Talk to me about hill reps please

[Chocolateteabag]

I need to get better at hills - so hill reps?
I can get up the odd hill but when I've got a long slog I end up walking and I'm slow at walking

But how big a hill?
How long should I be running up?
How many reps?

I am lucky to have a few options of short and sharp or long long slogs. Not sure which I should be doing

So please tell me what you do to get better at hills - both running and walking up them

Just off out, so I'll be short and sharp.

It all depends on why you want to get better at hills i.e. climbing, trail running, fell running, hiking for fun... :)

Some things that can help:

Muscular endurance: gives quick and dramatic improvements, but don’t overuse. This means doing things like box step-ups, front lunges, split jump squats and squat jumps. 10 reps each for up to 6 sets work well. Progression over weeks can be: body weight, body weight + 10%, body weight +10% but reduced rest period, bw + 15% etc etc. Your legs will hurt for some days afterwards before you get used to it.

Reverse pyramids: run 45s uphill, walk down, then 30s up, walk down etc: reverse pyramids are more enjoyable than normal pyramids for an interesting reason that I won’t go into detail here. Same work capacity, but different experience.

Hill bounding. This is a specific technique that can be found online.

The steeper the hill, the more it’s strength training rather than muscular endurance. Adjust according to what’s important at the time.

I’d also work on rucking with a weighted backpack up hills.

Thank you

Fell running mainly - just started some of the local fell "races" (I see them as participation events - I race only myself )
But also would help with my trail runs too

Will try reverse pyramids - I'm sure my watch should be able to do the beeps somehow

Another strategy is jeffing (run/walking) in short bursts e.g. 30s each, which is useful for longer, gradual hills within a longer run.

For hill reps, run up the hill for a short period e.g. a minute, walk down to recover and repeat and build up time/ reps as you get used to them.

Not enough information to give you a useful answer.

What are you training for?
What sort of reps do you run on the flat?
How long have you been training?

I usually Jeff hills when I'm running but if I have a longish one in a shortish training run I might try to double the running interval (so if my Jeffing intervals are 90sec run 30 sec walk I might skip a walk interval so I'm running 3mins 30 sec and then walking for 30 sec) as this increases endurance. If I'm doing hill sprints I usually find a hill that will take me about 40 sec to run up and split it into 3 or 4 sections then I'll sprint up just the first walk down run up 2, walk down, run up 3 walk down run to the top, walk down and then reverse pyramid. works for me. (this drill is not too difficult to do on a dreadmill in bad weather).

For fell races you really need to practice on the terrain as it’s often pretty crap underfoot which is what makes them so hard.

@Soapyspuds hi

So I've been running since 2019
Recently done a few fell races (10-12k with 2-300m climb and a mountain marathon (38k & 1200M of climb) where I had to walk a lot!

So in short I want to get better at getting up the hills in fell races - faster walking would do!

I used sally McRae’s hill bounding training.