Call Me Sisyphus: Hill Training

Since my girlfriend Kim moved to Pittsburgh I've been spending a considerable amount of time in the old "Steel City", and this certainly has made training interesting. As my last post highlights, the topography is very hilly; hills+roller coaster=fun, hills+running/biking=cruel and unusual punishment. Trying to flatten out a course on mapmyrun.com (here's the best I could do) is a fruitless endeavor.  So far I feel like Sisyphus.

Who is Sisyphus?

Sisyphus, in Greek mythology (us runner-types love our Greeks), was a king punished by the gods for his deceitfulness by being forced to push a large boulder up a hill only to watch it roll back down to the bottom... again and again... forever. And that's the feeling I get on these undulating runs. With no flat terrain for respite, I'm always climbing up, or laboring back down to get my boulder. <--(better click that one gang, you're life will be changed forever...)

Anyway, with joy (regret) I've decided to (was forced to) embrace it. Like any good student of the sport, I've researched some articles on hill running and have began creating workouts for myself. "Hill running is good for you!" they tell me. And I say, "Yeah, whatever hot shot, just give me the workout... don't walk in here, on your two legs, with your water, actin' all lean and muscly and try to tell me you like hills... that's stupid, and you're stupid." *blink... blink* Ahem, sorry 'bout that...

THE WORKOUTS:
Hill running is a lot like interval training in that you really can't keep running uphill forever, like you really can't run at (faster than) race pace forever. So, you break up the hills with rests or recovery. Here are 5 basic hill sessions that I found most interesting:

*Always warm up first*

1) Sprint Hill Intervals
This workout requires a full range of motion from your stride. Find a pretty steep yet short hill (about 50m) and sprint up it at about maximum effort, lifting your knees and driving off your toes to the top. Walk back down it of recovery and wait for approximately 2 minutes. Try to go for 10-12 reps.

2) Long Hill Intervals
Same as above except lengthen the hill to about (200m-400m), reduce the steepness and your intensity. You'll probably want to increase your recovery as well. Do about 8x200m with 2 minutes rest at the bottom. This workout is excellent for your running muscles. It burns through the fast twitch fibers and requires help from your slow twitch muscle fibers (the ones that help with endurance) due to the length of the hill.

3) "Hard Hills" Active Recovery
Same as (2) above except do not walk down the hill and rest for recovery. Instead, create a course that allows you to "loop" back around to the hill and jog your recovery. I like this type of workout because it improves your resistance to fatigue like you would experience at the end of a race. Here's a 5k course I created in Pittsburgh, notice the loop and elevation changes:

These last two I have not tried:

4) Bounding Hills
On a short hill interval course like that in (1), lengthen your stride by elevating your knee and spring from one foot to the next up the hill (you know... bound). You can do this linearly (in a straight line up the hill) or "horizontally" (a side to side bounding motion up the hill). It is said this workout increases the strength and elasticity of your muscles, tendons and ligaments and therefore helps prevent injury and promote efficiency.

5) Downhill Hills
Stopping yourself while traveling downhill is a quadracep burner. You get very intense contractions of the quad when your foot hits the ground followed by relatively longer periods of relaxation. Simple enough: start at the top of a 50-100m hill, moderately steep, and run down it at about 80-85 percent effort. Walk back up for recovery and repeat. Build up to 6-8 reps. You actually get the same effect walking or running backwards up a steel hill.

So, try some of this out! It requires a considerable bit of "amping" yourself up, but finishing one of these bad-boys is euphoric. I'm talking mind numbing... like snot on your chin, eyes rolled back in your head, odd noises and odors emanating from your body, real mad cow disease sort of euphoric... like "Snuffles the floating dog" good!"

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Citations:
(1)http://www.runnersworld.com/workouts/mastering-hill-workouts?page=single
(2)http://www.runnersworld.co.uk/general/everything-you-need-to-know-about-hill-training/159.html
(3)http://news.runtowin.com/2010/06/25/5-hill-workouts-video.html