Issue 106

October 2013

Paul McVeigh

?Sports scientist, TUF 14 cast member and full-time coach – each issue he presents his best conditioning tips

I remember reading Michael Pollan’s book In Defense of Food a few years ago. He started by explaining the book’s premise and simultaneously handing out some of the best nutrition advice I have ever heard. All in one sentence. “Eat food, real food, not too much and mostly plants.” 

It’s simple and brilliant. I hope to do something similar with regards to hill sprinting. Here goes, ahem.

Go find a steep hill and run up it until you hate life. 

Granted I may lack Michael Pollan’s eloquence but I think I have managed to sum up the idea behind this entire article.

Sprinting up a big ol’ hill is a life-affirming activity. Very few methods can produce the horrific feeling that follows a 20-second all-out sprint to the top of a hill that has a gradient that would make a ski jumper nervous. But this is not simply an exercise in masochism. With regular hill sprinting comes major improvements in conditioning, strength, speed and body composition. 

THE NO BRAINER

There are so many ways to incorporate hill sprints into a training program. The ‘No Brainer’ is the easiest and is truest to the above statement. You find a hill, sprint up it, walk back down and repeat until you’re ruined. 

 Many people, coaches included, can get so caught up in small details that they over complicate something that is so beneficial in its simplicity. You really don’t need to think too hard about it to reap the rewards of this training method.

Find a hill with a decent gradient that will allow you to sprint for a good 10–20 seconds. Your recovery takes place during the walk down then it’s back up again. Do as many reps as you like but I would suggest something between six and 10 reps works. Then enjoy the smug afterglow that comes from doing something that most of the world’s population would consider madness.

It’s important to remember these sprints are close to maximal effort. I say close to maximal as anything above 90% effort tends to result in a technique break down that makes the athlete resemble someone who has been set aflame. Focus on proper sprint mechanics, driving with the arms, torso upright and high knees. At the very least it will give you something to focus on that is not your heart trying its best to explode.

HEART RATE RECOVERY METHOD

Adding a heart rate monitor to your hill sprint session is a great way to get a bit more information on what’s happening in your body during these workouts.

Having a numerical value that relates to your intensity can drive performance. One of our athletes admitted to hill sprinting while holding his breath just to try and drive the number up on his heart rate monitor. Not a very smart thing to do but the effort was commendable.

The heart rate monitor can also give useful information regarding an athlete’s ability to recover. We will often have our guys sprint hills and time how long it takes for their heart rate to drop 30 beats. When this happens, that is the athlete’s cue to begin the next sprint. Over a number of weeks the athlete can see his recovery getting quicker and quicker. This method requires a tiny bit more effort than the ‘No Brainer,’ but having measurable empirical evidence of improvement can really boost an athlete’s confidence when it’s time to compete.

THE DISTANCE METHOD

This variation on our theme is a little more involved. A time limit is set at, say, 20 seconds. The athlete has to run as far up the hill as he can in that time and the distance covered is marked out. 

The athlete’s task is to cover that same distance in a slightly longer time, e.g. under 23 seconds, for as many reps as possible. Once the athlete can no longer cover the distance in the set amount of time you are finished. 

Again we have empirical evidence of improvement as the athlete gets more sprints within the time limit over a number

of weeks. There is also something very motivating about

having a set target to aim for thus ensuring near maximal

effort on each sprint.

This method can also be combined with the ‘Heart Rate Recovery Method’ dictating rest periods, for the ultimate hill sprint workout.