How do I run uphill faster?
This is a question I get as a coach from athletes at all levels. The short answer is: run uphill more. The long winded rambling nuanced answer will follow. But first, why? Why does anyone want to run uphill at all? Are there answers to the world’s greatest questions at the top? Does it make you feel powerful up there? Do you find enlightenment on the way up? People have revered mountains and hills since time immemorial. The tops are sacred places, closer to gods, further from mortal problems. So I guess its obvious why people want to get to the top faster. Its for the magic and the mystery, the awe of a new perspective, the emulation of the divine.
Wait… hold on… I’m being told its because people want to finish trail races faster and do their runs feeling better and have a better looking grade adjusted pace on strava. Okay, yeah, that’s totally fair. Just make sure you mix in some awe and magic along the way.
Like I said, the simplest way to get better at hills is to run more hills. That could mean doing your long runs on hillier terrain, or it could be committing to running more steps of a hill that you normally hike. If you are newer to the uphill world, just doing the darn thing will help you improve. These hillier runs will be higher effort than when you were hiking the hills or running flatter. That is okay. Just understand that they are closer to an unstructured easy/moderate workout then they are to a recovery run. That means you should give yourself adequate recovery in the days after the run, and you should be aware that you are adding in more intensity into your weeks. So dial back on the intensity other days or maybe lower your overall volume a touch as your body adapts to this new stimulus.
Now that I have stated the obvious, what else besides running more hills can help?
Speed work
The ability to run uphills faster is simply the ability to run faster. Climbing speed, until very very steep grades, is directly related to flat running speed. That’s because both are impacted by aerobic efficiency and biomechanical efficiency. This is they key and the caveat to simply running more hills. Running too much vert all the time can make you really good at running hills relatively slowly, but when you want to run them faster, you’d be stuck without speed.
The first key to speed is strides: 4-6 x 15-30 second sprints while maintaining a relaxed upper body 2-3 times a week help prime your body to get better at running fast. Doing this over weeks and months and years can unlock whole new levels of speed you didn’t know you had!
The next ingredient in the speed stew is intervals and speedwork. These can be done both on flats and on hills. I like to do shorter intervals (2 min or under with equal or greater rest) on flats where I can work on my mechanical efficiency and top end speed. Slightly longer intervals (2 min to 5 min with half recovery) are nice to do on hills where injury risk is lower and increasing aerobic output is the goal. Of course, this is not a hard rule. Longer intervals on flats are great for threshold work and shorter hill intervals can improve your power. This is just one way I like to think about the structure.
As the goal hill/hills/race gets closer, It makes sense to start elongating the hill intervals, getting more and more specific to the race conditions and specifications. After having a base of aerobic work and building your mechanical efficiency and aerobic power with intervals, you can think about doing intentional tempo efforts uphill or on rolling terrain. Things like 4 x 5 min mod with 2 min easy on an uphill or 30 min tempo on rolling hills can help you figure out how to modulate your effort on hills and can be the ingredient that makes your aerobic system pop! An advanced athlete could do these tempo efforts during a long run in addition to an interval workout during the week while a more beginner athlete could trade mid-week intervals for a tempo.
Strength training
More running, strides, speed work, and now strength?! Gordon, this just sounds like general running training! (Thats because it is…)
Strength is something that should be included in every runner’s toolkit. That kind of strength can and should different for everyone, but that doesn’t mean it won’t help uphill running. Light strength with high reps and low weight can help with resiliency and reduce injury risk. Heavier lifting can help with overall power output and tendon elasticity which can improve mechanical efficiency.
I’m not going to tell you exactly what strength to do, but as long as you are able to maintain consistent running, doing strength can improve your overall running performance and experience.
The big takeaway is that uphill running performance is just general running performance. So continue to improve your speed on top of a big aerobic base, do at least some of that speed work on hills, stay healthy and strong, think about why you’re doing what you’re doing, and over the long term, you’ll improve by leaps and bounds!
Email me: quickfeetcoach@gmail.com
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