Hate hills? Here’s how to change that, pro ultrarunner Emelie Forsberg shares her tips and favorite uphill workouts

Hill workouts can be tough. They are also a powerful tool for building strength, making your body injury-resistant, and translate to speed on the flats: if you can learn to enjoy them it’s much easier to get out there.

“I love the feeling of being able to push myself to the max, as if the resistance is my friend,” Norway-based ultrarunner and ski mountaineering pro Emelie Forsberg shares in her book Sky Runner.

Try these tips and workouts to find your groove as you test out (or build on) your hill-climbing abilities. You, too, may soon be loving your uphill sessions.

Find the right technique

Forsberg suggests trying to make hill running as comfortable as possible by finding the right technique for the hill you’re on. For very steep hills she suggests switching between two methods of climbing: walking very fast with large strides, pushing against your thighs with your hands and arms, and taking shorter, faster steps with a higher turnover rate.

“Neither of these are faster than the other, but it’s nice to switch between the two techniques to use different muscle groups,” Forsberg explains, noting that she finds the shorter strides harder so opts to work on them more often in training. “I want to train with what I’m less comfortable with.”

Easier hill intervals

Forsberg suggests trying this session (adjusting the number of intervals to your ability) if you’re new to hills or returning to interval training, and says the pace and effort “should feel manageable the entire time.”

Warm up with 10 minutes easy running

10 x 2 minutes, easy run downhill for recovery (approx one minute)

Cool down with 10 minutes easy running

Hill sprints

“This is a very explosive exercise that can be very hard,” shares Forsberg, suggesting runners start moderately with fewer repetitions and increase accordingly. “It’s much more fun to get a positive surprise rather than never wanting to do the exercise again,” she explains. We definitely agree.

Warm up with 10 minutes of easy running

10 x 30 seconds of hard running with 30 seconds rest

Repeat 3x, with 2 minutes of recovery time in between each block

Cool down with 10 minutes of easy running

After a challenging uphill or speedwork session, make sure to take a recovery day or do some very easy running.

posted Friday January 13th
by Keeley Milne