Regular running on hills is a great way to increase your overall running strength and fitness.
Finding hilly routes for your easy runs is a great way to build up your general running efficiency, but doing some harder workouts on hills can give you a big boost to your overall running performance.
Here are some great hill workouts for runners and why you should add hill reps to your training.
WHY HILLS ARE GREAT FOR RUNNERS
Running uphill has been compared to strength training for runners because it requires more muscle recruitment and power, particularly in the glutes, hamstrings, hip flexors and calves.
Hill running helps to improve your running form as you’ll naturally have a quicker cadence and will drive more with your arms and knees – both great things to carry over to flat runs.
While hills feel hard to run up, they actually have less impact than flat roads, so short hill reps can be more effective (and come with reduced injury risk) for some runners compared to flat reps.
Hilly runs can be more taxing on your cardiovascular system, so they can help you to become a fitter and more efficient runner overall.
As hilly runs can be more challenging, they help to build more mental strength as well as physical strength.
Learning to run well uphill translates into more power when running on flatter routes.
WHAT’S THE BEST GRADIENT FOR HILL RUNNING?
To run hill sprints, aim for something around 6-10% (and at least 50m in length).
To run longer reps, look for hills averaging 4-6% gradient (which you can run 1-4 minutes up). It’s fine if they are rolling hills with changing grade (it’s hard to find a perfect hill!)
For tempo runs, look for trail or road routes with rolling elevation change.
Or if you can’t find hills, then set a treadmill to 4-8% based on the intensity of the run.
DON’T FORGET THE DOWNHILLS
On short, fast hill reps you’ll want to use the downhills as your chance to recover, but it’s good to add in some longer downhill reps, especially if you’re training for a hilly race.
When you land on your front leg the quadricep muscles are under tension, which causes quite a bit of impact in them. That impact is increased when running downhill, so doing harder downhill running can improve your quad strength.
HOW OFTEN SHOULD YOU DO HILL WORKOUTS?
If you leave near hills and run on them regularly, then you could incorporate hills into most of your runs – whether easy runs, long runs or workouts.
But if you also like to run on the flat, then doing a hard hilly session once a week, or every other week, is enough to see good performance benefits.
Just watch out for signs that your body might be struggling with an overuse injury from hills. Common issues include achilles pain, hip flexor pain, or discomfort at the front of your knee on downhills.
Try to replicate the demands of the race, so find routes with similar elevation changes and overall gradients.
Run at race pace or effort over hill routes, or do hilly intervals at that effort
Include more strength work into your training and focus on all the major running muscles. Include some ‘eccentric squats’ where you focus on slowly going through the lowering phase before pressing up. Work on some hip flexor strength as well.
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How hard are hills? Watch four of the TRC presenters take on a challenge in which they need to get as close to 500m of gained elevation as possible!
BEST HILL WORKOUTS FOR RUNNERS
Hill Tempo Runs
This is one of the best runs to build general overall running fitness. Ideally find an undulating route (on road or trail) and run a bit faster than your easy pace – on both the ups and downs. Don’t worry about the specific pace, just push to an effort of around 6-7 RPE (compared to an easy run effort of 3-5 RPE). Here’s more about RPE, if you want to understand that better.
Hill Fartlek Runs
Similar to a tempo run, but a hilly fartlek alternates between harder efforts (6-7 RPE) and easy running (3-5 RPE). You could do this in a structured way (two minutes hard, two minutes easy), or do it be landmarks, like running hard up every hill then taking it easy the rest of the run.
Hill Reps
Think of this like your normal interval sessions, only you’re running them on hills.
These sessions will be dependent on the hills you can run on, meaning for you they might be one minute reps, or they could be one mile reps.
The key is to run hard on the uphills. Aim for 6-8 RPE and take enough recovery time at the top (or turn around and jog down to recover).
Aim for 15-30 minutes of intensity in these sessions.
Downhill Reps
Just like an uphill rep, only in the other direction.
These are good to be able to practise running fast but controlled on downhills, and are especially helpful if you are running hilly races.
Any hill is good, but 4-6% gradient is ideal, and anything from 200m (basically the longest steady hill you can find). Ideally run the uphill hard, take two minutes at the top to recover, then run hard downhill. Repeat a few times.
Treadmill Hill Reps
These are going to be great for runners who don’t live in a hilly area, or who want to properly control the elevation for longer reps.
Try workouts like:
5 x 500 @ 5%. So 5 reps of 500m at 5% gradient (at a pace that’s hard – around 6-8 RPE), with 500m jog recovery.
10 x 1 @ 10%. 10 x 1 minute reps at 10% gradient (at 7-9 RPE). Take two minutes to walk the recovery between each rep.
2 up / 2 down. Set your pace to something that feels like a steady effort (but not too fast) and run two minutes at 0% then two minutes at 4-6%, keeping the pace the same. Repeat five times.
Hill Sprints
This is something that all runners could add to their training as it’s one of the best ways to add power and strength, and it comes with reduced injury risk compared to strides on the road.
Look for a hill that’s 6-10% gradient which is at least 50m long. Do your reps as hard as you can and aim for 20-30 seconds of running. Then walk back down and repeat (do 3-10 total reps).
Specific Hill Intervals
This is most relevant if you’re doing a hilly race. The idea is that you find hills which are similar to the race course profile and use that to practise ahead of your race.
For example, if you’re doing the Boston Marathon then finding a hill that’s around 800m long and 3-6% gradient is ideal to replicate the Newton Hills – just run up and down the hill (at least) four times in each direction at race pace. To get even more specific, do a flat tempo run as a warm up before the hills.
Or if you’re doing a mountain race, then practise on the steepest hills you can find, especially if you plan to use hiking poles. Confidence and technique on the terrain are just as important as hill running fitness.
TRAINING FOR A HILLY RACE
