COACH’S CORNER - Hills are like brussel sprouts by Jenny Morris

May 31, 2024

jenny morris from ** says hills are like brussel sprouts: we know they're good for us, and that's the only reason we like them

Running hills everyday is a great way to build leg strength that translates into the power you need for speed and endurance. Does that mean that because you live on a hilly route or in a hilly area that every run should be a hard workout? There’s a difference between uphill workouts and easy runs with hills.

How do hills improve running?

Running hills engages your fast twitch muscle fibres and forces you to raise your knees higher than usual when driving forward. This extra exertion means you will build more muscle and increase your strength. Most runners should know that lifting your knees higher and increasing your step cadence is crucial for running form. The good thing about hill running is that it makes you do this unconsciously.

Do hills make you faster?

Training on hills improves leg muscle strength, quickens your stride, expands stride length, develops your cardiovascular system, enhances your running economy and can even protect your leg muscles from soreness. In a nut shell; hill running will make you stronger, faster and a healthier runner. I always say “hills are like speedwork in disguise”

Does running hills build glutes?

Running inclines whether on a treadmill or outside, is a form of resistance training. It builds muscle in your calves, quads, hamstrings and glutes. You’ll also strengthen your hip flexors and Achilles’ tendons. Hill running strengthens these areas more than running on flat surfaces.

How can running hills be fun?

Knowing how to run hills can make your workouts way more interesting than endless loops around a track or running on a treadmill. Consider what is on your doorstep or a short drive away. Meet with friends for a coastal track , harbour headlands or mountain run. The ability to connect with others for this type of run allows more social interaction, maybe even some chats whilst hiking the hills. In my opinion isn’t this why most of us Ultra runners choose the longer stuff?

How to train for hill running without hills?

Not all of us live in an area that provides the incline in training that we may need in an upcoming race. Let’s be honest, where in Australia can we run that can replicate the hills of UTMB? Some people are lucky to live in parts of the country with natural inclines all around them, however if you don’t you can still train for hill running. Here’s a few suggestions.

Using a steep incline on a treadmill

This may not be the best approach but is easiest to control and requires minimal effort or travel. Your coach can provide treadmill workouts that gain sufficient benefits from varying the incline on a treadmill during a workout.

Here’s one I like to suggest:

Easy run Incline @ 2% x 10 mins – 2km
3min hill effort @ 12% incline
3 min recovery @ 4% incline and repeat this 3 or more times
Easy run Incline @ 2% x 10mins – 2km

Hill treadmill workouts are endless and there can be so many variations of the above workout. They can also be less mind numbing than running a consistent gradient for numerous kilometers.

Finding a footbridge – There may be a footbridge close to where you live which offers a reasonably steep incline which is similar or can replicate running up a hill. You can vary the pace or repeats to make it more challenging too.

How to get better at hill running?

OK, glad you asked. Let’s start by finding an appropriate hill- something around 9 degree gradient and long enough to run 30 seconds or longer.

Start the hill session with a light easy run to warm up. This will get your blood flowing and loosen your muscles. Once you have completed the warm up try out one of the following sessions:

Hill sprints – From the base of the hill simply run at a hard effort upwards for at least 30 seconds or up to 90 seconds. Once you have reached the top, turn around and jog or walk back to the bottom, repeating a number of times.

Hill pyramids – Another way to train up hills is to do pyramids. You could start with a 30 second effort, reach the top, turn around, then increase to 45 seconds, then increase to 1 minute and so on. You can also apply the same to the downhills reducing the sprinting time as you decrease the intervals. Being good at downhill running is important as well.

Mixed intervals – Hill running isn’t all about “Sprinting” it’s sometimes good to mix up the effort. An example could be 2 x intervals at a fast hike pace, 2 x intervals at an effort pace, then two intervals at an easier pace. Each of these hill workout styles are triggering different muscles and will build strength in different ways.

