We demand our muscles to perform at a rate for which they are not conditioned. The truth is, our bodies can't supply the blood and oxygen that our hip flexors require to meet certain demands. Have you neglected working regular hill drills into your routine? Do you do them but don't know why? Do you vary the type of workouts you do? How do you approach the hill?
One of the most famous proponents of hill training is Olympic coach Arthur Lydiard. His hill circuit training requires the athlete to bound (focus on horizontal motion) or leap (focus on vertical motion) up the hill. Lydiard concentrated a great deal on hill running form to promote efficiency. Driving the knees, for example, is one aspect on which to focus--as well as toeing-off and slapping the heel to the buttocks.
When done at a slower pace, a runner can focus more on technique and may actually feel more soreness than they expect from drill-like repeats. Consider a weight routine in which you are lifting and lowering the weight more slowly--it hurts more. Gravity is our resistance on the hills.
The first cycle of hill workouts in Lydiard's ideal season is geared towards strength. It consists of 6-8 repeats on a 1,000-meter moderate incline. As the season progresses and the focus changes to explosive speed, the repeats increase to 8-10 and the length of the hill shrinks to 275 meters. The stride down the hill is always fast but in control.
Before the next hill repeat, Lydiard had his runners run about 250 meters at between 800 and 1,600 pace. For Lydiard, who primarily trained track athletes, hill workouts focused on building mileage after the base phase. However, incorporating hills throughout the season proves an effective way to improve efficiency without peaking too early.
Speed Up
According to Stacy Osborne, an avid runner and podiatrist in the Cincinnati area, many of us don't address our biomechanics, one of the most controllable aspects of our training and keys to improvement. Contrary to popular belief, it is not the leg on the ground that's primarily responsible for generating the power for forward velocity.
Rather, it's the non-weight-bearing leg--the leg in the swing phase--that generates momentum by creating a tug on the runner's center of gravity as it swings forward. The foot on the ground acts as a lever, and the runner is thus propelled forward. Those muscles responsible for this power stroke, the key hip flexors, are the illiacus, psoas major and psoas minor. These are also some of the most important muscles for cyclists, recruited during the pulling-up phase.
One of the best ways to strengthen those hip flexors and improve the power of our swing phase is with hill repeats. As we gain strength, our chances of getting injured are diminished, and we gain mental confidence. Once you've done 15 X 2:00 of a steep hill, 1:00 climbing a similar incline in a race will look like a mole hill. This is because running hills improves speed.
Your effort increases as you run up a hill, even if you reduce your pace. So, in a race, the best way to run a hill is to maintain effort and forget about pace while on the hill--even effort is the surest route to a faster time. Trying to maintain pace on the hill is like surging and varying the body's perceived effort, which will only tire you prematurely in the long run.
How else can you build tireless, feisty, power strokes using hill workouts? One way to maintain volume is to do hill fartleks (Swedish for "speed play"). Pick a course with hills and focus on surging up the hills. If you're doing strict hill repeats, try varying the pace. For example, if you are doing four sets of three hills, do the first at 5k pace and the second at 10k pace.
Focus on slow and exaggerated form on the third hill. Instead of varying the pace at which you run, you can vary the hill lengths themselves. If you are working in a group, pair up and run them like a relay such that your rest depends on how long it takes your partner to get up and down the hill.
Should you decide to run hills by time (i.e. 90 seconds on five hills), mark how far you get each time with a rock or little flag. Try to reach or beat that landmark each repeat. It is also good practice to try to surge over and past the crest of the hill.
The mental factor determines how well we run on hills. Many of us see hill repeats as an opportunity to practice conquering or attacking the hill. One tactic is to approach the hill as a friend rather than foe.
Another helpful piece of imagery is to imagine strings attached to your hands--and the string ends tied to a point at the top of the hill. As you pump your arms and thrust your elbows behind you, imagine the strings providing you leverage to pull yourself up more easily. You don't have to turn your mind off to escape negative, self-defeating talk; instead, recruit your mind to help you.
As runners, triathletes need to recognize the importance of strengthening our hip flexor muscles. Strong flexors help us maintain a grueling pace, attack a hill, kick with speed on the flats, and protect our bodies from injury. They are an integral piece of training year-round and, with variation, can make us more efficient runners and cyclists. Go ahead, be king of the hill!
Prepare to race
The 5K
Prepare to race this classic distance with a training program that carefully balances both mileage and speedwork.
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By Josh Clark
Posted Thursday, 9 September, 2004
The beauty of the 5K is that it takes all comers. It's the perfect introductory distance for novice racers, as well as a challenging test of strength and speed for the most competitive runners. The 5K race can also be a useful part of a larger training program, building speed for runners who primarily run longer distances. No matter what your ability, a hard 5K tests your capacity to maintain a fast pace over distance.
Training for this classic distance requires you to put in a careful balance of both mileage and speedwork. Cool Running's running programs for the 5K reflect that philosophy. These programs are available in four categories, from beginner to competitive, and you should have at least six months of running under your belt.
Keep in mind, of course, that there is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all training program. While the schedules offered here are solid and dependable, you should feel free to tinker with them and make them your own. Adapt them to your own rhythms.
By following one of these schedules, you will develop gradually through four training phases: endurance, strength, speed and tapering (for more info on these, check out "Road Rhythms," our survey of the training cycle). Before you embark on one of the programs, though, be sure you're in shape to follow that particular training schedule. Each program includes a schedule for a "pre-training week" to help you gauge your fitness. If you are not already able to run the mileage for that week comfortably, take a few weeks to build gradually to that level, adding one mile to your long run every week. You should be able to run that pre-training schedule comfortably for four to five weeks. Then lace up, you're ready for the road.
Beginning runners, take note: we recommend that runners put off training for races until their bodies have adapted to the strain of running. Tendons and ligaments can be injured all too easily if you go from ground-zero to 5K-racing too quickly. Before you start training for your first race, establish a six-month foundation of running. During that base stage, slowly build through easy, consistent training runs as your body adapts to the rigors of the road. After that, come back and tackle one of our beginner training programs.
The advanced program includes many weeks with no days off, and the competitive program has no days off at all. Instead of days of complete rest, these schedules build in easy days of relatively light mileage. There exists a philosophical difference in approach to training -- whether to take the day off entirely or simply to go light on the miles. For the advanced and competitive schedules, we've chosen the latter. For those who would prefer the former, however, those light days can be replaced by days of complete rest. Do what feels comfortable for you.
The training programs>
> Beginner
For runners who run 15 to 25 miles per week and expect to run the 5K in 24:00 or up. You should have at least six months of running experience.
> Intermediate
For runners who run 25 to 50 miles per week and expect to run the 5K between 20:00 and 24:00 for men, or 22:00 and 26:00.
> Advanced
For runners who run 40 to 60 miles per week and expect to run the 5K between 17:00 and 20:00 for men, or 19:00 and 22:00 for women.
> Competitive
For runners who run over 50 miles per week and expect to run the 5K under 17:00 for men, or 19:00 for women.
