Hill Workout
"Hills are speed work in disguise."
2 mile warm up (15 minutes)
form work: (2 x 25 meters)
high knees
butt kickers
skips
karaokes
exaggerated karaokes
shuffles
2 x 6 hill repeats (125-ish meters, S 5th Street, Highland Park, NJ)
- Sprint up the hill at 90% of your max effort, a few meters before reaching the apex switch gears to 100%. Focus entirely on your form! (I'll explain proper form later). Once you've passed the apex, coast to a stop.
- Immediately turn around and JOG!! down the hill. (This is your "rest".) You'll understand why the word rest is in quotes if you do the workout.
- As soon as you get to the bottom of the hill take 2 or 3 seconds to "get your life together" (trust me you'll need to mentally prepare yourself for each rep) then start your next sprint.
-Take a 2 - 3 minute break after set #1, or enough time for you to catch your breath -- whichever comes first.
-This workout is only effective when done on a very steep hill.
2 mile cool down (20 minutes)
Proper Form:
When I'm running up a hill there are a number of things I think about before and while I'm attacking the hill. "Runners set.... GO!" Immediately, I'm up on my toes and driving my knees into my face. My stride length changes drastically from normal to short but with much quicker turnover. After a couple of steps, I lean forward into the hill to the point where I think I may fall forward, but I catch myself with each step. My head is up, looking at what's ahead, not down staring at the cement road I'm running on. Now, instead of pumping my arms slightly across my body, as I would if I were just running (not sprinting) on flat ground, I pump my arms straight while bringing my wrists further back toward my hips and further forward toward my cheeks to generate more energy.
I think this workout would be good for ultimate players. A lot of your sprinting workouts seem to be done on level ground. You're probably getting faster, but you're not getting stronger or improving your form. The only way to get faster, stronger, and improve form is to add resistance -- hills, parachutes, sleds, bungee cords, etc. I hope to help the team out this year by suggesting workouts like this, and critiquing the way people run.
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3 comments:
hills are a good idea to do in the beginning/preseason. during the middle of the season you want to start using less resistance where at the end training on a SLIGHT down hill is best in order to train your body to move faster than physically possible.
Get a bungee cord if you want to move faster than physically possible. You'll need a partner, but the results are so much better than running downhill.
Also, that's exactly where I'm at in my training -- beginning/preseason. I'm running road races this fall with the roadrunners club, anywhere from 5k to 10k.
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