As I briefly touched on above, the other important aspect of hill running is to apply some focus on downhill running. You might swap the hill efforts around. Sometimes the focus will be on the effort uphill , sometimes the focus will be on the effort downhill. A session I like and use often for my athletes is this one:

2km easy run to base of your hill
500m effort up / easy down
Repeat x 4
500m easy up / effort down
Repeat x 4
2km easy CD to finish

Once you know how to get better at running hills, you should start to see a big improvement in your overall performance. So start to think outside the box, if you see a hill on your next run, set yourself a challenge. Then try and beat it over the next few times you run that hill.

Lastly, you should always enjoy your running and mixing up your sessions can bring different challenges but also these can be more satisfying and feel like you have really worked hard. Either way, keep having fun and smile while you are running up that hill. It works for Kipchoge.

Jenny Morris is a Level 2 coach at Team J, based in NSW. She has coached multiple runners to 100km and milers and all the distances leading up to these. Jenny predominantly excels in the ultra field, including the female winner at the inaugural Bondi to Manly Ultra in 2022.iF YOU WOULD LIKE MORE INFORMATION ON BEING TRAINED BY Jenny, CLICK THROUGH HERE TO OUR AURA ENDORSED COACHES PAGE.

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AUTRA News Report 19-02-2025

By Kate Dzienis • February 19, 2025

The latest in race results, covering Cradle Mountain Run, City Run, Oscars 100 Hut 2 Hut and Yaberoo Trail Ultra.

