The Key to Running Success: Hills
Asheville Marathon Prep (Ep 8)
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Most runners hate hills. They slow your pace down, shoot your heart rate up, and are no fun whatsoever.
Even running down hills can blow. They are definitely more fun, but they also require a certain amount of strength to hold back from going too fast and losing control.
But what if I told you that hills, specifically uphill, could be the single greatest thing you could do for your training?
In fact, I’ll go a step further. What if I told you that using hills, whether you are a serious runner or not, could be one of the greatest things you can do for your overall mobility and longevity as a human?
Would you believe me?
Let’s jump into it!
Why Hill Sprints?
I’ve been hearing more and reading more about hill sprints in this training block. I haven’t been incorporating them as much as I should be, but from the little I have incorporated, I can already tell that hill sprints are an amazing tool to add to your arsenal!
The beauty of hill sprints is that they are not an insanely technical activity and you can scale them to be easier or harder. Thus, they have insane benefits whether you are a brand new runner or an elite marathoner.
I’ve been reading a book called Run Faster from the 5K to the Marathon: How to Be Your Own Best Coach by Brad Hudson and Matt Fitzgerald. In their book fact they almost suggests hill sprints more for beginner runners and injury prone runners.
One case study they mentioned took an athlete who was getting random injuries almost every training block they did. For years over years this happened until they finally had a coach assign hill sprints. After that, they never had another running related injury for the rest of their career!
So if there is our first and main reason to incorporate hill sprints: injury prevention.
It’s the same reason you hear influencers tell you to do strength training as a runner. Hill sprints are predominantly a strength and power exercise.
They put a ton of load on the muscular system in your body while also lessening the overall impact stress to your body.
See, when you run on hard pavement flat or downhill, you take a ton of impact to your overall structure.
That’s why we are assigned easy recovery miles. Our bodies can’t pound intense fast-paced miles every day. Those intense miles have greater overall force and impact and our bodies need time to rest from those.
Uphill running, however, reduces the impact your body takes, while also increasing the amount of strength and power conditioning to your leg muscles. It’s a win-win!
Which leads us to our second reason: increasing neuromuscular coordination and motor-unit firing rate.
Whoa…those were some weird words.
Motor Unit
According to the Run Faster book, a motor unit is:
“a bundle of muscle fibers that is fed by a single motor nerve. “Motor-unit firing rate” refers to the time that elapses between the instant your brain generates a command for a muscle to contract and the time that contraction begins”
In other words, by running hill sprints, you can increase your explosivity and overall athletic performance.
Distance running performance is built on three main components: aerobic capacity (your overall endurance engine), stamina (your ability to sustain a strong pace for long durations), and speed (neuromuscular efficiency and top-end speed).
Aerobic capacity gets you from 0 to 26.2 miles
Stamina determines how fast you can cover the 26.2 miles
Speed and neuromuscular coordination improve your running economy, keeping you efficient and injury-free
Another way to look at it is that training can either raise the floor—building a bigger aerobic engine, making marathon pace feel easier—or raise the ceiling—improving max speed so that goal pace feels more sustainable.
For example, if your goal is to run a marathon at 8:30/mile pace, but your fastest mile is only 8:20, that’s a tough ask. But if your fastest mile is 7:00, 8:30 will feel more comfortable. This is where speed work and neuromuscular coordination come into play, refining efficiency and power so that faster paces feel more controlled.
The reason being is that when you train neuromuscular coordination and speed work, you become a more efficient runner and unlock faster paces. The flip side is that if you are more efficient, then that slower pace becomes easier for your body to maintain.
Neuromuscular Coordination
Neuromuscular coordination is really just a fancy word for “strength.”
Hill sprints at the end of the day build strength just like going to the gym. I personally don’t believe they should replace gym sessions. Mainly because doing added resistance training can continue to build strength and build bone density for overall longevity health.
But some coaches would preach that hill sprints could definitely replace gym time in the context of running faster. Especially if it means you can spend more time running.
Some of the tell tale signs that your neuromuscular coordination is a weak point are:
Do you perform better at longer races than shorter races?
Do you feel stronger in long and slow workouts than you do in short and fast workouts?
Do you have injury issues or muscle/tendon soreness often?
If you answered yes to any of these, then hill sprints can help!
Now I sound like an infomercial, haha!
The first 2 issues basically tell you that your aerobic engine is strong. You can go the distance. But if you want to go faster for that distance, then building in some more muscular training could be your ticket!
Lastly, hill sprints actually force you to run with proper running form and stride. It’s harder to cheat when sprinting uphill. Having a better running form and stride means your running economy is improving.
In other words, you become a more efficient runner. You are improving the mpg of your body.
How to Perform Hill Sprints
When you first hear hill sprints, it probably sounds daunting. But they don’t have to be! They can scale with difficulty as you get used to them.
