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This week we delve into the science behind running uphill. Can running uphill help you to run faster and will it improve your 5km Parkrun time?

I looked at a few papers from the sports science literature to find out if there was evidence out there to show any benefit to hill training and what those benefits might be.  I looked at a study where sprinters trained on hills of different gradient, a study involving 32 Ethiopian distance runners and a study where 20 well trained runners did uphill interval training under 5 different conditions.  Did they see improvements in performance outcome and what were the benefits to this type of training?

Our own athletes have been busy running, skipping and bounding uphills and anecdotal evidence suggests that this is beneficial. There are plenty of guides out there to help you start doing uphill training. The main thing is not to try to do too much too soon 5-6 hill repeats of 50-60m would be a good start progressing to an increased number of reps and/or increased distance as the weeks go on. Incorporating some training drills (like the skips and the bounds) will also help improve running form and running economy over time. It's also fun to do something a little bit different from a normal steady run and with the warm up and cool down, you will find that you actually cover quite a lot of ground in the session.