Hill sessions: strength, running economy and preparation for hilly courses

Three formats, three goals

Short hills, 8 to 12 × 30 seconds on a 6 to 10% gradient, develop power and running economy. Medium hills, 6 × 2 minutes on 4 to 6%, replace a VMA session with less impact. Long hills, 3 × 5 minutes on 3 to 5%, prepare courses like New York or Boston.

In every case the descent is jogged and serves as recovery. The target sent to the watch is heart rate or effort, never pace: pace means nothing on a slope.

Where to place them in the plan

Short hills live in the first three weeks of any plan, at the end of an easy run: five to eight repeats are enough. Medium hills replace one VMA session in three for runners coming back from injury or running on hard ground.

Long hills only appear if the target race is hilly. The coach adds them in the last eight weeks when you give it a course with elevation as your goal.

What the watch and the coach do with them

The watch records elevation, heart rate and time per repeat. The coach reads the activity and compares repeats with each other: a time that degrades by more than 10% from first to last signals a gradient too steep or too many repeats.

• — Short: 30 s, 6-10%, power.
• — Medium: 2 min, 4-6%, VMA without impact.
• — Long: 5 min, 3-5%, hilly courses.

In the weekly review, a hill session's training load counts more than its distance suggests. The coach knows it and never schedules a long run the next day.

Frequently asked questions