Coach Dean Hebert
Last year for a particular hilly race in December I did some hill repeats on a long hill (3/4 mile) and it helped quite a bit in the race. This year I am doing some speed work, now August; and will start the hill repeats in September. My question is the appropriate schedule for doing both and still maintaining my mileage per week. I only run every other day and bike on every other day to avoid injuries, which have plagued me in the past. I am very serious about this training and looking for a course record in my age group this year, but left on my own I always tend to overdo it.
A well designed training program should include hill work as well as speed work in varying amounts at various times of the year or phases of training. It appears that your cross-training is working by keeping you from injuries. So, that is a good thing. When you add quality workouts (hard hill repeats or speed work) your mileage will often dip until you are accustomed to the work load. The good news is that you do not lose conditioning from a dip in mileage; in fact your conditioning will improve greatly with the addition of these quality bouts of running. It is far more effective than running garbage miles just to add miles into a schedule.
You do not mention the race distance, race course details or your age; so I cannot address too specifically how long your long run should be nor total mileage. I can generally say that if the race is 5k-10k range, you’re good with a long run of perhaps 8 miles. Your weekly mileage doesn’t have to rise above 25-30 miles to run well at this distance. If on the other hand you are looking at 10 miles or a half-marathon, it would be quite different.
The actual preferred sequence is to do hill work and then graduate to more speed work though doing both during a phase of training can be accommodated. However, I do not advise reversing the order; speed work then hill work. The object of hill work is to make you strong enough to handle speed work properly. Of course, if you will be running a hilly course and you are training specifically for that course it is important to keep a type of hill training in your program even as you graduate to speed work.
Passive hill work (i.e. running a steady pace over a rolling hilly course) is OK for general training and may be OK for a course-specific training (e.g. the course mimics the undulations of the target race). However, to get optimal benefit from hill work, it should be active versus passive.
Given that, in your case I would recommend shortening the hill repeat distance to 800 meters (half mile) and increasing the pace. It should be a gradual steady incline – approximately a 3% grade. You should be very well warmed up prior to doing this workout. Your target pace for these reps should be as close to your 5K race pace (or effort) as possible. Charge up the hill and then jog very easily to the bottom again. I would start with only two repeats. See how your body reacts – soreness, recovery rate, etc. After a couple weeks if all goes well you then increase it to three repeats; and then again to four. I would not advocate any more than four repeats. If you’re still feeling spiffy after four, then increase the pace instead of increase to another repeat.
This is a high quality workout. Be sure to recover well. If you feel you need to keep your mileage up a bit then alternate weeks of hill/quality with an easier distance week. Good luck with your training and have fun at the race!
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Coach Dean Hebert, Tempe Arizoma, USA
Contributing Editor, Running Advice and News
www.running-advice.com
