As a recent transplant to the state of Montana from Chicago, I have done much research and even more personal testing on this topic over the past year. Running uphill can seem like a near insurmountable challenge to someone not accustomed to hills; but the benefits that can be gained by properly utilizing hills are astounding.
Learning to train on hills is an excellent way to stave off injury, as you are forced to strengthen a wide range of muscles rather than just the ones for running on flat ground. Hill training can also be a way to mimic speed work, since the muscles used to run uphill are often the same that you need to run fast. Then of course, there is the indescribable feeling of accomplishment we each get once we crest the top of a hill. Running up a hill is one of the few times when you can tangibly see how much work you have done, as you can look down from the top and know that you climbed that hill.
But before we get to that feeling of the sublime that one can only obtain by summitting a peak, we must all recognize the undeniable fact that running uphill is hard. So how do we do it? Well at the end of the day the best way to get better at running uphill is to run uphill a lot. But there are several notes about uphill running that everyone should remember when tackling hills:
- Don't slouch over- This is the most common mistake when running uphill. The reason runners must avoid slouching when running uphill is because it compresses our lungs, making it harder to breathe (and gravity is already doing its darnedest to make our ascent challenging, so we should try not to make it harder on ourselves).
- Use your arms- It's easy to forget about this when running uphill (especially when you are tired), but driving your arms will give you momentum when the world seems to be pushing against you.
- Get up on your toes- This is intuitive. Because of the angle of the ascent, you are almost forced up on your toes.
- Engage your glutes and drive your hips- These are muscles we do not necessarily use when we run on flat ground, but when running uphill they can aid us greatly in our climb.
- Do not give up!- When running uphill you can feel your muscles screaming with pain and your lungs burning, but remember that hills are hard for everyone and you will get better at them the more you train.
Running hills is an excellent training tool for distance runners, but as a former Chicagoan I will admit it can be hard for some people to find hills. If that is the case, I recommend hopping on a treadmill and putting the incline up. If you don't have a treadmill, you can head to the nearest overpass and do a repeat workout there.
I will leave you with two of my favorite hill workouts (the first can be done on almost any hill, the second will require a mountain or treadmill):
- 15 x 30 seconds at 80-100% effort with a recovery walk/jog back down the hill.
- 5 x 5 minutes uphill at 70-75% effort with a 2 minute recovery walk/jog downhill in between.