Using Hills to Develop Endurance Skills

Author: Rashid Ibrahim Al-kindi
Date: 11 November 2007

 

Running on hills is a form of strength training that can improve speed on the track and road. Hills increase the intensity of training and builds strength because of the resistance they offer when running.

An increase in strength also decreases the possibility of injuries.
Since many cross-country and road races today incorporate hills, to be able to race successfully over them the runner needs to practice them in training.

Hill training can also make you a better runner on the flat and on the track because in order to have good speed you must have strong upper thigh and hamstring muscles.

Hills develop these areas significantly by increasing the amount of resistance that your body can adapt to. Up hill running can be used to increase form by concentrating on a relaxed style. On the other hand, down hill running can teach relaxation and improver lag speed and stride.

The present domination of Kenyan athletes in the various men’s track events from the 800m to the 10000m and 3000m steeplechase emphasizes once again the important of natural exercises in training.

The environment in Kenya, couples with natural food, relative to the distance traveled from home to school-which are mostly run both ways, and the other environmental factors like altitude. The valleys hills, forests and grasslands all play their role to make this country and winner in the endurance events.
Skills developed on hills enable the Kenyans to achieve the seemingly impossible, and to produce many new 800m 1500m, 10000m steeplechase, cross-country, road running and marathon athlete’s year.

In Edmonton, at the 2001 IAAF world track and field championships, Kenya achieved third place behind the USA and Russian in the final medal count, a performance achieved by the golden feet of its distance runners.

This result shows us that natural resources like hills can assist tremendously where facilities like all-weather tracks, both situated in Nairobi. So athletes must use their natural resource, like very hard training (harder than anyone else at altitude) and the hills, forest paths etc. to make the difference.

 

 

WHAT HILLS CAN DO:

A hill running has come a long way. From Arthur Lydiard with Peter Snell and Murray Halberd during the early sixty’s in New Zealand and Parcy Cerutty with Herb Elliot on the sand dunes of Port Sea in Western Australia. Now it has come hill running improves:

• The development of power and muscle elasticity.
• The improvement of stride frequency.
• The improvement of stride length.
• The improvement of co-ordination.
• The proper use of the arms in the driving phase and feet in the support phase.
• The co-ordination of arms and knee-drive in uphill running.
• Speed improvement with downhill running.
• Control stabilization with down hills.
• Development of dynamic strength endurance.
• Development of the relationship between maximum speed and strength in short up hill runs.

TEN HILL SESSIONS:

The expression: ‘there are many ways to kill a cat,’ typical of hill work. The art of hill training is to enjoy it. The sessions must be fun, but also be a challenge-just as in track and field athletics. The fun is in the challenge.

Here are the 10 ways to do hill training. The hills can from 5 to 20 in gradient:

1. Short hills of 5-10 sec to improve the ATP-PC system (Speed strength).
2. Short hills of 15-30 sec to improve the lactic power system.
3. Whistle hills – controlled by the coach with a whistle, such as set of 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, and 25 sec flat out sprints, with an easy recovery jog of one minute after each and tree to five minute between the sets.
4. Short hills of 30-80 for speed strength.
5. Longer hills of 150 – 200m repetitions for strength-endurance.
6. Hills of 400m to 1000m for the comrades and ultra-distance runners.
7. A hilly circuit of several kilometers, like at the foot of the Outeniquas near George- this includes both up hills and down hill on grass.
8. Down hill-for leg speed over a 50 to 80m gradual down hill on grass.
9. Hill bounding over 40 to 80m with long steps or strides up hill.
10. Hops or skipping up hill over 30 to 80 m.

STENGTHES THE ARSENAL:

The top achievers in middle and long distance running, from Sebastian Coe and Steve Ovett in the 1980’s to Bernard Legat and Noah Ngeny from the Rift Valley in Kenya in 2001, have one thing in common, they all did, or do, hill training.

Hill running for power Coe said that kind of speed we want has to be sustained speed, he apply this principle to hill running when using 100m to 200m distances.

These short distances are semi-sprint sessions, which build up to 30 to 40 repetitions over the 100m and up to 10 repetitions for the 200m.

The 100m slopes are approximately 10 degrees, and the recovery is an immediate jog back down the hill. The 200m slopes are about 7 to 8 degrees with a jog back recovery; this run is performed about 90% efforts.

The long hill work is on a 1000m incline, on one single set of 6 runs with a slow run back. The hill running is largely anaerobic and develops the ability to maintain good form when working hard. A high knee lift and vigorous arm action has to be maintained throughout these runs.

Around April the first time when the weather is suitable in England they use a particular kind of hill running which is a coach-controlled type of fartlek training except hat there is no much play in it. It is fast and slows running around a grassy hill during which the athlete must sprint flat out between signals.

The middle and long distance runner needs an arsenal of strong weapons. Hill running helps to make that arsenal much stronger through:

• Improving the biomechanics of movement.
• Improving feet placement.
• Improving arm-usage when exhausted.
• Improving lactate-tolerance.
• Improving confidence and the fight “mind over body”
• Improving oxygen transportation and heart lung functioning- the basis of performance.
• Improving technique and tactics.

MISS HILLS- MISS OUT:

Hill training, throughout the year in the general and specific preparation phases, as well as in the competition phase, is vital for the endurance athletes.

The coach and athlete move from quantity to quality in numbers as well as effort, from the basic training to competition-orientated training.
Hill training can be the difference that makes winners!

Use it and see improvement or ignore it and have one weaponless in you arsenal.

The choice is yours.

When the Kenyans are in action on the tracks around the world, their performances are proof enough of the effectiveness of this type of training.

Reference:

*- The coach – ISSUE 16 May/June 2003. Using Hills to Develop Endurance Skills.
*- Running for FITNESS By Sebastian & Peter Coe.
*- Training Distance Runners –David E. Martin (PhD), Peter N. Coe.
*- LEARN TO MAKE SPORTS SERIES
 Theory and methodology of training by Dr.Laszlo Nadori.(Hungary)
 Chapter strategy and tactics by Dr.Csaba Istvanfi (Hungary)
*- New study in ATHLETECS (I.A.A.F) quarterly magazine, NSA 3.1999-Volume 14.
 Guidance and advice in the use and methodology of altitude training for endurance sport –by Manfred Reiss.
*- Hill Running, www.geocities.com/colosseum/track
 *- New study in ATHLETCS (I.A.A.F) quartery magazine, NSA 1.1991-Volum six.
 Practice of speed development by Dr.Pasquale Bellotti (Italy), an examination of speed endurance by Gary Winckler. (USA).
*- The I.A.A.F symposium on Middle and Long Distance events, Development program-BOOK No.3- Breaking the thirteen-minute barrier. By John Anderon.

 

National Athletics Coach