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From: Paul Shields
Category: Coach
Date: 2/10/00
Time: 8:33:54 AM
Remote Name: 203.38.32.116
Heinz,
Hills are not as exact science as interval sessions because unless you have a treadmill many people can't exactly select the hill they want.
The hill you select for hill training is not that important and is more dependent on what you have available nearby. If you could ideally choose then about a 15% incline which takes you 2 minutes or more to go up would be the best. Do not worry if you have only smaller hills just modify the session to cope.
Once you have found your hill then the number of repeats is determined by subtracting the the warm-up and cool-down from the total time then dividing the remaining time by how long it takes you to do go up the hill and down.
Go up the hill quite hard. The exact effort is not important rather you should try and do the last repeat in about the same time as the first. Often this means going easy on the first few and gradually building effort. The 85% figure is an indication of the type of effort required rather then a fixed percent that should be strictly adherred to. It will vary during the climb and represents an averageish figure rather than the final value. (Near the top it will be high)
The downhills should be quite easy. It is often possible to injure yourself going downhill because of the eccentric muscle action (expands whilst trying to contract).
For variations some people like to bound up the hills with exagerated high leg movement. Also trying swapping some of the hill repeat session for an undulating run through some hilly country. In these runs practise flowing down the hills rather than trying to stop yourself on each downhill footfall.
Regards
Paul