Final 2024 Points Competition Results

By Alexis Oosterhoff • January 30, 2025

Results for the 2024 AUTRA Points Competition have been finalised, and are available on our Points Competition page. Full details of the top 10 (as shared on Facebook during January) are detailed below, and results for all participating AUTRA members can be found in the documents at the above link. It was a real battle throughout the year between our top two finishers, Phil Gore & Kevin "BK" Matthews, with both giving it their it their all at events, and through contributions to the community - volunteering at multiple events, and submitting articles to our monthly newsletter, Ultramag. They finished within 2km of total distance for the year (Phil on 1203.087km, and Kevin on 1205.510km), and it was only Phil's final volunteering effort on 6 Inch Trail Marathon in December that gave him the that very narrow victory. As you'd be aware from previous communications, this marks the end of the Points Competition. With trail running (of all distances) now incorporated into AU T RA's constitution, and after careful consideration of the costs of the competition payouts in it's current form, the committee felt it was time for it's retirement. This marks my seventh and final year of delivering the points competition to membership (2018-2024), after taking on the role from Cheryl Symons. It has brought me great joy in doing so, and I feel like I've had an opportunity to get to know so many of our members through seeing their race (and volunteering) performances over the years! I'm continuing in my role as the AUS/NZL statistician for DUV (from whom we shared the data for the points comp), and you can expect to continue to find your ultra-race result on their site. 1st Place - Phil Gore (WA) - 86 points Phil's achievements this year have included a massive 265.653km (and 2nd place) at the IAU 24h Asia & Oceania Championships, wins at the Red Dirt Backyard Ultra (33 laps), the Australian leg of Big Dog's Backyard World Team Championship (96 laps), and the Soochow/Taipei 24h Ultramarathon (270.826km). He also knocked out an easy (!) 72km at the Light Horse Ultra 24h in between supporting his amazing wife Gemma. Those two 24h wins netted Phil new Oceania 24h Open Male records, IAU Level 1 qualifiers, and pushed him to the top of Australia's 24h trophy board (with only the great Yiannis Kouros having run further). Phil topped-up his points by contributing one article to Ultramag, worked as an Event Director at Herdy's Frontyard Ultra, and volunteered at a further five events through the year. He finished on 86 points. 2nd Place - Kevin Matthews (WA) - 84 points Finishing in 2nd place in the AUTRA 2024 Points Competition is WA's Kevin Matthews. He monstered his way through the year with finishes at Australia Day Ultra 100km, Delirious WEST 200mi, 24 laps at Herdy's Frontyard Ultra, 190km at Light Horse Ultra 24h, 23 laps at Birdy's Backyard Ultra, and also completed Feral Pig 100 miler, Sandman 50km and Six Inch 47km. And to top things off, he contributed five articles to Ultramag, and volunteered at five events. BK ran 1205km in Ultramarathon races this year, all of them AUTRA-listed, and surpassed 100 marathon finishes (including 51 Ultramarathons!) Kevin finished the year on 84 points, a massive 34 points ahead of our 3rd place finisher Sue Robertson. 3rd Place - Sue Robertson (WA) - 50 points Finishing in 3rd place in the AUTRA 2024 Points Competition is WA's Sue Robertson. Sue completed the Ultra Series 100 miler trilogy of Delirious WEST, Irrational SOUTH and Unreasonable EAST, and rounded out her year with the Sandman 50km and Six Inch 47km races. She received 30 points from the racing at AUTRA-listed events, and was awarded a further 20 points by volunteering across eight events and contributing two articles to Ultramag, for a total of 50 points for the year. Thank you Sue! 4th Place - Margie Hadley (WA) - 47 points Finishing in 4th place in the AUTRA 2024 Points Competition is WA's Margie Hadley . She was the top-female finisher at both the No Time to Die Frontyard Ultra & Wild Dog Backyard Ultra, 2nd at Birdy's Backyard Ultra, ran 182km at the Australian 24h Track Invitational and placed 3rd at Coast to Kosci. Margie received 47 points in the competition 5th Place - Melissa Robertson (NSW) - 44 points Finishing in 5th place in the AUTRA 2024 Points Competition is NSW's Melissa Robertson. Melissa took out 1st place at Irrational SOUTH 200 miler, 2nd place at Lakes Trail Festival 100km, 1st place at Hume & Hovell 100 miler, 3rd place at Rumble in the Jungle and 6th place at Ultra-Trail Kosciuszko 100 miler! She also volunteered at the GNW 50km event, receiving 44 points in the competition! 6th Place - Aaron Young (WA) - 42 points Finishing in 6th place in the AUTRA 2024 Points Competition is WA's Aaron Young . Aaron finished in 1st place at each of the Ultra Series "Triple Crown" of 200 milers (Delirious WEST, Irrational SOUTH and Unreasonable EAST), 55 laps at Big Dog's Backyard World Team Championship, and rounded his year out with Feral Pig 100 miler. Aaron receives 42 points, just nudging ahead of Maree Connor (who also finished on 42 points) on a count-back 7th Place - Maree Connor (NSW) - 42 points Finishing in 7th place in the AUTRA 2024 Points Competition is NSW's Maree Connor. Maree had an outstanding year, achieving 2nd place with 221km (and an IAU Level 1 qualifier) at the IAU 24th Asian and Oceania Championships, 1st place at the Lakes Trail Festival 100km, 1st place with 67km at the Southern Sydney 6h race, and 1st place with 116km at the Narrabeen Allnighter 12h. Maree also competed at Spartathlon race this year (for which she contributed an article to the September Ultramag on her experience), receiving 42 points in the competition. 8th Place - Darren Linney (SA) - 41 points Finishing in 8th place in the AUTRA 2024 Points Competition is SA's Darren Linney . Darren completed 34 laps at No Time to Die BYU, 199km at the Adelaide 24h race, and 814km at the Australian 6 Day race, for a total of 1241km raced and 41 points . 9th Place - Tristan Cameron (WA) - 40 points Finishing in 9th place in the AUTRA 2024 Points Competition is WA's Tristan Cameron. Tristan completed the Ultra Series Triple Crown of 200 mile races (Delirious WEST, Irrational SOUTH and Unreasonable EAST), along with Feral Pig 100 miler, for a total of 1154km raced and 40 points. 10th Place - Jen Millum (WA) - 39 points Finishing in 10th place in the AUTRA 2024 Points Competition is WA's Jen Millum . Jen finished 1st at all three of the Ultra Series Trilogy of 100 milers (Delirious WEST, Irrational SOUTH and Unreasonable EAST), and was 2nd female with 35 laps at the Wild Dog Backyard Ultra. With a volunteer stint at the Yaberoo Trail Ultra, Jen finished the year with 39 points in the competition. To view the complete list of members who secured points in 2024 click here and then follow through to Points Summary under the 2024 tab. All winners have already been contacted, with cash prizes distributed for 1st - 7th places, and AUTRA Store vouchers sent for 8th, 9th & 10th.