly as possible. That said, I rarely ever do a proper hill repeat workout. A fartlek run on a hilly course is very similar in my opinion. But, according to the experts I consult, once a week is enough for a hill repeat workout. 5x200meter, with a very easy jog back down the hill. I wouldn’t do them in a race week, but otherwise… I doubt you can do too many.
As mentioned previously, I have messed myself up in the past by running downhill too fast. That definitely takes some time to get used to, so be careful. I have much better luck running uphill, then on flat, when it comes to staying healthy.
Hills for strength,treadmills for speed.
You’ve got it right in that going uphill is a safer way to increase intensity than running faster. As you said, he impact stresses are less. The problem is, you’ve got to go back downhill, which can be very taxing on the body, but if you’re careful and pay attention to your form you can minimize this.
Lots of people like using the treadmill for hill work because you can do uphill repeats and then recover at a flat grade as opposed to having to go back downhill.
But it sounds like you’ve got a good routine, if you’re running these roughly quarter mile repeats hard it will essentially be the equivalent of an interval or VO2 max workout. Depending on how many days per week you run and your mileage, you probably don’t want to do more than 2, maybe 3, “workouts” per week. I define a workout as anything other than your standard get out the door type run, so long runs, tempo runs, interval work, hill repeats, etc. You can do 2 or maybe three of those each week if you’re running 5-6 days per week. If you’re running less than that than I definitely wouldn’t do more than 2.
So it’s really about priorities, I think tempo work as about the best weekly workout any runner from 5k to marathon can do, so I’d almost always include them in a weekly schedule. From there you need to decide if your hill interval day is more of a priority than a long run.
So keep doing what you’re doing as it’s a great workout, just figure out how to mix it into your schedule along with other workouts you need to get in.
I’ve actually been doing a ton of treadmill hill work this winter. I’m literally doing it 5x per week where my treadmill stays at 4-15% grade for the entire run (by the way, I built up to this gradually). This is an experiment of N=1 because I hope to do a long uphill run to the summit of Mauna Kea (13700 ft) from the visitor center (9300 feet) some time in the next 2 years.
I have noticed that my recovery from these “hill runs” is almost the same as a hard bike because the “weight” bearing nature of these runs is a lot less (the intervals are at 10-15%, the recovery at 4-6%)…the speed is pretty slow…barely 6-7.5 mph.
Off no speed work I ran 20.59 on a cold minus 17C degree day in the middle of the winterlude tri, which started with a 100% FTP effort 8k speedskate, and then the run, then, a 9K XC ski. The entire tri was around 1:10, so basically view the run as a “sprint tri” effort. But I had zero speed work, just these treadmill hills.
OK, back to the original question, I like mixing hills in during almost every run. I don’t really have that much purely flat terrain where I live anyway. On the question of more injury risk with “speed work” versus hills, my thought is that when you are in aerobic distress going up hill, the pounding is low. When you are aerobically comfortable in the downhills, the pounding is high, but your coordination is much better not being anaerobic so you are better equipped to deal with the pounding and not get injured, because you have much better motor control.
In general I have found that “more coordinated athletes” get less injured than less coordinated athletes. For me I always had the good fortune of great running coordination due to running high school track (as well as field events like the long and triple jump). After a fairly severe head injury 18 months ago, that god given coordination is partially gone in my left leg. As a result of that, I now have a higher susceptibility for small injuries in my left leg. Treadmill uphill intervals have been a huge boon as they take minimal coordination and I can aerobically tax my engine.
I have a perfect place in my hood to run quarter-mile hill repeats. I like to run them once per week, anywhere from 8-13 reps in any training cycle.
I have been told two different things: 1. that hill repeats are actually safer than normal hard intervals, because your foot doesn’t have as far to fall to hit the road, and 2. That I should NOT do them every week because I am more likely to get injured.
I’d love your $.02. Please include where you received your Sports Medicine degree
Personally I see nothing wrong with hills. Though I don’t necessarily see the benefit of doing the same workout week after week. Mixing things up with Tempo runs and intervals on the flat will likely have you see better benefits. Right now my coach has us doing hills every third week.
I came to the conclusion in my later years of running and doing triathlons, that you could never run enough hills in training! So many positives.
Run hill repeats. Run tempo runs in rolling terrain. Run long runs in the hills. Hills. Hills and more hills. Don’t over-think it!
At the risk of hijacking my own thread, would you please tell me the difference btwn power and speed in the context of running?
This is actually an interesting question - for both running and triathlon, I would define power as pushing your aerobic threshold as close to you anaerobic threshold as possible. Unless you are an ITU triathlete, or a really serious sprint racer, this is the primary regime you probably want to be training and specifically training to be able to operate at your aerobic threshold after 90 min - 3 hrs of working at just under it - assuming triathlons are your primary sport. This almost requires that you ignore your anaerobic system and lower it. This is the kind of pain that accumulates and while it is never unachievable it becomes harder and harder to carry.
Speed is elevating your anaerobic threshold so you can run fast (over your aerobic threshold) for some specific period of time that is probably less than 15 minutes. This is the kind of pain that is like a knife slowly being thrust into you, where you know you can end if by simply quitting.
For 10k’s to 1/2 marathons, with a goal of BQ, I would probably focus on power, as I defined it.
I posted earlier about the surprisingly solid gains I had with treadmill hill training this past season. Highly recommended. Agree about the reduced impact for the cardio gain. Also, I felt that the leg-specific muscular gains were very significant - you don’t get quite the same effect on flatland running. I also didn’t have any problem with leg turnover in my last 5k - was expecting to slow, but I was as fast as ever.