Hills volume

Hello everyone!
My plan for the outdoor season consists of 5 weeks of GPP and 10 weeks of SPP. Since my greatest problem is speed (running 400m) I decided to try S-L.

I would really appreciate someone to check the volume of hill session. I’ve shortened them to 30m as I’m able to accelearate only 30-35m on the track.

Volume is given per training session

  1. Week:
  • 3x per week
    2x5x20m (rest: 3,5min per rep/7per set = 3,5/7)
    1x5x30m
  1. Week:
  • 3x per week
    1x3x20m (R: 4/9)
    3x3x30m
  1. Week
  • 2x per week hills (the other session is speed)
    1x3x20m (R: 4/9)
    3x3x30m
  1. Week
  • 1x per week
    1x3x20m (R: 4/9)
    3x3x30m
  1. Week
  • all sessions are done on track

Last GPP was quite successful, however I think that the hill distances were too long for my level so I reduced the length of the runs for this GPP.
Do you think the volume is ok for the begginer sprinter?

IMO the volume is too low. I think you should be probably closer to the 400-500m per session range vs 200-300m range you have laid out. Also wahts your tempo volumes during this period?

My tempo volume will start with around 2500 per session and will progress to 3000m per session exepct once a week when I do big circuit that is quite demanding itself.

How do you think I should achieve such high volumes without too many starts? The problem is that in the last GPP when doing 40’s I was already quite winded coming to the last set. Isn’t it the same as speed work where you have to be fresh to perform fast enough?

You think I should be doing sth like 4x3x30m + 1x3x20m?

I just realised I did a mistake. In the first week the volume is 350m per session:
2x5x20m
1x5x30m

Keep in mind that the hills place a much less structural stress on the body especially the hamstrings. Also, since the speed of movement is much slower the effect on the CNS is lower as well. Hill running overall has greater muscular effort vs neural effort. With these things in mind you can realize that you can build up to a relatively large volume.

With that said, you are right however, 40s up a hill is very difficult from a ‘wind’ standpoint as you say. However, if built up over time you should be able to progress up to 40 well enough to not be too winded. Keep in mind hill work like this is to mimic the accel mechanics and develop the muscular system probably less than the reactive/elastic system. Also, seeing as how you are running the 400 you might want to think about longer hill runs at a slower pace as part of your preparation phase in addition to the short hill work.

This is not to say you should just do a huge volume, but start where you can at the volumes you have now and if you can maintain the quality, keep going. Don’t be too worried about CNS fatigue and other little factors at this point.

Thanks so much Spedster!