Improve your strength and running form with this short hill workout

The off-season is the perfect time to work on your running form and build strength for your next training block. Hills act as a type of strength training for runners, and are also a great tool for practicing good running mechanics. If you’re taking some downtime right now and are looking for a way to improve your running form and develop some strength and power, this short but effective workout is just what you need.

This workout is not meant to be a significant cardiovascular challenge, nor is it meant to test your endurance or leave you feeling gassed at the end. In fact, by the end of the session, you should feel like you could do more. The purpose of taking downtime is to allow your body to rest and recharge, so you can start your next training block off on a good foot. 

To do this workout, you should find a hill that has a two to three per cent incline and is about 80-100 metres long. You’ll notice the workout is broken up into four sections: 

• short uphill strides, meant to act as an extension of the warmup, 
• form drills to help improve running mechanics
• short, explosive, maximum-intensity hill sprints, meant to act as the “strength training” portion of the workout
• longer, medium-intensity downhill strides to improve your ability to handle eccentric muscle contractions

This is a very different type of workout from what most distance runners are used to. The most important thing to remember is to allow yourself to recover fully between repetitions, particularly during the maximum-intensity sprints. This could take one to two minutes, so have patience, and have fun!

The workout

Warmup: 10 minutes of easy jogging

Strides: 

5 second stride up the hill, easy jog to the bottom

7 second stride up the hill, easy jog to the bottom

10 second stride up the hill, easy jog to the bottom

Repeat two to three times.

Drills:

March up the hill for 10 seconds, putting your weight into the front of your feet (though not on your toes), keeping your posture tall, driving your knees forward and pumping your arms.

Skip up the hill for 10 seconds, putting your weight into the front of your feet (though not on your toes), keeping your posture tall, driving your knees forward and pumping your arms.

Do high knees up the hill for 10 seconds, keeping a tall posture and moving your feet as quickly as possible. The goal is not to move forward quickly, but to take as many steps as you can within 10 seconds.

Do butt kicks for 10 seconds up the hill, keeping a tall posture and moving your feet as quickly as possible. The goal is not to move forward quickly, but to take as many steps as you can within 10 seconds.

Repeat two times.

Sprints:

Sprint up the hill as fast as you can for 15 seconds, pumping the arms and being as explosive as you can. Slowly walk or jog back to the bottom, waiting until you feel fully recovered before doing it again (at least one to two minutes). Repeat four to six times.

Downhill strides:

Starting at the top of the hill, run to the bottom at a comfortably hard pace, avoiding the urge to lean backward. Walk back to the top of the hill and repeat four times.

Cooldown: 5-10 minutes of easy jogging.