10/22/2025
Modern Training thoughts on hill training, by Larry Eder (revised with addendum from Nobby Hashizume).
Hill Training is my secret weapon for training in cross-country and track and field. In the classic Arthur Lydiard plan, the New Zealand coach who revolutionized distance training in the 1960s, considered hill training as its own specific phase of training, prior to track work.
In the complex training system of Coach Pat Clohessy, the coach of Rob De Castella, a four-time Olympian, winner of Boston, Rotterdam, and the Commonwealth Games, and the 1983 World Champion, hill training was conducted throughout the year. A typical day would involve running over a 5 km distance with 8-10 hill charges.
The great Lasse Viren, 1972 and 1976 Olympic 10,000m m and 5,000 m champion, used hill training to preparefor track racing. His classic waorkout consisted of a 500m- 800m hill workout, done once or twice a week, followed, on another day, by some short track intervals after a 50-50-50 pattern of jog, sprint, jog for 5,000 meters on a soccer pitch. On another day, Viren followed that up with 20 x 200m, then a 1-minute jog. Viren achieved this in 1972, as part of his 5,000m training. His 5,000 m jog-sprint-jog was completed in 13:52. He completed three workouts of 20 x 200m and was primed for the 1972 Munich Olympics In 1976, he completed the 5000m jog-sprint-jog in 13:32 and ran 20 x 200m, and was ready for Montreal (this was after months of 130 miles a week at altitude). (The hill workouts were described in Kenny Moore's story on Lasse Viren from Sports Illustrated article from 1976).
I embraced hill training in my last years of college. Building up to 20 x 800m hill a day, 2-3 days a week, 8-10 weeks. I beat myself up, then, dropped mileage, built into track work , and including 4 races in build up, ran 8 straight races, from 2 miles to 10,000m, scoring PBs,including four straight tough 10ks on the road. That season, I went from 34:25 for 10k to 33:08 10k. Using the same program, I scored 8 pbs the next year, including 32:08 10k.
Hill training is pan effective form of training, as it can get you into shape relatively quickly. My coach buddy, Joe Mangan, whith whom I worked for six years at Foothill College, was a hill evangelist. We did hills almost every day for 4- to weeks. We had young men and women who did not run over the summer.
We built them from grumpy out of shape runners to calloused cross country runners who could handle the 4.2 mile XC courses with slight hills. We gave them six mile hill runs that were challenging, as the were able to do it.
Hill work builds body strength, speed, confidence and safely helps you handle higher loads.Consider hill training all year long. Ron Warhurst, the long time developer of milers at Michigan, and coach at Very Nice Track Club, includes hill training all year long. One of his workouts was a series of hill repeats, then, some track work, and then, more hill repeats.
Lance Brauman, coach of great sprinters like Noah Lyles, has the team do 300m hill repeats, they hate it, but know it makes them really fit and confident during the season! Hills build confidence and speed!
I have added this addendum from Nobby Hashizume on Lydiard Hill training. Nobby is a life long student of the late Arthur Lydiard and supporter of the Lydiard Foundation:
"With Lydiard, first of all, hill training is a necessary exercise. Far too many people tend to just run up hard/fast and get highly anaerobic and, consequently, they start to struggle, causing the form to go out the window.
I also highly doubt Viren did 20X800m. That's total of 10-miles! If he jogged down the hill, that alone becomes a 20-mile run and I really don't see a good purpose in it.
With my research, Viren used a hill of 500m long (in fact, Coach Canova insisted that Viren used 60m long hill and that's where he got the idea of short-sharp hill sprints, of which I don't agree) and I recall he did no more than 10 repeats.
Also, the article is not clear but, instead, almost insinuating that Viren "combined" the incredible-sounding 20X800m hill repeats ALONG WITH sprint-flow (50/50) of 5000m. (Editor: Since corrected, Never suggested that the sprint flow for 5,000m was done on same day, sorry for the mistranslation).
Lydiard liked to do 4 X 800m hill exercise, with some wind-sprints that includes 50/50, using the bottom flat 800m stretch (in the case of 50/50 repeats, that would give you X8 sprints).Viren was an incredible athlete. But to make it sound like he did some mystical super-workout can be counter-productive. "
Hills can work for you!
Ask your coach their opinion!
photo: Kevin Morris
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