The Not-So Dummy Guide to Hill Running

I have always been fascinated by the training methods that elite runners and top coaches around the world use.

My reading goes back to the milers and their coaches in the 1930s and 1940s in the quest for the first sub-four-minute mile, until it was achieved by Roger Bannister in 1954.

My influences

I become a follower of the New Zealand coach, Arthur Lydiard, who in the 1960s transformed New Zealand from an athletics backwater to breaking world records and winning Olympic podiums.

And from this, it was a seamless move to becoming a fan of Jack Daniels*, one of the world’s foremost coaches.

Like many others, I have sifted through the training done by the Kenyans who for decades have dominated on the track, cross country, and road, while we try answer the eternal question: Is it genetics or training?

While much has been written about the Kenyans' training methods such as progression runs and intervals, strangely enough, few people have taken note of the hill training done by the Kenyans, which has played such a big role in their development as runners.

Yet hill training is the common thread that runs through both Arthur Lydiard and the Kenyans’ thinking, and I believe it is a key ingredient in the success of both.

If hill training is so beneficial for track runners on a flat surface, it follows that it must be even more beneficial to trail runners, who spend a big part of their time doing big climbs on trails.

The two questions we need answers for are:

i. What are the benefits?

ii. What are the best forms of hill training?

The benefits

Anyone running uphill will notice that the pace either has to slow significantly, or the intensity of effort has to rise