Enjoy the Hills

Everyone knows there’s no shortage of hills on the Baxters Loch Ness marathon course, both down and up, so it’s a good idea to be as well prepared for them as possible, says Fraser Clyne.

Baxters Loch Ness Marathon, 2018.

When training for a marathon I’d often start the build-up by doing as many as three hill sessions a week. I used a hill with a gradient that was steep enough to offer a significant challenge, but was very ‘runable’ as well. Each uphill run would take 60-90secs and I’d do two sets of six followed by one set of three. These could be on grass, trails or even tarmac. The recovery between each rep would be to jog back down the hill and I’d take three to four minutes recovery between each of the sets. These sessions would be supplemented by short (five miles) and long (14-22 miles) runs over very undulating paths. After doing three or four weeks of this I’d cut back on the hills, but rarely cut them out completely, in order to focus on speedwork. Now, I’m not recommending you all go out and try and do anything like that! But I’m all in favour of introducing an element of hill work into your training plan on a regular basis.

For me, running up and down hills produces huge benefits in all sorts of ways. It builds in strength and endurance; it improves leg muscle strength and the strength of tendons and ligaments, thereby reducing the risk of injury; it improves your running efficiency and style; it’s a fantastic way of developing your cardiovascular system and… believe it or not, it really can improve your speed.
What’s more, the benefits can kick in quite quickly. A couple of years ago, after doing no structured training other than short slow runs, I experimented by introducing one hill rep session each week for six weeks, and it led to a 3% improvement in my track 3,000m time. That may not sound a lot, but for a four hour marathon runner that would equate to an improvement of just over seven minutes. Not bad from just six sessions. And, of course, the improvements could be even greater if you have been doing the sessions for longer.

Then there’s the psychological benefit. If you know you are strong on hills, then you will fear nothing. In fact, I used to love hilly courses because I knew I could do well on them….and there’s nothing better than overtaking lots of people as you glide past folk on every incline. I also believe that hilly courses, within reason, can be as fast if not faster than flat courses. Flat courses are relentless. Your stride length rarely changes and there’s no respite at all. On hilly courses you shorten your stride on the uphills and stretch out a little on the downhills. This can help reduce fatigue in the muscles. Also, the downhills in particular, give you a chance to work a little easier and regroup before getting back onto the flat sections.

Baxters Loch Ness Marathon course profile: There’s a lot of downhill running early on, so it’s important to practice how best to handle this, not forgetting that there’s some testing climbs later on!

If you have never done any specific hill work before, you could start off by doing five or six reps up a hill which takes 45-60secs to run. Gradually increase the number of reps and perhaps split them into two or more sets, eg. 2×5 or 3×4. The aim should be to run each rep at the same pace. An alternative way of introducing hills into your training is to find an undulating route and do hill fartlek…running strongly and efficiently on every uphill section and practicing an effective descent on the downhills, recovering on the flat sections in between.

Another form of hill training which I found beneficial was hill-bounding: running up a 60secs hill, driving strongly from the hips, bringing the knees up high and stretching the achilles and hamstrings. I would do six of these reps. This, I found to be a great conditioning exercise which enhanced the strength of the muscles, tendons and ligaments and also made me use my arms more effectively as a driving mechanism.

So, how should you run up a hill in a race?
Shorten your stride length and try to keep breathing consistent and efficient, don’t overdo anything.
And downhill?
Allow gravity to do the work, lean slightly forward but not back, marginally extend your stride length and relax. Don’t run out of control!
Practice all of this out in training and find what’s best for you.

As always, introduce any of these ideas gradually and speak with your coach or other runners about how best it might fit in with the other types of running you are doing.

Fraser Clyne is a former international marathon runner with a best time of 2 hours 11 minutes 50 seconds. Five times Scottish marathon champion, he competed in the 1986 Commonwealth Games marathon, finishing 10th.He has competed all over the world in 3K, 5K, 10K, half marathon and marathon races. He has run 22 sub-2 hour 20 minute marathons and is a sports journalist.