1. Choose a Hill
The first thing to do is choose a hill. That same book, Run Faster, I mentioned before, suggests finding a hill at least 6-8% grade. If you happen to live in a flat area like Florida, then treadmills are a fantastic option.
If you don’t have access to a treadmill, then I’ve heard of runners getting hill training in at parking garges. A lot of parking garages have slopes around 5% grade which can definitely get the job done.
2. Start Sprinting
After you find your hill, it is suggested to start small and stay cautious. One of the benefits to hill sprints is to keep you injury free. The last thing you want is to overdo it and injure yourself performing the injury preventive excercise. That would be too ironic.
Start by just doing maybe an 8 second sprint (if you can) 2 times. Sprint up 8 seconds, then walk back down for recovery. Then sprint again.
Do that twice a week after one of your easy runs at the beginning. Once you are a few weeks in, you can drop it to once a week.
3. Keep Sprinting
Each week maybe add 1 or 2 sprints until you reach around 8-10 sprints per session. Then you can start increasing your sprint time from 8 seconds to 10 seconds, then up to 12 seconds.
Once you can sprint 8-10 sprints for 12 seconds a piece consistently, then maybe it’s time to find a steeper hill.
As you can see, there are always ways to progress.
Hill sprints are a great tool for injury prevention and increasing overall power to your leg muscles. But what about strengthening our joints?
Backwards Uphill Walking: Bulletproofing Your Knees
Why Backwards Uphill Walking?
I learned this trick (if you call it a trick) from Ben Patrick, or as most know him, the Kneesovertoesguy on YouTube. He has really revolutionized and popularized mobility training. He even trains high elite athletes in the NFL, helping them to stay strong and active as long as possible.
But he’s also helped tons of people rehab from joint issues…himself included.
He grew up loving and playing basketball, but always had knee pain. He had multiple surgeries on one knee, was told he’d need the same on the other knee, and was also told he would probably have to stop playing basketball if he wanted to continue being able to walk.
He decided there had to be a different way and started doing specific knee mobility training. He designed a program that fully recovered both knees without having another surgery! Now, he is more flexible than ever before, has never had knee pain again, plays basketball regularly, and can even dunk a basketball (which he had never been able to do before).
And one of the key exercises that he has every athlete do is backwards walking at an incline.
If you try it, it makes sense. When you put any kind of strength in your leg with your knee bent over your toes, it adds extra force to your knee. Force means blood flow and blood flow helps strengthen and recover.
So when you walk backwards, your knee to go over your toe naturally. Otherwise you’d walk straight legged and look like a lunatic.
Although, your neighbors might give you a couple second looks if you are walking backwards up a hill.
The Kneesovertoesguy goes further to say that by reversing the walking mechanic you also can help undo any stress in your feet and ankles. Which are two other big hot spots for running injuries.
I have only just started the hill sprints we just talked about, but I have been incorporating backwards walking uphill for over a year now. I used to have knee pain years ago from running and I never have again since doing this.
Whenever I feel a slight tenderness in my knees, it goes away after doing some backwards walking.
I’ve also had plantar fasciitis in my foot and also some ankle issues around my calf/achilles. I truly think the plantar fasciitis came when I stopped walking backwards. And I think backwards walking truly helped heal it after I got it.
Ankle and calf pain is the same way. Doing backwards walking and weighted calf raises practically heals it instantly. It is the power of the blood.
It’s all part of God’s unique design. The blood heals the physical body and so He used that amazing design to show us the power of Christ’s healing blood over our eternal souls. Pretty cool!
How to Perform Backwards Uphill Walking
The Kneesovertoes guy doesn’t give specific breakdowns on incline grades or anything like we talked about with hill sprints.
But he does say to start small. At first, maybe do some backwards walking on flat ground. His biggest key to all of this is that if it hurts, stop.
Our goal, once again, is to prevent injury. If something hurts don’t keep doing it.
And I don’t mean “hurts” like “it’s difficult.” But as in, it actually causes pain. Stop and do something a bit lighter. Otherwise you will just injure yourself. And once again, that would be too ironic.
So if doing backwards walking up an incline hurts, try backwards flat walking. If that hurts, you can hop in a pool and walk backwards in there.
Gradually move yourself up to backwards walking uphill. I, personally, just pick the same hill I do my sprints on. I’m lucky in a way because our driveway is a ⅓ of a mile long with a 300ft elevation gain, so it’s pretty steep and works perfect for hill sprints and backwards walking.
I’m not super strict on sets and reps, but I do believe the Kneesovertoes guy says to target around 10 minutes. You could break this into 2x5 minute sets with rest in between. Or however you want to break it up.
My personal opinion is that just starting far outweighs how you actually implement or execute either of these uphill exercises.
So, whether you are training to run a marathon, play basketball until you’re 70, or just want to stay mobile and avoid walking with a cane when you are older, I think both of these exercises will help you achieve your goals and hopefully keep you injury free.
So until next time, run with joy!