Resistence Training
Posted: November 21, 2007
Resistance Training
The goal of resistance training is to increase running efficiency, build muscular & tendon strength, acclimate the body to the rigors of uneven & hilly terrain & to increase mental toughness. When running hills you should not base your pace on what you would run on the flats. You should attempt to run the same time for each repeat or loop but it should not concern yourself with what the pace actually is in terms of minutes per mile. Initially, you should just run the hills at a steady rhythm until you can determine a challenging time, then you can attempt to keep the repetitions at the same pace. Please be careful to take it easy on the downhill sections to limit the chance of injury.
Hill Repeats: Hill repeats are repetitions of the same hill. It is important to try & keep a consistent time for each uphill. If you go out too fast you will be unable to sustain an even pace & probably be forced to abandon the workout or seriously compromise its purpose.
Hill Series: Hill series workouts are 1-3 mile loops or out & back courses that have hills of various lengths & steepness. The purpose of including these in your training is to learn to find a rhythm at different efforts. As you reach a hill your effort will rise as you rise & correspondingly decrease as you descend. It is excellent to try to lock back into a strong steady pace when you hit any flat sections of more than 400 meters in length.
Hill Loops at Scenic: The first time you run this hill I want you to just run up it at a steady pace. The hill starts easy & then gets steeper as it goes. Do not push so hard that you fall apart but try to run it at a steady pace. As you turn Left, after the top of the hill, slow down to recover. Recover all the way down the hill until you get back to the bottom of the hill & roll back through. We will not be stopping between hills...this is a continuous run. I want you to catch your splits for each loop. The next time that we run this I want to try to run the hill with the same steady effort & see if you can run faster on your recovery. As you gain fitness, you should feel that your recovery becomes easier & therefore you can run the 2nd half (downhill) faster & your cumulative time drops.
Purpose: Learn to recover after hills; gain a higher anerobic threshold due to resistence training; to gain a mental & physical toughness where you fear no hill, you can handle any pain.
