2025 Summer Mileage, August 7, 2025, Week 5, Day 4, Thursday is a hill day, reasons for hill training!

2025 Summer Mileage, Week 5, Day 4, August 7, 2025, a hill day, and some reasons for hill training! 

2025 Summer Mileage, August 7, 2025, Week 5, Day 4, in the hills! Thursday, August 7, 2025, warm up, 60 minutes of running, 5 x 3 minutes of hill running, 3 minutes jogging, 5 x 2 minutes of hill running, 2 minutes jogging, 5 x 1 minute of hill running, 1 minute easy, cooldown. 

#SummerMileage, #hillrunning, #RunBlogRunSummerMileage, #running, #crosscountry,

Some reasoning for Hill Training

Hill Training is my secret sauce for training cross country and track and field!

In the classic Arthur Lydiard, the New Zealand coach who revolutionized distance training in the 1960s, hill training was its own specific period of training, prior to track work.

In the complex training system of Coach Pat Clohessy, the coach of Rob De Castella, hill training was done all year round, a moderate day, done over a 5k with 8-10 hill charges.

The great Lasse Viren, 1972 and 1976 Olympic 10,000m/5,000m champion, hill training prepared him for track racing. His classic was 20 x 800m hill workout, done once to twice a week, followed by some short track intervals after a 50-50-50, jog, sprint, jog for 5,000 meters.

I embraced hill training, in my last years in 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.

Hill training is perfect training, it will get you into shape rather quickly. My coach buddy, Joe Mangan, who I worked with for six years at Foothill College was a hill evangelist. We did hills almost every day for 4-6 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.

Hills can work for you! Ask your…