As you move closer to race season, yet before you start any serious interval training, hill work in the form of hill repeats are an important addition to any program.The following workout is one I would describe as the ‘Perfect Hill Repeat’ workout:
1. Warm up for 10-12 minutes, easy.
2. Standing activations
3. Hill Bounds – 2×20 steps total (10 ea leg). Jog walk back to start. Bounds are forceful skipping up the hill.
4. Start with 6×2 minutes at 5k-10k effort – don’t worry about speed and HR. Go at a pretty hard effort RPE of 7-9 on these. HR will lag but will probably hit Z4/5 after 90 seconds.
5. Easy 2′ recovery after each hill rep. Walk or jog slowly to starting point.
6. As reps progress try to go past the furthest point each time.
7. After your last rep, try 3√ó30 Hill Bounds (15 forceful skips for each leg). Mark your ending point of your best Hill Bound (use a rock, stick, etc).
8. 3x sprints up to the farthest point in your best Hill Bound. For example if the Hill Bounds took 20 seconds, try to run the same distance in 10 seconds. Go HARD!
9. Cool down easy for 10 minutes.
10. Get a short core workout in and aid your recovery with a recovery drink with 20-30g of protein.
Each week you can add 1-2 reps, and by weeks 4-6 you could be up to 12-15 reps. Once you’ve completed this workout block, you will be ready to hit the track.
If you have any questions please email me: Mike@d3multisport.com
Coach Mike Ricci is the Founder and Head Coach for D3 Multisport. His coaching style is ‘process-focused’ vs. ‘results-focused.’ When working with an athlete, their understanding of how and why they are improving is always going to take precedence over any race result. Yes, there is an end goal, but in over 2 decades of coaching, experience has shown him that if you do the right work, and for the right reasons, the results will follow.
Coach Mike is a USAT Level III Elite Certified Coach, Ironman University Certified Coach, and Training Peaks Level II Certified Coach. He was honored as the USAT Coach of the Year.
